Eating rituals used to exist in a much simpler world of supply and demand. Nearly everyone had a vegetable garden, and many kept chickens or other domestic animals for meat. Neighbors shared and exchanged food gifts frequently. A child accompanying a parent to the grocery store was aware of where milk comes from, even if the family didn’t have it’s own cow.
Vandana Shiva, the world’s premier spokesperson for smallholder farmers and food sovereignty in a world increasingly dominated by consolidated corporations, speaks eloquently on the situation. Work to take back control of our food supply is an essential community affair. Learn more here.
Today most children reach adulthood without ever visiting a farm. If we don’t invite children to think about where all the food comes from, we are training them to be complicit in their own poisoning.
Even amongst those who are ‘awakened’ to these problems, it’s still possible to misunderstand what is really going on with our food supply. Making knowledgeable choices requires a lot of fortitude and desire for truth in a world of junk masquerading as food. Inner cities are usually poorly supplied with quality produce and young people today eat more junk and fast food than ever. We know better. How is this possible? Shouldn’t we question who profits when a population is poisoned by it’s food supply?
Industrial agriculture promotes a narrative of domination about what constitutes healthy food and a robust food supply. Despite longstanding organic activism and consumer demands for pure safe food; despite the growing evidence of harm derived from pesticides in all environments, industrial agriculture reinforces it’s juggernaut, science be damned. Nowadays you can grow ‘organic’ carrots in large scale monocultures (‘optimized to scale’) with minimal biodiversity and NO attention to nutritional value of the crop. Nowadays you can call hydroponic crops ‘organic’, even though they are grown in soilless solutions with little root biology. In the US, the NOP (National Organic Program, in charge of setting standards for auditing Organic operations to be certified) is now led by corporate lobbyists concerned with profit measures and optics more than adherence to a true quality standard.
Advocates for conventional large scale agriculture are not interested in monitoring the actual nutritional value of crops, or assessing how growing practices affect crop nutritional. The drive to ‘scale’ agriculture to feed the world without farmers is a dangerous and disasterous notion, yet we continue to see small family farms – organic and otherwise – disappearing. Today’s increasingly ubiquitous industrial ag corporations operate internationally and aim for total control of production, from seed to table. If we are not alarmed, we are not paying attention.
Through the introduction of GE (genetically engineered) crops and increasingly complex contracts, mega corporations dictate farmers’ choices with an expert combination of economic and legal pressures. These controlling tactics functionally emasculate farmers and ultimately put consumers and the entire food system at risk. Biotechnology has ushered in a fast paced era of industrial agriculture, fueled by profit motives. Regulators are ironically now regulated by the established monopolizing industrial ag players. Oversight by Federal agencies such as EPA, FDA and USDA is inadequate.
In response to these threats, we turn a new corner in our quest to uphold safe food choices. The issues are complex and in many ways overwhelming. But there are tools for action. Glimpsing these threats of industrial agriculture, we see the implications of consumer ignorance and farmer compliance which further the status quo. We see that we must reignite strong public opinion. And, if public demand for healthy food production technologies continues to fail, we must endeavor to grow our own quality food.
Suggested actions:
- Write to your representatives to express concerns about food safety. Insist that the FDA, EPA and USDA monitor the development and use of GE crops and products and enforce safety protocols. Check out the work of Cal GE Free (Occidental Arts and Ecology), Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC), Organic Consumers Association, Hawaii GE Free, Pesticide Action Network and others. Respond to appeals and make your views known.
- Support local farming and organic agriculture by buying through a regional CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or at your local farmer’s market. Check out the “Slow Food” Movement online at www.slowfood.org and seek to choose foods which are produced in a manner that is ecologically sound, economically viable and socially just (sustainable).
- Grow your own garden. Even if you only have space in pots, you can get a feel for producing your own ecologically sound food by making the effort to grow your own. There are many resources to support all aspects of organic gardening, most notably Rodale publications, Mother Earth News, and a wealth of on-line resources. Make compost and revel in the truly sustainable cycle of life as you garden with nature. (Need ideas or a free consult? I’m happy to help)
- Industrialized meat production is unsavory, unsanitary and dangerous. If you care to eat meat, choose free range or humanely produced products. Avoid consuming fish which is caught using drift nets or using other industrial means which create huge amount of “by-catch”. The incredible waste many types of ocean fishing is unsustainable and damaging to ocean biodiversity and health. Choose “dolphin-safe” tuna. For more information on this see the Center for Food Safety Web Site. Also for updated sustainable fish choices (they change throughout the year and by region) visit the website of the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
- Encourage your friends and relatives to buy organic, and buy locally as much as possible. We mustn’t simply preach to the choir. It is imperative that more consumers understand the gravity of their food choices. We indeed do vote with our dollars, and food choices are just about the most politically instantaneous votes we can cast.
The more we know about our food supply, the better chance we’ll have to ensure it is safe and responsible. Consumers, farmers and the environment all need protections and assurances which are easily undermined by corporate interests.
Let’s demand nothing less than a future where sustainable farming, fair production contracts for farmers, and safe food is the norm.