What
has happened is that industrial agriculture and the processing
industry in particular has lost the trust of the consumer. Worse is
that over half the population has no difficulty in paying for premium
quality food whose production is known to them. This is not yet a
runaway transition to organic farming, but I am certain now that we
are going there. In fact, the developing GMO crisis may well be the
key tipping point.
We
are messing with mother here and the industry has been conning mother
since the fifties selling awful convenience foods that are damaging
to the health.
A
sane person can rationalize eating a convenience food about once a
week, so long as no others are enjoyed. Going beyond that risks the
built in addictive effects of these wonder foods. Recall Wonder
Bread?
Some
of it is obvious, of course, but a lot is not at all and with GMOs we
are targeting even obvious staples that should be fine to eat. How
do we tell and how do we recognize new illnesses as been GMO driven.
I regret most that this is not a argument driven by paranoia.
"The Awakening
That's Happening": Local, Sustainable Food
Sunday, 09 June 2013
00:00By Tory Field and Beverly Bell,
“People are
realizing that we can’t rely on the industrial food system much
longer. The awakening that’s happening is our greatest
opportunity,” says New Mexican farmer and activist Miguel
Santistevan. This awakening has sparked the revival of local,
sustainable food systems.
At its most basic,
sustainability connotes a system capable of continuing indefinitely
without compromising future life. Sustainability is also sometimes
described as a three-legged stool: in order to be balanced, it must
sit equally on sturdy legs of economics, environment, and equity. A
food system contributes to community sustainability if it is
economically viable for small farmers; nourishing of the earth and
elements; and socially equitable for all involved, including farm and
food workers and consumers.
Examples in the
movement to create local, sustainable food systems are virtually
endless. Here are just a few:
* Community gardens
are sprouting up everywhere, with an estimated 18,000 in the US and
Canada. In most cases, members rent a small plot for a modest fee.
These patchwork-quilt gardens, primarily in urban areas, provide a
local food source, build community relationships, beautify the
neighborhood, and give more people the opportunity to eat homegrown
food.
[
What is happening is that the individual everywhere is learning to
grow and nurture and this satisfies an instinctive emotional need –
Arclein ]
* Educational
gardening projects give children and teens the opportunity to get
their hands dirty and learn about growing food. In East Oakland,
California, youth with Oakland Food Connection grew over 3,000
pounds of produce in school-based gardens in one year. Now they’re
branching out to create value-added products, like sauerkraut and
jelly, and to run a catering business. On the other side of the
country, in Orange, Massachusetts, Seeds of Solidarity works with
rural and working-class youth to tend gardens at schools, a homeless
shelter, and an elder care facility.
Deborah Habib,
director of Seeds of Solidarity, said, “Every person is capable of
helping to feed their community. To me, it’s really about
reclaiming the heart-hands-land connection, so we can each
participate, not only as consumers, but by cultivating the earth and
cultivating foods.”
* Farmers are growing
food for public institutions like schools, universities, hospitals,
and prisons. In one instance, the Berkeley Unified School District
did away with its tater tots and canned peaches through a policy of
increasing the amount of local, organic food it purchases. “We’ve
gone from 95 percent processed foods to 95 percent made from
scratch,” said chef Ann Cooper. To help allay the higher food costs
associated with this program, the school system has gotten bulk
discounts from farmers and processors, sources a significant amount
of fresh produce from school-sponsored gardens, and uses federal
reimbursements from the USDA as well as sales to students. There are
now farm-to-school programs involving 12,429 schools in 50 states.
* Real Food Challenge
is working to shift $1 billion worth of college and university food
purchases towards local, sustainable, and fair sources, and away from
industrial agriculture. The nationwide project supports student
organizers as they develop campus wide campaigns to get their schools
to commit to purchasing 20% “real food” by 2020. They host
leadership trainings and events, provide materials and other
organizing support, and have developed a Real Food Calculator to
help track institutional food purchasing. They define real food as
“food which truly nourishes producers, consumers, communities and
the earth. It is a food system – from seed to plate – that
fundamentally respects human dignity and health, animal welfare,
social justice and environmental sustainability.”
* A sad joke goes: If
your illness doesn’t kill you in the hospital, the food will.
Fletcher Allen Health Care in Vermont and Cancer Treatment Centers of
America in Illinois and Oklahoma are just a few of the hospitals
around the country that are part of a growing network of
farm-to-hospital programs. Four hundred and forty-four hospitals in
the US have signed a pledge, organized by the group Health Care
without Harm, to offer more fruits and vegetables, as well as locally
grown, fair-trade, and pesticide- and hormone free food. Some
hospitals also host on-site farmers’ markets, plant gardens, and
compost food scraps.
* Community Supported
Agriculture (CSA) creates a direct partnership between a farm and
members of the community. Members pay farmers at the beginning of the
season, providing them with cash needed to purchase seeds and
equipment. In return, each week they receive a share of the harvest,
whatever is growing at the time. Members commit to sharing both the
benefits and risks of each season. If there is a bumper crop of
watermelon, everyone enjoys the abundance. If disease wipes out the
tomatoes, share members ride that out as well. This commitment from
members gives farmers more protection from both the whims of nature
and price fluctuations of the market. By cutting out the
middle-people, members have a more direct relationship with where
their food comes from and receive a better price for local food.
Started in Japan, CSAs
are catching on all over the US and the world. Since its introduction
in the US in the l980s, the model has expanded to over 12,500
farms. In some rural areas, members pick up their share at the farm
itself, while in cities, farmers drop off boxes of produce at
distribution sites. The CSA model is now being used not only for
vegetables but also for many other goods like grains, meat, dairy,
fish, medicinal herbs, pies, and spun wool.
* Farmers’
markets are also experiencing a meteoric rise. Between 1994 and
2011, farmers’ markets registered with the US Department of
Agriculture increased 400 percent. They now number over 7,800.
Markets are also vibrant community gathering spots, places to meet,
play, connect, and unwind. Food from a farmers’ market or CSA
typically travels between 10 and 100 miles, unlike the long distances
traveled by their grocery store counterparts.
* Farmers are
continuing the time-honored practice of banding together through
marketing cooperatives. Selling everything from cheese to cantaloupe,
co-ops give small producers more bargaining power in the marketplace.
They allow producers to pay discounted prices by buying in bulk;
lower their transportation and distribution costs by sharing
resources such as delivery trucks; earn a higher profit by
eliminating some of the middle people; and access federal tax
deductions. In 2008, the USDA reported that there were over 2,200
farmer, ranch, and fishery co-ops in the US, with a combined business
volume of $213.4 billion. One small-scale example is Moo Milk in
Maine. In 2010, 10 organic dairy farmers who had been dropped by the
giant corporation Hood created the co-op, through which farmers now
keep up to 90% of the profits.
Download
the Harvesting Justice pdf here, and find action items,
resources, and a popular education curriculum on the Harvesting
Justice website. Harvesting Justice was created for the US Food
Sovereignty Alliance, check out their workhere.
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