Improving Food Quality Is Up To Us

You may ask, what does food policy have to do with environmental issues? Farmers the world over are deeply tied to both the food system and the energy system. Plus, their farming practices have a deep and lasting impact on the environment.

We have been witnessing a growing awareness of the need to “eat locally”. As a result of impending economic hardships and the never-ending food safety issues there is a resurgence in the desire to “grow our own”.

Slowly we are beginning to question the economics and environmental feasibility of transporting foods great distances to our neighborhood grocery. We are speaking out against processed foods and corporate raised meat and vegetables as unhealthy and environmentally unsound.

We are beginning to hear terms such as “real food” and “farm-to-table” that is fueling our hunger for locally grown, environmentally friendly and nutritious foods.

America’s top chefs, several of whom traveled to Washington for Obama's inauguration, hope that Obama's flair for good food will encourage people to expand their horizons when it comes to what they eat.

A drive is building to plant an organic food garden or Victory Garden at the White House to supply the White House kitchen and local food pantries with fresh produce. This garden would serve as a model of what we can grow in our own backyards.

Community gardens are sprouting up across the country as a means of providing gardening opportunites for those who do not have the space in their own yard. The added benefits of a community garden is that it benefits the social development of the neighborhood by offering people a chance to interact with one another. It can also provide a source for nutritious food for the homeless and disadvantaged.

Most food in the United States is over-processed, over-subsidized and grown with no regard to the environment, making it more difficult for small farms to make a profit selling more natural, nutritious food. In a missed opportunity to help small farmers congress overwhelmingly enacted a $290 billion farm bill last year that directs many subsidies to the largest agricultural players.

Our collective attitude towards what we put on our tables needs to change. We need to grow and eat more natural foods and get away from eating processed foods. We also need to use a lot less chemically based fertilizer and rely on the tried and true organic methods of our forebears.

The most obvious starting point for this revolution lies with us, the home gardener. There are many wonderful gardening blogs on the subject of growing your own food, read them and learn from their mistakes and take on their pleasures and passion while you become familiar with gardening techniques and become reacquainted with the untarnished deliciousness of raw vegetables and fruit in their natural form.

Becoming vocal advocates, to your neighbors, friends and family, of the healthful properties of organically home-grown produce can help grassroots organizations to spread the word.

Equally important is the help of federal and local governments. Farm subsidies that historically go to large corporate farms need to be turned over to small farms and community gardens. Particularly those that help the disadvantaged among us.

Farmers markets around the country are thriving but with the backing of governments can be better able to compete with supermarket chains.

Obama’s choice for Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack made an overture to the growing number of food groups and experts who have criticized government subsidies for large corporate farms, saying he will seek to work "with those who seek programs and practices that lead to more nutritious food produced in a sustainable way." Given his history, I cannot help but hear his unspoken words “…as long as those requests come from corporate farm operators”.

Tom Vilsack is a strong proponent of renewable energy and developing the nation’s alternative fuel industry. His advocacy of ethanol and other bio-fuels as a way to reduce the nation’s reliance on foreign oil, at first blush, is to be commended and he says he favors rural growth. However, his plan for ‘rural’ growth is to expand farm subsidies for corporate farming as opposed to helping the small farmer. For example, while governor of Iowa, Vilsack oversaw the largest proliferation of hog confinements in the states history. These new hog CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) put tens of thousands of independent family hog farmers out of business in the state. The end result of this was a "decimation of rural Iowa" and serious degradation of the state's drinking water. Doesn’t sound very environmentally or rural friendly to me nor does it sound like we are going to get much help from the Department of Agriculture.

He also is clearly in Monsanto’s pocket. Vilsack supported Monsanto’s bid to pass a seed bill that took away county power to regulate GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) within county borders.

Let’s shun the over-doctored and questionably-nutritious processed foods for how nature intended it to taste. Let’s turn away from chemically based fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Let’s elect to plant open-pollinated heirloom seeds and plants, partially to preserve diversity but also to prevent bio-tech firms from destroying a link with the past that can never be recovered.



Further reading:
A Different View of Vilsack
American Community Gardening Association
Eat Local Challenge
Farmers markets