Walk around any grocery store
and look at what's for sale. Lots of colorful
boxes and bags – but what's in them? Who
grew the food and what happened to it between
the farm and the store? Knowing where your
food comes from and how it is grown is a vital
and fascinating part of healthy living. The
Kitchen Table Gazette will be a lively
monthly column that looks inside the food
system and brings you interesting facts about
the social and environmental side of food, the
lives of farmers, and the connections we can
make to nature and to each other through food.
We will cover the problems and the solutions
facing the food system. We will discuss the
dramatic changes created by industrialized
agriculture and hazardous technologies such as
genetic engineering, irradiation and
pesticides as well as bring you stories about
the growing new food movement that promotes
local, seasonal, food grown by farmers who are
linked directly with consumers and who use
sustainable and organic methods.
The media has done a real disservice to the
public by repeating false accusations about
organic growing practices, as ABC television
news did last year and as Fox TV did when it
fired two reporters trying to tell the truth
about hormones used in dairy production. At
the same time, commercial media, who receive
the bulk of their advertising revenue from
food companies, rarely, if ever, criticize
industrial agriculture. There are,
fortunately, many sources of consumer
information that will help ensure healthy food
choices.
One such study listed high risk foods and
indicated those with the highest levels of
pesticides, and other dangerous toxins such as
dioxin, which are, in order of danger:
- meat: chicken and beef
- dairy
- strawberries
- tomatoes
- potatoes
- lettuce
- coffee
Information like this can help establish
purchasing priorities. We may decide to pay a
little extra for organic forms of these risky
foods and perhaps save money by buying
conventional, but non-GMO, bulk grains, for
instance. These consumer choices will also
send a signal to agribusiness that consumers
care, and if given a choice, they will buy
food raised without toxic chemicals and GMOs.
The price of food is important, but the
cost of food is even more critical. Cheap food
is destroying farming in America at an
alarming rate. Fast food retailers such as
McDonalds are often the largest buyers of farm
products and they demand uniform products and
can command the lowest prices. So every fast
food meal contributes to the industrial food
system. We should ask if the long term
detriment to our personal and environmental
health from industrial food is really worth
the convenience of cheap fast food? If we look
beyond the "price" of food, to see the hidden
costs involved, then we must include in the
costs of expensive environmental cleanups and
the soaring cost of health care.
Small and sustainable family farms are the
backbone, no, the heart, of a healthy food
system but we have been in a permanent farm
crisis in this country since the 1980s and are
continuing to lose farms at an accelerating
rate. There are now more people in prison in
the U.S. (2 million) than there are people who
farm (1.9 million) - which should tell us
something about our national priorities.
Taxpayers now spend almost $30 billion each
year supporting industrialized agriculture. At
some point the public will wake up, and,
hopefully, ask what we are getting for all
this money besides environmental degradation
and the loss of rural communities?
Apples, again, are instructive. China is
now the world's largest apple producer and
because of an artificially low price of
imported apples and apple concentrate, U.S.
growers are experiencing the collapse of their
market. Processing-apple prices have gone from
$180 per ton three years ago to $20 a ton
today - and are even as low as $10 in some
markets. Urban sprawl, land speculation and
free trade have driven almost everyone from
farming except the large agribusiness
corporations.
Living consciously in today's world is a
challenge. Fortunately, we have choices, and
the solutions, when it comes to food, are
really fairly simple and very effective.
Changing these trends will take two things: a
willingness to face the unpleasant realities
of today's industrial food system; and a
willingness to spend a little less on
entertainment or consumer goods and a bit more
on ensuring that our food comes from healthy
nearby farms that care about our personal,
social and environmental health.
Yet we must not give up hope! For some very
useful and encouraging information on the
widespread activism that is going on to
protect small farms, and to promote personal,
social, and environmental health check out the
work that is being done by the Community Food
Security Coalition, a non-profit 501(c)(3),
membership-based national coalition of over
600 organizations and individuals that focus
on food and agriculture issues.
Their mission is to bring about lasting
social change by promoting community-based
solutions to hunger, poor nutrition, and the
globalization of the food system. They also
offer a free referral service linking groups
and individuals interested in community food
security. www.foodsecurity.org
Read October's
article on Food Safety (I)
Read
November's article on Food Safety
(II)
Read
December's article on "The Politics of
Meat"
Claire Hope
Cummings produces and hosts a weekly radio
show on food and farming. She is a writer, a
lawyer and is active in the growing new food
movement that is working to reinvigorate local
food systems and support sustainable, organic
family farms. She has been a farmer, both in
California and in Vietnam, and was an
environmental litigator for 18 years, as well
as formerly staff counsel at the USDA.
Claire enjoys growing food in her large
organic garden and does native plant
restoration on her land in Marin County,
California. She is the author of two guides to
agricultural genetic engineering, has
published numerous articles on food, and is a
popular public speaker. Her radio show is
broadcast live at 7:30 AM every Tuesday
morning on KPFA–FM in Berkeley, KFCF in
Fresno, or on the web at that time at
www.kpfa.org.
