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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@lobo.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] going mainstream now?
  • Date: Wed, 02 Feb 2011 11:18:33 -0700


from a long time grower friend nearby

A Food Manifesto for the Future
By MARK BITTMAN February 1, 2011, 10:28 pm
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/a-food-manifesto-for-the-future/?ref=opinion


"Nearly everything labeled “healthy” or “natural” is not."

For decades, Americans believed that we had the world’s healthiest and safest
diet. We worried little about this diet’s effect on the environment or on the
lives of the animals (or even the workers) it relies upon. Nor did we worry
about its ability to endure — that is, its sustainability.

That didn’t mean all was well. And we’ve come to recognize that our diet is
unhealthful and unsafe. Many food production workers labor in difficult, even
deplorable, conditions, and animals are produced as if they were widgets. It
would be hard to devise a more wasteful, damaging, unsustainable system.

Here are some ideas — frequently discussed, but sadly not yet implemented —
that would make the growing, preparation and consumption of food healthier,
saner, more productive, less damaging and more enduring. In no particular
order:

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.

I’ll expand on these issues (and more) in the future, but the essential
message is this: food and everything surrounding it is a crucial matter of
personal and public health, of national and global security. At stake is not
only the health of humans but that of the earth.

This column appeared in print on February 2, 2011. It will appear in
Opinionator regularly.





  • [Livingontheland] going mainstream now?, Tradingpost, 02/02/2011

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