A (food) chain of problems

In watching an interview with Bill Moyers following the 2008 Presidential election, it was quite apparent that author Michael Pollan feels that the state of the U.S. food industry should be a central focus for President Obama when attempting to create change in our country. This was another reminder for me in how massive this issue of food safety is. While the problems might start at the top, they definitely infiltrate across every mouth in the nation.

Within the brief 20 minute interview, the many issues with food in our country were discussed, proving that the way food is managed by our government and the few major companies involved, affects each and every individual. Because of the decisions being made in agribusiness there are now 32 million Americans who are struggling to put food on their tables. Unfortunately, a lack of food is not the only problem. The decreasing quality of the food we eat is equally detrimental to society.

The sad fact is that although cheap food is readily available in our country, according to Pollan, it is actually extremely expensive. The costs of cheap food include farm subsidies, pollution effects and quality of water, all of which lead to public health consequences of obesity, Type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Pollan includes costs to the atmosphere in this list, deeming agribusiness as the biggest contributor to green house gases. It seems that every way we turn, change is desperately needed.

Through this interview, Pollan urges Obama to look at the problems with the food industry through a global perspective that is interdisciplinary in nature. Without doing so, Pollan believes that he will be missing an opportunity to look at what is possibly the most important question, how do all of these dots connect?

What’s Organic about Organic?

Something for the food folk to watch.

An eye-opening and mouth watering inquiry

As we embark on our summer of studying the local food movement in Seattle, I have become more conscious of the role that food has in my life. Besides the basic nourishment factor, my life truly does revolve around food. Growing up and still today, my family plans their days, especially holidays, around what we are going to eat together. Every Sunday my parents spend the entire day cooking spaghetti sauce on a brick on their stove and on special occasions, such as every Christmas Eve dinner, they accompany the sauce with homemade raviolis. Each year before the holiday season, I start to dream of ravioli and when the day arrives to start the dough and meat rolling process, I finally feel that twinge of holiday spirit.

As I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I am recognizing how even though food has always been a central part of my life, it has been there in a somewhat superficial or incomplete manner. I have never been aware, or actually really thought about, where my food was coming from. Although the food we ate was bought from the grocery store chain around the corner, I was always under the impression that what we ate as a family was healthy and even, “pure” because the meals were homemade instead of a frozen meal from Market Day. Because cooking is a large part of my family’s culture, the act of being together while you create a meal was what always stuck out as important but the rest of the story went untold.

In reading this book which accounts for a year in the lives of a family who vows to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves or learn to live without it, my notions of the sanctity of food and the connections it can build between family and community are being transformed. The act of cooking is without a doubt significant to the author’s family and their local food journey, but it is taken to a new level since there is a story, and even a relationship, between the family and each and every tomato chopped, egg boiled and Thanksgiving turkey carved. Through this inquiry project, I am coming to learn quickly that I have been missing the most important chunk of the story of food and it feels embarrassing, intriguing and overwhelming. I’m watching myself read each chapter of this book with increased admiration to the farmers whose livelihood it is to keep us fed and a new found concern as to what corporations are controlling one of our most basic human needs.

Reflecting on Food Inc.

As part of our inquiry into the local food movement our group viewed the film Food Inc. This film compares agribusiness (http://www.tyson.com/ ) to small-scale sustainable organic farming (http://www.polyfacefarms.com/ ). The current state of the American food did not happen overnight and did not happen by accident. In this documentary the viewer is taken into factory farms to witness the conditions that these animals suffer in for their brief life. I found this film to be a good starting point but it did not delve deep enough into any one point, it is a good reference but a mediocre educational tool. Not to mention as we discussed after the film the only people willing to shell out the time and money to see this film are those who are already informed and interested, that is just preaching to the choir.

As far as the solution their main point is that the consumer votes at the register. I see the underlying problem as the consumer who is unaware of the systemic problems involved in buying a big mac and is not interested in a lifestyle change.

Somehow we have gotten to a point where most Americans have no clue where there food comes from and in many instances what exactly is in it. So what can we do? Personally I buy much of my produce at farmers markets I read labels and I ask questions. Change takes time but thankfully pandemic diseases move quickly. People need to support sustainable farming and we all need to start asking a lot more questions about where are food comes from.

If I were in charge I would require edible roof gardens installed on any building that can support it.

Local Food Movement Inquiry

Group members- Elise Child, Samantha Woodward and Erin Mercier

Learning Intentions:

• To gain a systemic understanding of not only the history of food processing but the economics and unintended consequences behind agribusiness
• To learn what is happening locally both in organic and factory farms
• To formulate a clear understanding of the media's role in the misconception of organic and local
• To gain hands on experience with organic urban farming