Comments jcdwyer has made

  • Strange Bedfellows

    This conversation is great example of the basic problem with omnibus bills - having to lump the good with the bad.

    All these years, anti-hunger advocates have thanked their lucky stars that the fate of food stamps is tied to rural farm concerns, as it has saved the program from being axed countless times.

    Steph's comments remind me that these power dynamics go both ways - now big ag. is the one taking advantage of the nutrition title as a shield. They are banking on people like me and my urban legislators to argue that we should accept the deterioration of sustainable agriculture in order to bring about massive positive change for the poor.

    It's rough, because at the end of the day you do have to make a yes/no decision on a bill that is guaranteed to hurt someone - that is "morally wrong" for someone. That will be the case whether we do it now, in one year, or in five years.

    But as long as more than 60% of the bill in question is geared towards the poor, and the bill positively affects the lives of 35 million people, I'm going to be in favor of it. Yes, even if at the end of the day sustainable ag gets screwed.

    That sounds harsh, but this "either/or" decision was basically made for me the moment the national anti-hunger players decided not to oppose big ag. I was hoping that the sustainable ag community plus bit players like my food bank would have enough momentum to change the conversation, but it turned out changing the conversation wasn't enough - you need the raw power, too.  

    As a result, this farm bill has convinced me that the trick going forward will be to re-unite the anti-hunger and sustainable ag. camps under the currently nebulous banner of food justice, and turn the "either/or" question into a "both." Remember, at its inception CFSC was very much about having it both ways, and that crystal cracked only with the rise of the emergency food network / A2H and the notion that hunger is about wasted calories, not political power.

    By convincing the more powerful of the two camps (A2H & FRAC, to be blunt) that they have enough grassroots support to safely take a more progressive stance on sustainable agriculture, we can build the coalition that can bring big ag. down. Sadly, it's just not going to happen this time.

    On a positive note, I think we're off to a great start. We did get all those editorials, and all those legislators to sit up and listen. We did change the conversation. Now the trick is to build on that conversation with each other, harness the anti-hunger juggernaut and guide it towards food justice, not just hunger relief.

    It will be tough (after all, the same relationships between big ag and gov't exist between big ag and food banks), and I don't know whether we should start at the top or go food bank by food bank, but I think this is the right way to proceed.

    jcOn How should sustainable-food advocates respond to the latest farm bill proposal? posted 1 year, 6 months ago 25 Responses

  • Pass it.

    Congress needs to pass this bill now for two reasons:

    1) We've done what we can.
    Folks, we have mobilized the entire sustainable ag. movement, created a pantheon of new stakeholders in Congress, gotten favorable editorials from every important newspaper in the nation, and enjoy the support of a Republican (!) president, yet this is as far as we have come. Is it disappointing? Yes. Is it improvable? Not in the short term. For those waiting for a new administration, remember that it was Senate Democrats who scuttled the final broad attempts at reform, and neither of the two Democratic presidential candidates has opined on this issue (both are also receiving big. ag money). We need to build on our successes in this round, and create the towering support that will be needed to topple the big ag. lobby in five years.

    2) Hungry people need a farm bill now.
    I know there's not a lot of love lost between the anti-hunger and sustainable ag camps, seeing as we abandoned you all so early in the process. For those of us in the middle, the process has been...frustrating. But the simple fact is that food banks all over the nation, including my own in South Texas, are running out of food. This is no PR gimmick. The food and gas price hikes, deteriorating food stamps benefits and disappearance of USDA commodities have gutted our shelves the same way they have gutted the pantries of the millions of Americans for whom we are the last stop before real, debilitating hunger. These people can't wait a year for the billions in aid that the farm bill represents. Yes, this may seem to be sacrificing long-term goals for short-term gain, but remember, people can't eat long-term goals.

    Child Nutrition Authorization provides another real opportunity for change in 2009. I recommend we pass the farm bill, and then get back to work calling for change.

    JC Dwyer
    Director of Public Policy
    South Texas Food Bank
    Laredo, TXOn How should sustainable-food advocates respond to the latest farm bill proposal? posted 1 year, 6 months ago 25 Responses