A Primer on Sustainable Food

"The History of every major Galactic Civilization tends to pass through three distinct and recognizable phases, those of Survival, Inquiry and Sophistication, otherwise known as the How, Why and Where phases. 'For instance, the first phase is characterized by the question How can we eat? the second by the question Why do we eat? and the third by the question Where shall we have lunch?'" - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

With farm policies that ensure that food is plentiful and cheap for US residents, it's easy to think that our society is firmly in the "Where shall we have lunch?" phase of civilization. Sure, some people have a hard time financially, but the food system itself seems to work. Or, at the least, to require little modification.

But it may be the case that instead of making our food situation more secure with each passing year, the current methods of food production and distribution are pushing us closer all the time to a society in which we're all back to wondering how we can eat.

Production

It's a safe guess that you don't work on a farm. Only about 2 million Americans (less than one percent of the US population) claim farming as an occupation, and around half of them have another job that's their main source of income. That makes it easy for farming to be a nearly invisible industry.

When it comes to farming, it's run by "get big or get out" rules; a Purdue University team of agricultural economists said in 2002, "An economically viable crop/livestock operation in the Corn Belt would have between 2,000 and 3,000 acres of row crops and between 500 and 600 sows." The farming profession itself is aging; fewer than 6 percent of farm operators are under the age of 35 and the average age of a farm operator is 55, according to the US Census Bureau's 2002 figures. As for the crops, tons of carcinogens are sprayed onto crops to make their way into our air, water and bodies If that weren't bad enough, 70 percent of the nation's antibiotics are fed to livestock, and exorbitant amounts of fossil fuel fertilizer poisons aquatic ecosystems.

Mainstream farming has therefore become an over-mechanized, poison-drenched, impersonal industry that hardly anyone seems to want in on. Control of the food supply has, therefore, gone increasingly to the hands of highly polluting multinational corporations who seem to want to feed the world a diet of corn syrup and hydrogenated soybean oil. Fun.

It's not possible to take meaningful steps towards conservation and protection of water resources while ignoring the 46 percent of land and 40 percent of water used in the US for crops and livestock. Nor are there enough vitamin supplements in the world to make up for diets poor in whole, fresh, minimally processed foods.

It's time to pay attention to farming again.

Distribution

The 2008 agricultural prices study by the USDA determined that farmers get an average of only 20 cents for every dollar spent on food. The typical box of breakfast cereal might as well be shipped empty, considering the few pennies that went to the cost of the grain. The farm price of milk has gone down for farmers, both in absolute and inflation-adjusted dollars, even as grocery store prices for that same milk have gone up.

Once food leaves the farm, much of it gets bleached, processed into low-nutrient food additives, or separated into building blocks for 'meals' that need to have artificial flavoring added to them so they taste like food again. The best and freshest of what's left over goes to restaurants and high-end grocery stores in middle class and high income neighborhoods. Very little fresh, whole food ever makes it to low income urban or rural communities, leaving entire neighborhoods and towns in "food deserts", places where real food is hard to come by for either love or money.

Or, food may be shipped overseas, where our heavily subsidized commodity crops can be sold at prices so low that they undercut the cost of production even in developing nations. Millions of illiterate, often unemployable farmers have lost their land all over the world. Their families then find it hard to provide for themselves when their nation's currency is in trouble or when, as the current corn price boom due to ethanol subsidies has done, global food commodity prices go up.

Unlike other types of goods, no one can forgo buying food, nor can they substitute other kinds of goods for it. Children fed low nutrient or calorie deficient diets can suffer permanent developmental damage. People of all ages may become sick or die if their diet serves them poorly.

It's time to look for fairer ways to distribute this basic necessity of life, and to do so in ways that better compensate the people who produce it for us.

If A Law Falls In The Forest ...

Every 5-6 years, on average, Congress passes a piece of omnibus legislation (a gigantic spending bill spanning a couple of federal bureaucracies and many billions of dollars) that's usually called the Farm Bill. Though interest in the last Farm Bill, the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, was more widespread than usual, public interest organizing was either too little or too late to get much just, sustainable or progressive reform enacted.

Before the next major change in the law, there's plenty to do in your local community to make up for lacks in the current regulations. You can join a community garden project, support local farmers through farmers' markets or by subscribing to a CSA (community supported agriculture) network, get involved in farm-to-cafeteria or Buy Local initiatives, and get local or organic food as circumstances allow.

And even though the next Farm Bill won't be a concern for another four years or so, when the USDA, FDA and relevant congressional committees will start planning their changes, the Agricultural Appropriations Committee determines program spending levels fresh every year. Though guided by the current Farm Bill, the appropriations process can make meaningful shifts in funding. Consider getting involved with the public discussion on appropriations as a warmup for the next Farm Bill itself.

It's time to bring more people in on the public conversation about food. I hope you'll join us.