People Putting Food First #108

1. Tax Dollars Fueling Food Prices: Your Rebate has already been spent!
2. Innovations in Backyard gardening
3. Walking Out on the Hungry?
Biotech industry withdraws from international agriculture assessment
4. Michael Pollan’s Advice on Eating Healthy
New at www.foodfirst.org Presidential candidates continue to promote agrofuels as food prices rise

1. Tax Dollars Fueling Food Prices: Your Rebate has already been spent!

If you are a typical family of four, your food bill likely increased by about $2,400 last year. Why?

FACT: Ethanol is helping drive food prices out of control without lowering the price of gas—Corn planted for ethanol competes for farmland with corn for food production and with other food crops. This drives up the price of all food crops, especially those that contain corn products—which is most of our processed food. Meat is more expensive because our beef cattle eat corn, not grass. Food prices have increased by 25% over last year! Gas prices still went up by 80%...

FACT: Our taxes are used to increase food costs—Without government mandates and subsidies, the ethanol industry would collapse. Last year subsidies for ethanol and biodiesel reached between $5.5 and $7.3 billion. We are paying to have our food prices go up!

FACT: Record high food prices hurt families—A moderate food budget for a family of four costs an average of $46 more per week this year than last. Even if you receive a $600 tax rebate this year, the money won't come close reimbursing your extra food costs due to ethanol production.

Tell the government to stop subsidizing higher food prices!
1- Call your congressperson: www.congress.org
2- Sign the moratorium on ethanol and other agriculturally derived fuels at www.foodfirst.org

2. Innovations in Backyard gardening

Most Americans eat food that is produced and distributed in a flagrantly unsustainable system. The solution to widespread sustainable food is clear: it’s not one solution, but many.

One such innovation, Your Backyard Farmers, started by Robyn Streeter and Donna Smith in Portland, Oregon, is a variation on Community Supported Agriculture where one farm supplies subscribers with fresh, seasonal food. Robyn and Donna are using their horticultural experience to start and manage backyard gardens for their customers. Donna says, “As we grow, so does the community’s ability to feed itself.”

Donna and Robyn advise, “For those who want to get into small-scale urban farming, they would need to be extremely organized, have a great partner who compliments your strengths and weaknesses. Be flexible and willing to make changes. Stay on top of your weeds, and keep planting.”

Since they began, Donna and Robyn have helped start similar enterprises in Washington State and Washington D.C., saying, “Our vision is to see a web of small farms, throughout our country, creating food security within all city environments.” Asked about food sovereignty, they responded, “We believe…it is the right of all consumers to control their food and nutrition source. Each of our farms helps families define their needs and food choices while creating food security for them. Healthy harvests equal healthy peoples.”

To learn more about “Your Backyard Farmer”, check out http://www.yourbackyardfarmer.com/ and
http://www.farm-garden.com/csafarmer/your_backyard_farmer
http://www.swcommconnection.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=117346673...
http://www.thebeenews.com/news/story.php?story_id=117530707415526900

3. Walking Out on the Hungry?
Biotech industry withdraws from international agriculture assessment

Biotechnology giants Monsanto and Syngenta recently pulled out of the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology (IAAST), prompting the journal Nature to ask whether the two companies are “deserting the hungry.” The IAAST panel is hoping to be for global agriculture and hunger what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is for global warming. So how did two of the program's founding members come to withdraw?

The IAAST's broad mission is to map how science, technology, and agricultural knowledge can be used to reduce hunger and improve rural livelihoods in the developing world, with the goal to influence global agricultural planning. Their draft report, on which over 4,000 experts from government officials, farmer's groups, seven UN agencies, multiple NGO's, industry groups, and independent scientists commented, was “decidedly lukewarm” about the potential of biotechnology to relieve hunger or rural poverty. The report devotes more space to biotechnology's risks than its potential benefits and outlines worries about biotech's future domination of agricultural research. The fact that biotechnology alone cannot reduce hunger and rural poverty is widely accepted among agricultural scientists and policy makers. It comes as a testament to the IAAST's process however, that this mainstream idea did not get plowed under by strong-arm “industry perspectives.” The virtual exclusion of biotechnology from the IAAST's toolbox is a good step toward genuine rural development. The meeting to approve the final report will be held in April. If the draft stands as is, Monsanto and Syngenta stand to lose public credibility, and perhaps, for once, the voice of the international community will include that of small farmers.

References:
“Deserting the Hungry” Nature. 451(7176) January 17, 2008

4. Michael Pollan’s Advice on Eating Healthy

Michael Pollan’s latest book, In Defense of Food, picks up where Omnivore’s Dilemma left off. His 12 commandments to healthy eating are:
1) Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
2) Avoid foods containing ingredients you can't pronounce.
3) Don't eat anything that won't eventually rot.
4) Avoid food products that carry health claims.
5) Shop the outside isles of the supermarket; stay out of the middle.
6) Better yet, buy food somewhere else: the farmers' market or CSA.
7) Pay more, eat less.
8) Eat a wide variety of species.
9) Eat food from animals that eat grass.
10) Cook, and if you can, grow some of your own food.
11) Eat meals, and eat them only at tables. 12) Eat deliberately, with other people whenever possible, and always with pleasure.

A new book by Claire Hope Cummings, Uncertain Peril: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Seeds will be released in March by Beacon Press. You can request a special order from you local bookstore or ask you library to purchase a copy.

You can also learn how to avoid buying and consuming GMO food here:
http://www.truefoodnow.org/shoppersguide/
To join with other in opposing genetically engineered food check out these organizations:
http://www.foodfirst.org/taxonomy/term/123