Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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A Food Revolution in the Making, from Victory Gardens to the White House
Lawn
Michael Pollan
Author of "The Omnivore's Delimma," "In Defese of Food"
Posted April 22, 2009 | 02:45 PM (EST)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-pollan/a-food-revolution-in-the_b_1900
89.html

Last month, First Lady Michelle Obama broke ground for a new vegetable
garden on the South lawn of the White House. It's the first time food will
be grown at the President's residence since Eleanor Roosevelt planted her
Victory Garden during World War II. Back then, as part of the war effort,
the government rationed many foods and the shortage of labor and
transportation fuel made it difficult for farmers to harvest and deliver
fruits and vegetables to market. The First Lady's Victory Garden set an
example for the entire nation: they too could produce their own fruits and
vegetables. Nearly 20 million Americans answered the call. They planted
gardens in backyards, empty lots, and even on city rooftops. Neighbors
pooled their resources, planted different types of produce, and formed
cooperatives -- all in the name of patriotism.

By the time the war ended, home gardeners were producing 40 percent of the
United States' produce. They aided the war effort by creating local food
networks that provided much needed produce in their own communities, but
their effect on the social fabric of the nation was greater still. Urban
and suburban farmers were considered morale boosters who had found a great
sense of empowerment through their own dedication to a common cause.

Today, home gardening is on the rise, but most Americans still know very
little about where their food comes from, and even less about how the
changes in temperature and precipitation associated with global warming may
alter national food production. If you break down the fossil fuel
consumption of the American economy by sector, agriculture consumes 19
percent of the total, second only to transportation. Unfortunately, there
hasn't been a concentrated effort to mitigate its impact on the climate. If
we want to make significant progress in reducing global warming we will
need to wean the American food system off its heavy 20th-century diet of
fossil fuel and put it back on a diet of contemporary solar energy.

Resolarizing the food economy can support diversified farming and shorten
the distance from farm to fork, shrinking the amount of fossil fuel in the
American diet. A decentralized food system offers many other significant
benefits: Food eaten closer to where it is grown is fresher and requires
less processing, making it more nutritious, and whatever may be lost in
efficiency by localizing food production is gained in resilience; regional
food systems can better withstand all kinds of shocks.

Here are few examples of how we could start:

    * Provide grants to towns and cities to build year-round indoor
farmers' markets.

    * Make food-safety regulations sensitive to scale and marketplace, so
that small producers selling direct off the farm or at a farmers' market
are not regulated as onerously as a multinational food manufacturer.

    * Urge The U.S.D.A. to establish a Local Meat-Inspectors Corps to serve
and support the local food processors that remain.

    * Establish a Strategic Grain Reserve to prevent huge swings in
commodity prices.
    * Create incentives for hospitals and universities receiving federal
funds to buy fresh local produce which would vastly expand regional
agriculture and improve the diet of the millions of people these
institutions feed.

This isn't just about government reform. Organizations, businesses, and
even individuals like you can help advance these key initiatives and
support both the revival of food local food economies and the health of our
nation.

Next month the Natural Resources Defense Council will honor individuals who
have demonstrated leadership and innovation in the field of sustainable
food in its first annual Growing Green Awards. As the Chair of the
selection committee, I'm excited to be part of this initiative and join
NRDC in recognizing the extraordinary contributions this years honorees
have made in the areas of ecologically-integrated farming, climate and
water stewardship, farmland preservation, and social responsibility. The
Growing Green Awards is an opportunity to highlight the contribution
individuals can make in creating a more sustainable future through better
food production practices that improve the health of people and the planet.

Along with my fellow Growing Green Awards panelists, Larry Bain, Fred
Kirschenmann and Karen Ross, I'm pleased to announce the nine finalists in
three categories: Food Producer, Business Leader, and Thought Leader.

Food Producer

Will Allen, Growing Power, Milwaukee, WI

Judith Redmond, Full Belly Farm, Guinda, CA

Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm, Swoope, VA

Business Leader

Fedele Bauccio, Bon Appetit Management Co., Palo Alto, CA

Michael Rozyne, Red Tomato, Canton, MA

Thaleon Tremain, Pachamama Coffee Coop, Davis, CA

Thought Leader

Ann Cooper, Berkeley Unified School District, Berkeley, CA

James Harvie, Institute for a Sustainable Future, Duluth, MN

Sibella Kraus, Sustainable Agriculture Education (SAGE), Berkeley, CA

The winners will be selected on May 9 at an NRDC benefit at the California
Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, Calif. I hope you will consider
joining me in celebration of this important event.

Resources: Find out what's fresh near you and get great recipes at NRDC's
Food Miles page
http://www.nrdc.org/health/foodmiles/