President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress can't afford to turn their attention to reforming the food system.
We've got two wars to fight, the Middle East conflict is raging again, the financial system is in chaos, and layoffs are mounting. And don't forget the likelihood of trillion-dollar annual budget deficits for years to come. Food, it's clear, is just too banal when matched up against those challenges.
That's the conventional wisdom, anyway.
Even some veteran food-reform advocates accept the "food-must-wait" logic. "I think it's somewhere between naïve and fairy tale to think [Obama's] No. 1 focus is going to be on food," Ann Cooper recently told The New York Times. Cooper is the "renegade lunch lady" who's made a mission of turning public-school cafeterias into places where people actually cook nutritious food. When someone as bold as she preaches patience, it's time to sit up and take note.
But while food can't be the nation's No. 1 priority, we can no longer afford to keep it on the back burner, either. As Michael Pollan made clear in his widely read open letter to the next president last fall, our food system contributes mightily to problems that have been bedeviling our society for decades and show no sign of letting up: dependence on greenhouse gas-spewing petroleum, violent entanglements in the regions where that resource is concentrated, and a flailing, unjust health care system.
Pollan deftly defined the food system as a prime leverage point. Reform it, he argued, and you create opportunities to really treat these on-the-verge-of-metastasizing maladies. Ignore it, he warned, and we lurch ever closer to climate and public-health catastrophes.
Spice Up the Stimulus Package
So the conventional wisdom is wrong; food-system reform can't wait. But how do we elevate it on the national agenda when the political class is focused on other things? I have an idea that wouldn't require a radically new program or a major expenditure of political capital.
Obama has already argued that a comprehensive "stimulus package" -- a mammoth government expenditure, fiscal deficit be damned -- is necessary to revive the economy as it stumbles into the worst recession in at least a generation. The president-elect reckons that the package -- a combination of new spending and tax cuts -- will cost between $775 million and $1.2 trillion.
This represents a stunningly large claim on the nation's resources. The new administration and Congress are obligated to spend it in ways that don't just create immediate jobs, but that also generate positive ripple effects for decades to come. At this point, the great bulk of expenditures seems destined to flow toward repairing the nation's creaking road-and-bridge infrastructure.
But a better use would be to dedicate a large portion of the stimulus to infrastructure that bolsters local and regional food systems. Despite the dramatic recent success of farmers markets, CSAs, and other initiatives, the great bulk of the food consumed in this country is grown in chemical-intensive monocrops, processed until it's unrecognizable, and hauled vast distances in highway-chewing, greenhouse gas-spewing trucks. As I've argued so many times, that's because our nation has spent decades building a food infrastructure geared to industrial production.
Think Locally, Act Infrastructurally
As the food industry consolidated over the past half century -- aided by the federal government through generous subsidies to commodity farmers and lax antitrust enforcement -- local and regional-scale slaughterhouses, canneries, and dairy-processing plants were the economic victims. Reviving that infrastructure would significantly lower costs for the sort of pasture-based, sustainable meat farmers who are now badly undercut on price by large-scale, environmentally ruinous producers. The legendary Virginia farmer Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm reckons that having to haul his cows to a distant slaughterhouse adds a dollar a pound to the price of his grass-fed beef. Why not make federal grants to rebuild the missing facilities that sustainable-minded farmers need to thrive?
Here's another idea: reinvest in school-cafeteria kitchens. Starting in the Reagan era, the federal government stopped funding school kitchen equipment. From that time on, cafeterias had to finance themselves through sales of food. As a result, schools began to turn kitchens into reheating centers for stuff like pre-fab chicken nuggets. Once staffed by trained cooks, cafeterias became the domain of button-pushing clerks. A generation of school children was thus exposed to flavorless, nutritionally empty food.
Let's use the stimulus package as the occasion for a new, major investment in school kitchens. And to help staff the newly outfitted kitchens and teach the clerks to cook, the government should launch a Teach for America-style program to lure in newly minted cooking school graduates. (After all, new chefs may have trouble finding work at fancy restaurants over the next few years.)
These are just a few ideas for how the stimulus could be used to bolster local and regional food networks. The truth is that any effective effort to do this will vary widely by region and be accompanied by serious on-the-ground consultation with alternative food-system actors across the country.
Obama has so far shown little appetite for taking on the vested interests that control our food, as evidenced by his choice of a corn-belt politician with agribusiness ties to be the next USDA chief. But maybe he needn't confront those forces directly. As the design innovator Buckminster Fuller wrote, "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
The stimulus gives the new president and Congress the opportunity to give a decisive boost to ongoing efforts to create a new food system. I hope they take it while it's hot.
Meanwhile, I'd like to hear Grist readers' ideas for how the stimulus spending can be used to improve the local food system. Together, maybe we can come up with ideas so good that Washington can't ignore them. The comments section below awaits your thoughts.
Climate Citizen: Michael Pollan on agriculture and health care
Tweet for the bees
Cash for Clunkers brought us ... more clunkers!
Comments
View as Threaded
jnschmidt Posted 2:39 pm
08 Jan 2009
Could the government find a way to stimulate the economic AND the dietary health of our inner cities? I think any economic stimulus should include, at a minimum, funds to help communities start urban farms. Farmers' markets are not enough. I think the way people view their neighborhood fundamentally changes when they see that it can provide nourishment where there was desolation. And not only should government get back in the business of running the school lunch program, but schools, wherever possible, should have students growing fruit and veggies right there on campus.
Permalink
CyberBrook Posted 4:10 am
09 Jan 2009
This is important stuff and the government needs to fork it over. So do we.
We need to transition more to vegetarianism and away from factory farms, more toward organic and biodynamic and away from chemicals and hormones and genetically engineered, we need to support whole foods and not subsidize corn and sugar, we need to support farmers markets and CSAs, more biodiversity and heirloom varieties, healthier school lunches as we decrease fast foods and other junk foods, we need to support the small and local, including community gardens, and not subsidize huge agro-business and McDonald's and their icky ilk.
Doing these things will help stimulate the economy as it stimulates our environment (reducing global warming and deforestation) and our health as well as our learning and productivity.
Keep the pressure on Obama and the Congress, for sure, but also do what you can to make positive personal changes. You voted for change in November; now vote with your dollars and your words.
Permalink
E. Melanie DuPuis Posted 8:34 am
09 Jan 2009
Can we make a similar argument for regional food compacts, using state constitutional rights and agricultural marketing rights gained in the New Deal? Can we apply dairy market order law to other forms of food localization?
I'm just throwing this out as a way for us to think about localization from a more national perspective.
Permalink
SnoDragon Posted 11:58 am
09 Jan 2009
As for the cooking-school-grad program (which I think should be called Cook for America!), I think it's a great idea. But there also need to be professionals trained in menu planning, budgeting, and nutrition in charge.
I think Michael Pollan is absolutely correct in pointing out that by addressing many of our issues with food, we can solve or alleviate other problems caused by or indirectly affected by our industrial agriculture. I also strongly believe that a new agricultural policy should focus on smaller and medium-sized family farms and reward them for efforts toward sustainability, while making it harder for large, conglomerate factory farms to survive (or at least bringing their prices up, particularly of processed foods, to reflect real costs!).
Thanks for another great article, Tom!
Permalink
Norm Ruttan Posted 12:20 am
10 Jan 2009
Permalink
Rebecca T of HonestMeat Posted 1:32 am
10 Jan 2009
Use some of the stimulus money to fully fund the Beginning Farmer & Rancher program of the USDA, which includes a myriad of programs aimed at strengthening and recruiting new farmers, including Individual Savings Accounts which encourages savings.
Increase funding for the USDA Community Food Program, which usually gets about 80-85% more proposals submitted than there is funding. CFPs inspire innovative food security projects and businesses in both urban and rural areas, providing healthier food options and economic development at the same time.
Either through USDA Rural Development or through the Economic Development Administration, create a grant & loan program to build food and agricultural incubators in cities and in the country. Business incubators have proven to create more sustainable businesses and employment opportunities.
Dramatically expand the USDA Value-Added Producer Program to include more capital cost funding and include building needed food infrastructure such as abattoirs, butcher shops, cold-storage facilities, and the like.
Permalink
natureguru Posted 12:45 pm
10 Jan 2009
Change can also happen from the bottom up. With the help of the economic stimulus, funding for research and development of more sustainable farming and distribution methods should be a priority. In addition, local co-ops and CSA's would benefit from assistance, as large supermarket chains make it more difficult for them to compete. How about tax breaks for smaller, private food companies to provide more coupons to consumers? Healthier food is often more expensive, but coupons are hard to come by. I love your idea about bringing real kitchens and real cooks back to public schools. Funding programs that also educate parents and children on the whys and wherefores of healthy eating are also needed, however, if we're to expect them to actually eat healthier. Old habits die hard.
We can't count on the USDA or the Farm Bill to save us from undernourishment. The forces of evil agribusiness and chemical companies are very strong. Although we should never stop writing letters and signing petitions, we can do our part by returning to a simpler, healthier way of life. By growing our own food, supporting local co-ops, recycling, and learning how to cook and eat seasonally, we can live a life more in balance with nature, and still eat well.
Permalink
cfielding Posted 3:05 am
11 Jan 2009
Food Policy Councils have been popping up in many corners of the U.S. These are local entities that help bring together many local forces to improve the community food system. They can help farmers markets to get started, provide workshops for beginning farmers, help improve the chances of low income residents in getting local food (WIC and foodstamps accepted at farmers markets), initiating farm-to-school programs, etc. One that is pretty impressive is the Missoula County Community and Agriculture Coalition at: http://www.missoulacfac.org/ One way that these entities fail apart or are hindered is a lack of funding. It seems though that with federal funding, these community organizations could really do more work. A federal program that funded these local "Departments of Food" would be a great way to ensure that federal agencies and big agribusiness are not so in control of local resources. A cookie cutter program aimed at improving local food systems will by no means solve local food issues. They must be personal, small, and local in order to meet the needs of local community members.
So, thank you Tom and everyone else who is working for a more equitable food system.
Permalink
Viking Posted 12:36 pm
11 Jan 2009
Jerry Peckumn,farmer
Jefferson, Iowa
Permalink
zenjen Posted 12:41 am
12 Jan 2009
We are farmers in NY State and would love to see more support of this. I would love to see farm programs in our schools but a significant challenge is the weather! We grow vegetables and we do extend the season with greenhouses, but the demand, of course, is highest in cold months when it comes to schools and lowest when production is highest.
On another note about localization... Our neighbor is an organic dairy farmer and would like to keep his product local. So he offered to sell directly to schools. The red tape to make that happen made it impossible. He sells to Organic Valley instead and his milk travels long distances to his consumers.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not naysaying any localization effort and I'm continuting to try to figure it out. We live in a fairly depressed area and it is amazing to me how poorly folks around me eat even though most grew up in farming families. And even more amazing is how ignorant their kids are about where their food comes from. So I'm trying to be part of the change and the solution. I just get snagged on the weather and timing issues (as well as the red tape issues). So if anyone has ideas on how to bust through these challenge I welcome them!
Thanks! (And I appreciate all the good comments before mine!)
Permalink
barthanderson Posted 1:40 am
12 Jan 2009
http://www.fairfoodfight.com/blog/el-drag%C3%B3n/kirk-smi ...
A Farm to Hospital initiative also might mean providing grants and tax cuts to hospitals and nursing homes that re-outfit their buying systems and kitchens to actually, you know, cook real food, rather than just opening industrial tubs of peanut butter and pre-processed food from vegetable chop shops.
I might be jumping the gun. This ALL might necessitate federal funds for research showing that hospital kitchens serving nutritious and lower-risk food are better clients for insurance companies to insure.
Permalink
bigqin Posted 7:09 pm
13 Jan 2009
Permalink
kali jones Posted 10:02 am
15 Jan 2009
Permalink
Mechanix Posted 1:50 pm
29 Jan 2009
Political Forum
Permalink
Mechanix Posted 3:53 am
31 Jan 2009
Memory Upgrade for Compaq Proliant
Permalink