The Hijacking of Food and Farm Policy
The Hijacking of Food and Farm Policy
Nearly 30 years, I was so inspired by Frances Moore Lappé’s 1971 book, Diet For a Small Planet, that I made my way from Vermont to California to volunteer for her Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First.
There has been a lot to celebrate since then.
In every corner of the country, demand for locally and sustainably grown food is rising, with farmers and ranchers growing more chemical-free, healthier food for our nation’s schools, universities, restaurants and supermarkets. Since 2005 the number of farmers markets has doubled, with more than 8000 markets open for business around the country.
New local ownership and distribution structures are popping up everywhere, including more than 200 food hubs that are working in innovative ways to get more local, sustainable food to market. More than 180 local food policy councils are transforming food systems from the bottom up. The organic sector, with more than $32 billion in sales last year is the fastest growing segment of the food industry and organic acreage has been growing steadily in recent years.
More information on these impressive trends can be found in the slides that I presented during my keynote speech to the Women Food and Agriculture Network Conference in Iowa earlier this month to a wonderful crowd of mostly women farmers, landowners and healthy food system advocates.
As great as these accomplishments are, the tens of thousands of projects and farms that are building a healthier, more sustainable food system around the country cannot grow quickly enough to counteract the tremendous damage to public health and the environment caused by the existing profit-driven industrial food system.
Two key messages in Lappé’s book remain more relevant today than ever.
The first—and the basis for my lifelong commitment to eating low on the food chain--- is that it is inefficient and resource-intensive to rely on meat as our primary
Nearly 30 years, I was so inspired by Frances Moore Lappé’s 1971 book, Diet For a Small Planet, that I made my way from Vermont to California to volunteer for her Institute for Food and Development Policy, also known as Food First.
There has been a lot to celebrate since then.
In every corner of the country, demand for locally and sustainably grown food is rising, with farmers and ranchers growing more chemical-free, healthier food for our nation’s schools, universities, restaurants and supermarkets. Since 2005 the number of farmers markets has doubled, with more than 8000 markets open for business around the country.
New local ownership and distribution structures are popping up everywhere, including more than 200 food hubs that are working in innovative ways to get more local, sustainable food to market. More than 180 local food policy councils are transforming food systems from the bottom up. The organic sector, with more than $32 billion in sales last year is the fastest growing segment of the food industry and organic acreage has been growing steadily in recent years.
More information on these impressive trends can be found in the slides that I presented during my keynote speech to the Women Food and Agriculture Network Conference in Iowa earlier this month to a wonderful crowd of mostly women farmers, landowners and healthy food system advocates.
As great as these accomplishments are, the tens of thousands of projects and farms that are building a healthier, more sustainable food system around the country cannot grow quickly enough to counteract the tremendous damage to public health and the environment caused by the existing profit-driven industrial food system.
Two key messages in Lappé’s book remain more relevant today than ever.
The first—and the basis for my lifelong commitment to eating low on the food chain--- is that it is inefficient and resource-intensive to rely on meat as our primary