From Farmers Markets to Farm Bills: Michael Pollan speaks at Bioneers

Michael Pollan, Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley and acclaimed author on food systems was among the speakers who kicked off the first day of the 17th annual Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, California. Mr. Pollan began by talking about the virtues of farmer’s markets and argued passionately for people to become involved with the 2007 U.S. Farm Bill. Like many food justice activists, Mr. Pollen recognizes that the multi-billion dollar Farm Bill is also a Food Bill that profoundly affects the livelihoods and the diets of millions of people in the U.S. and the Global South.

Making a strong case for food sovereignty, Pollen looks to building strong local economies based on transforming local food systems to pull out of the “total economy” of industrial agriculture and the agri-foods industry. “The most important politics today are being transacted in farmers markets… Local food is one of the most important political movements,” he affirmed. However, Pollan warned against corporate organic food which he claimed was “going the way of clothes and electronics” with the emergence of “organic feed lots.”

It was refreshing to hear Michael Pollan at Bioneers. Assuming that organic food is socially just, economically equitable and environmentally sound—in other words, “sustainable”—is a common mistake made by many consumers. There is nothing sustainable about organic feedlots or winter organic vegetables shipped in from the Global South. For that matter, there is nothing sustainable about a food system that depends on the systematic exploitation of undocumented migrant labor—organic or otherwise.

But these are the symptoms, not the causes of the dysfunctional food system that has created 36 million food insecure people in the United States. These people are not only unsure of their next meal, they also suffer from an epidemic of diet-related diseases, including obesity, heart disease and type 2 diabetes. This pattern is being reproduced throughout the world, putting the Global South’s 850 million hungry people at further nutritional risk. For organic food to be sustainable, and for it to become the rule rather than the exception, it will have to be accessible to the poor in the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Pollan is right on target when he emphasizes the importance of food sovereignty and local food economies, which he likens to “voting with our forks.” He is also right when he insists that eating right is not enough. The reason organic and sustainably farmed food is not accessible to the majority of the world’s consumers is because the rules of the game are skewed against sustainable production and consumption.

As Pollan points out, the “rules” for how food is produced and consumed are largely set by the U.S. Farm Bill that subsidizes agri-industry with approximately $11.3 billion/yr in subsidies to corn, cotton, wheat, rice and soybeans. These commodities feed industrial beef and poultry, produce the high-fructose corn sweeteners that form the basis for cheap junk foods, and supply giant grain companies like Cargill with the volume they need to dump grain internationally, destroying the local markets of smallholders in the Global South.

But some $50 billion dollars of the Farm Bill is also spent for food programs including food stamps, child nutrition, school food programs, and community food projects. The combination of subsidizing commodities on one hand, and distributing the surplus on the other, makes the U.S. Farm Bill an agri-foods bill with a wide-ranging impact on all aspects of local and global food systems. Food and rural advocate groups across the country are meeting to discuss the Farm Bill. As Michael Pollan observes, urban-based legislators will be trading their votes on this bill for other things they may want. In an election year (with the national budget facing a huge deficit), it is important for farm and food advocates to inform themselves and find ways of presenting integrated demands for a Farm Bill that promotes just, sustainable food systems.

A community Farm Bill Forum will be held on Saturday, October 28, 2006, 9-5 at the Oakland, CA USA YWCA at 1515 Webster St. For details consult the calendar below.