The Food Issue December 31, 2008

In An Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief, recently published in the New York Times, author Michael Pollan addresses what he believes President-elect Obama needs to do to repair the American food system. Excerpts below are from his letter:

If we wish address major problems such as health care crisis, energy independence or climate change, we will have to change the the way that we currently grow, process and eat food in America. This is at the heart of all three problems.

“…the current food system — characterized by monocultures of corn and soy in the field and cheap calories of fat, sugar and feedlot meat on the table — is not simply the product of the free market. Rather, it is the product of a specific set of government policies that sponsored a shift from solar (and human) energy on the farm to fossil-fuel energy.”

As a result:

• It takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce a single calorie of modern supermarket food.
• After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy, ranging from 19% to as much as 37%. This includes  chemical fertilizers (made from natural gas), pesticides (made from petroleum), farm machinery, food processing, packaging and transportation.
• Four of the top 10 killers in America today are chronic diseases linked to diet: heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and cancer. Coincidentally, national health care spending increased to 16% since 1960.
• In the past several months more than 30 nations have experienced food riots, and so far one government has fallen. Should high grain prices persist and shortages develop, you can expect to see the pendulum shift decisively away from free trade, at least in food.
• We have little control over the safety of imported foods. The deliberate contamination of our food presents a national-security threat.
• Subsidized monocultures of grain also led directly to monocultures of animals

Michael Pollan’s proposals:

1. Resolarize the American Farm – Commodity farmers should instead be encouraged to grow as many different crops — including animals — as possible. Reward farmers for planting cover crops. Make municipal composting of food and yard waste mandatory and distribute the compost free to farmers. Ban the use of antibiotics in animal feed and regulate animal waste from feedlots just like pollutants from any factory.
2. Reregionalize the Food System – Create four-season farmers markets; create Agricultural Enterprise Zones so that local farmers can operate with less red tape than the largest producers; create local Meat-Inspection Corps for regional slaughter facilities; establish a strategic grain reserve; regionalize Federal food procurement; create a Federal definition of “Food”; open food subsidy programs to farmers’ markets and CSA’s.
   
3. Rebuild America’s Food Culture – Create a national initiative to educate our children about food; plant gardens in elementary schools; increase school lunch spending by $1 per pupil per day so they can eat real, not fast, food; have the surgeon general assume the role of educating the American public about food instead of the USDA; push for transparency in food labeling, including the cost in terms of oil, chemicals, the feedlot, the slaughter house. Let people know where their food comes from and how it got there; set an example at the White House from the chef, to choice of regional foods to a garden on the east lawn.

Let’s hope President-elect Barack Obama is listening.

Watch Bill Moyers’ interview with Michael Pollan

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