State Of The Food Nation
Food Inc. is out in theaters and is scaring the “bejesus” out of people. Michelle Obama has harvested her garden and made stirring speeches encouraging change in the American diet. Healthcare reforms are being debated in Congress that will effect the way chronic, food-related diseases are treated. There are massive food recalls almost weekly. Our food system and the resulting American diet, where saturated, sugared corn byproducts are cheaper than real food, is coming to a near apocalyptic point. Well, it feels like that anyway.
Though, Michael Pollan is not much more optimistic than that. Over a sumptuous dinner with an AlterNet reporter, he forewarned that the global mess we’ve gotten ourselves into will come to a head at some point:
When we say the food system is unsustainable we mean that there is something about it, an internal contradiction, that means it can’t go on the way it is without it breaking up. And I firmly believe there will be a breakdown.
The expansion of farmers markers and home gardens gives Pollan hope, though. The diversification of our food sources, which seems to be happening at a faster pace these days, will help to reduce our dependence on any one source in case of future shocks.
To the extent that we diversify the food economy, we will be that much more resilient. Because there will be shocks. We know that. We saw that last summer with the shock of high oil prices. There will be other shocks. We may have the shock of the collapsing honey bee population. We may have the shock of epidemic diseases coming off of feed lots. We’re going to need alternatives around.
Some stimulus money is going to support non-conventional farming practices, but at the same time legislation might make it harder for small farms to thrive.
Pollan, I’m sure, would agree that we must continue to vote with our forks. And, we have to hope that governmental food policy will make easier for the food insecure to do the same.
July 6, 2009
Tags: agriculture, Barack Obama, change, farmers, FDA, food, food safety, Health, nutrition, policy, USDA Posted in: Health, Politics, Science & Technology
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