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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Michelle Obama Becomes The New Leader Of America's Food Movement
  • Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:54:27 -0600


First Lady Michelle Obama Becomes The New Leader Of America's Food Movement
The First Lady At The Top of The Food Chain
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/2009/06/making-america-safe-for-eaters-fi
rst.html

America’s food movement is filled with thousands of well-intentioned
groups that have often been at odds with each other’s goals. Writer Paula
Crossfield highlighted this in a recent Huffington Post piece, Step One:
Hone The Ask, in which she pointed out that it's difficult to know what to
even request that the Obama administration change in food and Ag policy,
because food activists have been so disconnected from each other, and have
lacked definitive leadership. But as of yesterday, the food movement is in
swell shape, because First Lady Michelle Obama has just become the official
leader, and she’s laid out, in capital letters, what's going to happen in
the food movement over the next few years. (Pic: Mrs. Obama with a snap
pea, at yesterday's garden harvest event)

At an afternoon picnic at the White House, during a celebration of the
harvest of the White House Kitchen Garden, Mrs. Obama delivered
policy-heavy remarks that covered some of the most hot-button topics in
food. While ostensibly addressing the Bancroft Elementary School fifth
graders who’ve been helping her work in the garden, Mrs. Obama talked
about food deserts, food security and food justice; getting more fresh and
nutritious foods into the USDA’s Child Nutrition programs; the critical
issue of reducing diet-related disease; supporting local and smaller food
producers; encouraging urban and community gardening. Of course there was a
big media presence at the harvest event, but most news outlets failed to
report how very far-sighted Mrs. Obama’s remarks were, how progressive
and reassuring they are at a moment in time when everything about food is
open to debate. Instead, mainstream media focused on the feel-good angle of
the story, with headlines like It’s Pea Picking Time in The Garden! and
Garden Party: The First Lady’s 73 Pounds of Lettuce.

The White House, however, posted all of Mrs. Obama’s remarks online—as
well as on Youtube--because the issues she discussed are not only
critically important on their own, but must be resolved in order for many
of the President’s policy goals to be achieved, particularly his very
ambitious plans for health care reform. Having Mrs. Obama make these
potentially volatile remarks is a politically brilliant maneuver, since
she’s currently enjoying approval ratings that are higher than her
husband’s. And delivering the remarks at a picnic--in the presence of
children whose eating habits have been permanently altered by just a couple
months working in the garden (which transformation has been happily
recorded for all posterity by NBC, in the Inside The Obama White House TV
special)--served to make “the plan” seem like a series of goals that
are imminently possible. (Above: Mrs. Obama, during her remarks)

The Plan: Reduce Diet-Related Disease By Changing America’s Eating
Habits, Which Will Lead To Food Processors Offering Better Foods
Before the kids tucked into their healthy, just-made picnic, Mrs. Obama
talked about the terrible effects of the epidemic of diet-related diseases
such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity--and actually used the word
“epidemic,” which comes directly from hard policy wonks, particularly
the public health activists who are now in charge of the CDC and the FDA.
Without reducing the rate of these epidemics, the President’s goal of
health care reform simply won’t happen. Mrs. Obama even quoted the
budgetary costs of the epidemics to the Bancroft kids: "...$120 billion
each year. That's a lot of money."

Mrs. Obama also pointed out that for hispanics and African Americans, the
rates of these diseases are even higher--an unprecedented move for the
First Lady to highlight what can only be called a food justice issue. Mrs.
Obama said that getting America to eat less high-calorie, low-nutrition
foods is crucial to reducing diet-related disease, and once again gave a
shout-out against processed foods—for the second time in two weeks. This
is obviously going to get the attention of large food companies and chain
restaurants. Kentucky Fried Chicken’s recent introduction of grilled
rather than fried chicken led to excoriation in the blogosphere—but
Kentucky Fried Chicken still feeds millions of Americans, and they handily
anticipated Mrs. Obama’s new campaign. Now they look pretty swell,
don’t they? And the food-reform activists running the CDC and FDA—as
well as various people on Capitol Hill—have already kicked the initial
stages of this plan into action, by advocating the Soda Sin Tax, an attempt
to make it more costly to enjoy empty calories. Mrs. Obama also pointed out
how easy it was to get the Bancroft kids to change their eating habits,
simply by having them work in the garden, and that little lesson is not
going to be lost on America’s food producers. Kids don’t have to eat
junk food, and food producers don’t have to make it.

The Plan: Better School Lunches
Food activists have been advocating for better foods in school feeding
programs for years, as well as for increasing federal budget allocations.
But the groups have been repeatedly trumped by the USDA and Congress,
thanks to regulations that have allowed the worst kinds of processed
commodity foods to be dumped into the programs. In her remarks, Mrs. Obama
indicated that this, too, must change:

…because these meals are the main source of consistent nourishment for
these kids, we need to make sure we offer them the healthiest meals
possible…we need to improve the quality and nutrition of the food served
in schools. We're approaching the first big opportunity to move this to the
top of the agenda with the upcoming reauthorization of the child nutrition
programs.

The First Lady has mentioned school lunches a number of times in previous
speeches, and it’s a priority for her. And for the President. In addition
to enabling health care reform, better school lunches are critical for the
President’s other policy plans—especially the goal of getting every
student in the country to pursue formal education beyond high school.
Ensuring that America returns to global leadership in the sciences depends
on well-nourished kids, too. With billions of federal dollars invested in
science and technology, the comparatively low cost of better school lunches
is a very wise move. But perhaps most radically, Mrs. Obama’s remarks are
putting processed food companies and commodity crop producers on notice
that they will no longer enjoy the kind of massive, multi-billion dollar
USDA buys of poor products that have been standard operating procedure.
Even the meal served at yesterday’s picnic spoke to this. The Bancroft
kids helped the White House chefs create baked chicken dipped in egg and
dredged in bread crumbs, and assistant chef/Food Initiative Coordinator Sam
Kass announced that “Breaded and baked is the new fried.” Getting fried
chicken nuggets off school lunch menus might seem like a small change, but
it has big implications. (Above: The First Lady in the garden with Bancroft
students)

The Lunch Plan, Part II: Farm-to-School Programs
Announcing the need for better foods in school lunch programs also speaks
to a willingness on the part of the Obama administration to encourage farm
to school programs, something that advocates such as Debra Eschmeyer, of
The National Farm To School Network, have been working on for years.
Farm-to-school programs are the best way to get the freshest, most
nutritious foods on to children’s lunch plates, but this, too is a
radical idea, as it cuts into the profits of industrial food processors. On
the other hand, farm-to-school programs fulfill another Obama economic
goal--supporting smaller farmers and local enterprise. There are no
announced plans--right now--for Mrs. Obama to testify at the upcoming Child
Nutrition re-authorization hearings on Capitol Hill--but this could well
change.

The Plan: Eliminating Food Deserts, Increasing Food Security
Mrs. Obama also directly addressed food security and food deserts. No First
Lady has ever uttered the words “Food Desert” in public, let alone
explained what the term means:

…in so many of our communities, particularly in poorer and more isolated
communities, fresh, healthy food is simply out of reach. With few grocery
stores in their neighborhoods, residents are forced to rely on convenience
stores, fast food restaurants, liquor stores, drug stores and even gas
stations for their groceries…sadly, this is the case in many large cities
and rural communities all across this nation.

Mrs. Obama is not only further making the case for healthier food, she’s
supporting the President’s ambitious plans for rural development, and
justifying all the Recovery money that’s being invested to improve
infrastructure. And once again, she’s speaking out against processed fast
foods. And she's encouraging gardening, which leads to...

The Plan: More Gardens, More Garden Tech
Mrs. Obama also applauded community gardeners in her remarks, pointing out
that there are a million community gardens nationwide, and urging the
creation of more. The presence of these gardens is crucial not only for
encouraging healthy eating and nutrition awareness, but also for
eliminating food deserts, enacting health care reform, and ensuring that
people eat better in a terrible economy. There’ll be more encouragement
of gardening--particularly urban gardening, aquaculture and vertical
gardening--to come out of the White House in the future. No one’s really
focused on it, but the White House Kitchen Garden is the ultimate urban
garden, located, as it is, in the middle of DC.

The Plan: Encourage Ongoing Nutrition And Health Education, Encourage Food
Facility
In the future, there will be far more activity coming out of the White
House that focuses on food facility, which is an understanding of the
fundamental nutritional qualities of fresh and whole foods, and the ability
to use these appropriately. There are literally millions of people in
America who have no relationship to food in its original state, and a
critical part of the ongoing fooducation campaign will be re-acquainting
people with what has become, for much of the population, a foreign concept:
Cooking. It's far easier to change your personal food profile if you're in
command of the knowledge, skills and techniques needed to maximize the
potential of a range of foods. (Above: The First Lady and Sam Kass shell
peas yesterday, in the White House Kitchen)

So, yep. Michelle Obama, Leader of The Food Movement, has served notice
that things must change, and we now know exactly what issues are deemed
critically important for round one, what can be asked for, and what the
Obama administration is willing to work on. Certainly the food initiatives
will get broader and bolder in the coming months. Announcing the White
House Kitchen Garden as organic was essentially testing the waters to gauge
America’s response to food change. Organic practices, in the past, have
registered with the public as the province of both elitists and hippies;
Mrs. Obama has now made organics seem like just a regular old’ thing,
something real people can and should do. The pushback over the organic
issue was fairly minimal, and came primarily from the most obvious
suspect--the chemical lobby. And that’s a good thing. Because there are a
lot of changes needed in the food system, across the board. But luckily,
Mrs. Obama has some very important allies for her campaign—Sam Kass, her
own Food Initiative Coordinator; her husband, who just happens to be the
most important guy in the country; and every Eater in America.

*Related: The recipes for White House Kitchen Garden Baked Chicken with
brown rice & peas and Salad is here. Mrs. Obama's remarks at Bancroft
Elementary School, another exceptional food policy speech, are here. A
recap of much of the White House activity surrounding food, gardening,
fooducation and kitchen issues in the first part of the FLOTUS food era is
here.

*Photo credits: Mrs. Obama at podium and digging in garden by Lynn Sweet,
other photos by Reuters





  • [Livingontheland] Michelle Obama Becomes The New Leader Of America's Food Movement, Tradingpost, 06/18/2009

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