Okay, earlier tonight I promised you grilling with a naked Iceland-bound blogger (and her mom). And I will give you this. Or at least a brief description of something like this. BUT NOT YET. Instead, I interrupt this blog to bring you an article that you should — nay, MUST — read. Right this minute.
Regular readers know that I am just a little bit in love with deeply admiring of Michael Pollan, author of the best book you will ever read about food. And guess what? I think he loves me, too He’s come out with a terrific article in today’s Times Magazine that explains, in a nutshell, why the least expensive food in the supermarket is also the worst for us.
The article is about the Farm Bill, and the choices we make as a nation to subsidize the least-nutritious commodity agricultural products, at the expense of the healthy stuff. He describes (again, in a nutshell) the consequences that these choices have on our health, as well as our environment, immigration policy, our schools, and more.
Regular readers will also note that this article is similar to a recent post of mine on the cost of eating well. This is because he loves me, he loves me, I really think he loves me he has been a huge influence on how I eat and how I blog. And maybe we were made for each other if you like what I have to say here, you might just want to contact your elected officals and demand a Farm Bill (or, as Pollan calls it, a Food Bill) that makes it a little easier for you, and your kids, and your neighbors, and your fellow citizens, to be healthy.
Seriously. If you read just one thing today, make it Pollan’s article. Then? Tell him I really, really kinda’ think he’s neato Buy his book.
Loved the article, but I need a clearer call to action. WHAT elected officials should we contact – what do we need to ask for? I want the world to change but I need explicit instructions!
I’d like to join you in forming the Michael Pollan fan club. Can we make T-shirts? Healthy, organic pot pies with his likeness lovingly rendered in crust cutouts?
Okay, the easiest way that I’ve found to contact your elected official is here: http://act.oxfamamerica.org/campaign/farmbill – you literally don’t even need to know who your elected officals are – they take your state and zip and get it where it needs to go.
There’s a letter that you can edit. It doesn’t mention anything specifically about factory farms, so I edited mine to say:
“This year, I — like millions of Americans — am paying close attention to the Farm Bill. I want my nation’s farm bill to contribute to the health of America – including the health of individuals, the environment, and communities. This requires that you support a Farm Bill that:
- Helps small, local farmers grow fresh, nutrition-rich produce.
- Makes fruits and vegetables more affordable than highly-processed foods from commodity farmers.
- No longer allows the majority of agricultural subsidies go toward low-nutrition commodity products. Rather, the Farm Bill must shift taxpayers’ support to farmers who are actually growing foods that nourish our health, not just fill our bellies.
- Encourages sustainable husbandry and moves away from industrial feedlots that contribute to food-borne pathogens like E. coli and salmonella, as well as environmental problems like ecological dead zones.
- Ensures that the foods we serve our children in schools are high-quality, natural and healthful.
- Reduces our dependence on foreign oil by encouraging local food distribution systems, so that the average American dinner no longer travels 1,500 miles from farm to plate.
It is inexcusable that the real price of fruits and vegetables between 1985 and 2000 increased by nearly 40 percent, while the real price of soft drinks (a k a liquid corn) declined by 23 percent. In this context, our nation’s obesity crisis should surprise no one. And it’s time for a change.
Devised during the Great Depression, the Farm Bill was designed to give American farmers a safety net when the market bottomed out. Today’s Farm Bill gives out large government payments to producers of a small number of crops. Most American farmers get little or none of these commodity subsidies. Meanwhile, these subsidies don’t alleviate the biggest problems in rural communities: lack of medical services, poor schools, population loss, and environmental degradation.
While the Farm Bill underperforms in the US, it also hurts farmers in developing countries. By encouraging the overproduction of crops such as cotton and rice, commodity subsidies create a glut that drives down world prices, undermining the livelihoods of millions of small farmers around the world.
All in all, a revamped 2007 Farm Bill can help poor people and rural communities in the US and abroad lift themselves out of poverty. It will also make our nation healthier. Together with your other constituents, I urge you to reduce misguided agriculture subsidies and redirect the money to the programs that need it most: conservation, nutrition, rural development, and the research and development of renewable sources of energy.
Thank you for your time.”
Feel free to copy word-for-word, or edit.
I, like Niki, need explicit instructions. Thanks for the letter. You can bet I will be using it.
I read the Times article to my husband and it got our blood boiling. Thanks for bringing information like this to our attention. It helps to have things as complicated as this subject is, spelled out for us.
Yes, this is a good deed done. Off to steal your letter and send it as my own…
Oh, and Cheryl? I’m with you on that fan club. Maybe our t-shirts should read “A bald guy with thick glasses rocks my world.” We’d be a hit at farmer’s markets all across the country!