Why Food?

Bryan Walsh’s article in Time Magazine, Foodies Can Eclipse (and save) the Green Movement, was a nice start to my morning.  It got me thinking about this work in the Food Movement and what it means to be part of it right now. 

When asked what got me into food work, I can trace my steps through every job and volunteer gig and educational experience and global excursion and see how with each one my awareness of the food system was heightened. And I can also look through my personal experiences and see how gardening with my father as a kid, as well as watching friends and family struggle with eating disorders has shaped the role of food in my life. But sometimes, what it really comes down to is that food is central to everyones life. We all eat. We all need food. And what and how we we eat affects our mind, bodies, spirit; it affects the environment, health care, economic systems, employment, and cultural traditions of farming, and preparing and preserving food. So really the question is, how can we focus so intently on anything else?

The food movement has an incredibly uniting force to it. While in some spaces the food movement can seem homogenous – a lot of idealistic, young, white women (just like me!) fill the conferences I attend – but the real food movement, not just those of us in non-profits who are fortunate to receive a salary for this work, is really everywhere, in every community around the country in some form. And that’s part of what makes the work so exciting. It has the power to unite across political parties, to build community across race and class divisions, and unite sectors that have never collaborated, but should. Sure there are differences of opinions on many of the “hows” of the food movement, but its relevance and the way it plays into something that everyone loves (food) is really a catalyst in making great things happen.

What’s your relationship to the food movement? Have you joined a CSA? Shopped at a farmers’ market? Planted a garden?  Learned to cook from scratch?  Left the city to become a farmer? We all have a piece in the movement – share your story!

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The Color of Food

Those of you that know me know that I really love to talk about food and racial and economic justice.  And I don’t just love to talk about it, I like to read about it, research it, and find other people that are exploring these topics as well.  I recently stumbled upon a great blog – Brown.Girl.Farming. by Natasha Bowens.  I came across it from a series of articles she wrote on Grist called the Color of Food.  And then through that I stumbled upon a recently released report, also called the Color of Food by Yvonne Yen Liu and Dominique Apollon and the Applied Research Center.  So, if like me, you are also interested in the connections between racism, racial justice and our food, there’s some great reading for you.  Or, if you are reading this and thinking “what are the connections between racism and my food??”, well, then here’s some good reading to get those wheels turning.  And if you need more reading, or different reading, WHY Hunger has a whole resource page to chose from!

And while I’m very excited to people of color writing and blogging and exploring these issues, and I’ve met some great folks from the Detroit Black Food Security Network that are really diving into these issues head-on in their community, I would love to see more white people speaking up about these issues.  If we’re not all engaged in the conversation, we won’t be able to make the change we need!

Mark Bittman’s Food Manifesto

Mark Bittmans’ Food Manifesto that appeared in print in early February and is online in the NY Times Opinoator Column is a pretty spot on call for change in our food system.  We (aka those of us in the nutrition, anti-hunger, public health, farming, food justice, food eating realm) often talk about the complex nature of the food system and the intersection of hunger, obesity, farm subsidies, food deserts, fast food, and the general American perception that food should be cheap and convenient.  We – as a country – have landed ourselves in a conundrum where solutions need to be locally based AND embedded in a larger national and global movement to remake our food system.  Mark’s top solutions were:

• End government subsidies to processed food. We grow more corn for livestock and cars than for humans, and it’s subsidized by more than $3 billion annually; most of it is processed beyond recognition. The story is similar for other crops, including soy: 98 percent of soybean meal becomes livestock feed, while most soybean oil is used in processed foods. Meanwhile, the marketers of the junk food made from these crops receive tax write-offs for the costs of promoting their wares. Total agricultural subsidies in 2009 were around $16 billion, which would pay for a great many of the ideas that follow.

• Begin subsidies to those who produce and sell actual food for direct consumption. Small farmers and their employees need to make living wages. Markets — from super- to farmers’ — should be supported when they open in so-called food deserts and when they focus on real food rather than junk food. And, of course, we should immediately increase subsidies for school lunches so we can feed our youth more real food.

• Break up the U.S. Department of Agriculture and empower the Food and Drug Administration. Currently, the U.S.D.A. counts among its missions both expanding markets for agricultural products (like corn and soy!) and providing nutrition education. These goals are at odds with each other; you can’t sell garbage while telling people not to eat it, and we need an agency devoted to encouraging sane eating. Meanwhile, the F.D.A. must be given expanded powers to ensure the safety of our food supply. (Food-related deaths are far more common than those resulting from terrorism, yet the F.D.A.’s budget is about one-fifteenth that of Homeland Security.)

• Outlaw concentrated animal feeding operations and encourage the development of sustainable animal husbandry. The concentrated system degrades the environment, directly and indirectly, while torturing animals and producing tainted meat, poultry, eggs, and, more recently, fish. Sustainable methods of producing meat for consumption exist. At the same time, we must educate and encourage Americans to eat differently. It’s difficult to find a principled nutrition and health expert who doesn’t believe that a largely plant-based diet is the way to promote health and attack chronic diseases, which are now bigger killers, worldwide, than communicable ones. Furthermore, plant-based diets ease environmental stress, including global warming.

• Encourage and subsidize home cooking. (Someday soon, I’ll write about my idea for a new Civilian Cooking Corps.) When people cook their own food, they make better choices. When families eat together, they’re more stable. We should provide food education for children (a new form of home ec, anyone?), cooking classes for anyone who wants them and even cooking assistance for those unable to cook for themselves.

• Tax the marketing and sale of unhealthful foods. Another budget booster. This isn’t nanny-state paternalism but an accepted role of government: public health. If you support seat-belt, tobacco and alcohol laws, sewer systems and traffic lights, you should support legislation curbing the relentless marketing of soda and other foods that are hazardous to our health — including the sacred cheeseburger and fries.

• Reduce waste and encourage recycling. The environmental stress incurred by unabsorbed fertilizer cannot be overestimated, and has caused, for example, a 6,000-square-mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico that is probably more damaging than the BP oil spill. And some estimates indicate that we waste half the food that’s grown. A careful look at ways to reduce waste and promote recycling is in order.

• Mandate truth in labeling. Nearly everything labeled “healthy” or “natural” is not. It’s probably too much to ask that “vitamin water” be called “sugar water with vitamins,” but that’s precisely what real truth in labeling would mean.

• Reinvest in research geared toward leading a global movement in sustainable agriculture, combining technology and tradition to create a new and meaningful Green Revolution.

The attractive part of Bittman’s vision is the encompassing nature of it; it recognizes that we need to look at the whole food system, including marketing, labeling, and regulation or oversight.  AND what individuals can and know how to do with changing options and systems.  If we have a generation that cannot cook, our food revolution will never stick.  If we all still believe that Vitamin Water is great for us (the reverse osmosis water and evaporated cane sugar get me every time!) then we’ll have trouble moving beyond it.

And as with all our work to improve the food system, end hunger, reverse childhood obesity trends, save farming, and improve environmental health, we must always make sure that in our goals we are explicitly addressing racial and class inequities that have pushed many of these ailments upon people and communities of color and low-income.