While I don’t necessarily believe that Big Food really wants to make their food healthier, we all have to acknowledge that in our culture, healthy food has become synonymous with bad tasting food.

Yes, that’s sometimes true.  But it is becoming less and less true.  And often we like the things we like, aka high fat and salt content, because we’re used it, and probably wouldn’t miss it once we’ve become acclimated to less.

I’ve been out bacheloretting this weekend and have been a very bad blogger.  While I’ve been gone, many are abuzz with the new cover story from Time “Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food“. It’s a mammoth article which I have not gotten completely through yet.  The pork industry has though, and they don’t like it one bit. The editorial “Time Trashes American Agriculture“, from Pork Magazine has all sorts of scathing, caustic retorts to the piece, although it is laughably short on rebuttals.

Obviously, Time thinks it appropriate that American agriculture discontinue feeding as many people as it currently does at a reasonable cost. After all, what do they have to worry about? Those who are priced out of Time’s idyllic food production scenario likely are neither subscribers to their magazine nor customers of their advertisers.

The article laments the fact that “American farmers now produce an astounding 153 bushels of corn per acre.” The reader is led to believe that it would be much better if the yield was half of that, with our “cattle chewing contentedly on the pasture.”

The “story” leads the reader to wonder if the author or editorial staff of Time have ever produced an ounce of food for themselves or others, or if all their ramblings are tossed in from the sideline. They are not part of the solution of feeding people, they are part of the problem.

Big Ag really is starting to sound like a broken record.  Have a problem with our food system?  You are anti-American and everything this country stands for.  Want our food system to be more sustainable?  You’re an elitist who wants everyone else to starve.

So, once more with feeling.  Our food system benefits big corporations, not small family farmers.  We produce more food than we could ever eat in the US.  However we produce calories, not nutrients and the ensuing health problems are killing us all.

It always breaks my heart a little when a great organic/local/sustainable company breaks out, sells out, then are completely shocked by what the new owners do to the product.

The move also puts an end to local production of the homegrown, iconic brand, which Mel Bankoff, a Philadelphia transplant, founded in Eugene in 1983.

“The best that I can hope for is that they continue to maintain the quality of the food and the organics and don’t, as they say, mess with the thing that’s created the success,” he said.

Bankoff sold Emerald Valley Kitchen in 2002 to Monterey, then Monterey Pasta Co., for $5.5 million. He stayed on to head Monterey’s organics division but said he grew disillusioned as top management changed and didn’t exhibit the commitment to organics and employees that he advocated.

Three years later, Bankoff resigned.

Now, as production leaves Eugene, “that’s the painful part for me,” said Bankoff, 58. “To see something that I dedicated a good part of my life to — it didn’t have the level of continuity and future that I had hoped it would have.”

So says Science Daily.  But only if you’re female.

Seriously, though, this is not that surprising.  If you live in a food desert and the only place near you to shop is the convenience store on the corner or the gas station down the street, where do you think those food stamps are going to be spent? Two things can be done here:

1) Subsidize farmers markets to be launched in areas defined as food deserts.

2) Double or triple the value of food stamps that are spent on fresh fruits and vegetables.

Of course, Big Food would never let our government do that.

This could be huge.  Ever since Nixon’s Agriculture Secretary proclaimed that farmers need to go big or get out, our food system has been a race of who could consoldate fastest. Well it seems that the Justice Department has finally taken notice, and are taking the first steps to doing something about it. From the press release:

Attorney General Eric Holder and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that the Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will hold joint public workshops to explore competition issues affecting the agriculture industry in the 21^st century and the appropriate role for antitrust and regulatory enforcement in that industry. These are the first joint Department of Justice/USDA workshops ever to be held to discuss competition and regulatory issues in the agriculture industry.

The joint Department of Justice/USDA workshops will address the dynamics of competition in agriculture markets including, among other issues, buyer power (also known as monopsony) and vertical integration. They will examine legal doctrines and jurisprudence and current economic learning, and will provide an opportunity for farmers, ranchers, consumer groups, processors, the agribusinesses, and other interested parties to provide examples of potentially anticompetitive conduct. The workshops will also provide an opportunity for discussion for any concerns about the application of the antitrust laws to the agricultural industry.

They are planning on starting the workshop series in early 2010.  While several of the meetings will be in DC, they are also plan on taking the show on the road, so to speak. The DOJ and the USDA also will be solicitng comments from the public.  This is a great time and place for those who care about the state of our food to make a stand and have their voices heard.  For those who want to attend the meetings or submit a comment:

The public and press are invited to attend the hearings. Additional information about the date, time and location of the workshops will be provided at a later date. Interested parties should submit written comments in both paper and electronic form to the Department of Justice no later than Dec. 31, 2009. All comments received will be publicly posted. Two paper copies should be addressed to the Legal Policy Section, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 450 5th Street, N.W., Suite 11700, Washington, D.C. 20001. The Department’s Antitrust Division is requesting that the paper copies of each comment be sent by courier or overnight service, if possible. The electronic version of each comment should be submitted to agriculturalworkshops@usdoj.gov. Detailed agendas and schedules for the workshops will be made available on the Antitrust Division’s web site at www.usdoj.gov/atr.

I can’t believe I am about to say this, but I agree with Mr. Big Ag lobbyist, Steve Kopperud.

We cannot and must not tolerate the rare producer, market, processor or other in the chain who, for whatever reason, can’t or don’t do the right thing. To turn a blind eye, mumble “the market will take him out,” is to avoid not only the business consequences of such avoidance, but it ignores the ethical mandate under which all of us in animal agriculture must operate.

We are not used to judging our neighbor’s operation, just as most of us don’t take kindly to unsolicited “advice” from someone who thinks he/she knows how we could do it “better.” But where there’s obviously a problem and the producer is for whatever reason unable to deal with it, then we have to act. To remain aloof is to reap the whirlwind of animals in need, negative publicity and the increasing likelihood of government intervention.

Just as we must constantly strive to improve our operations, we must constantly strive to help others in our industry do so as well. If a bad actor won’t accept the help that’s offered, and law enforcement or the media get a hold of the situation, then after investigation and the weighing of evidence, if the actor truly is “bad,” then we must be the first to stand and tell the consumer, “This is not business as usual for our industry. We do not tolerate such practices.”

As we so often say, “It’s just the right thing to do.”

What has the world come to?

I understand what she’s getting at, and to an extent family farms and farmers markets are already beginning to address agriculture diversity, but the issue is much more complicated than I think the author realizes.  Case in point: tuna. Second point: sturgeon.

While you can argue that fishing is sufficiently different from raising crops, the system itself is set up in such a way to discourage more varieties. Big Food does not want more varieties, they want less. It makes mass production easier and therefore cheaper.  So yes, people can vote with their wallets by buying rare and/or odd looking apple or carrot, but you’re not going to see that at your regular grocery store if Big Food can help it.

Michael Pollan makes the interesting case that if we really want true change in our food system, we need to pit Big Healthcare against Big Ag. It’s a compelling argument.  Wonder what Monsanto and Cargill will do when they find themselves toe-to-toe with Aetna and Blue Cross Blue Shield.

OK, this is pretty gross.  Chicken poop mountains:

Handling chicken waste has long been part of doing business in this watershed. For decades, farmers took clumps of bird droppings, bedding and feathers from the houses and spread them on their land as an inexpensive fertilizer for other crops. The two states sanctioned this by issuing the farmers permits, and the industry says no individual companies or farms have been accused of violating environmental regulations.

But Edmondson says the sheer volume of the waste spread on the land — estimated at 345,000 tons per year — has wreaked environmental havoc.

I feel for these people, I really do.  Corporations like Tysons roll into these extremely poor areas and promise them jobs if they would just house hundreds of thousands of chickens in their backyards.  And of course, its their own problem if they have no where to put the mountains of bird crap that gets produced.

Ah, externalities.  The (crumbling) foundation of American industries.

Wow. That was quick. Dave over at Food Democracy Now put out a call for action at 3:30pm Eastern Wednesday.  He warned us about the following:

Last week, Washington State University announced that it was pulling Michael Pollan’s best-selling book The Omnivore’s Dilemma from its required Common Reading Program for all incoming freshman due to pressure from corporate agribusiness.

This is a serious problem.  As we have seen from other huge, consolidated industries, squelching opposing views by applying monetary pressure to instutions is a classic big business play. Luckily for us, Dave was keeping a watchful eye and caught this quick before it started spreading to other universities. By 9:30, the verdict was in:

We just got off the phone with the Washington State University’s President’s office and congratulated them on the decision to reinstate Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, as part of their Common Reading Program.

Within hours of sending out our alert, we received the good news from a supporter named Lynn:

“The power of numbers! By the time I called, 3:21 Pacific, the president’s office told me that they’ve gotten so many calls about this  and, thanks to a generous donation by an alumni, the program and the book has been reinstated. Food Democracy Now! rocks!”

While we appreciate that sentiment, we’d also like to give credit where credit is due.

We understand that food safety lawyer Bill Marler, a WSU alum and former Regents of the university, had a conversation with President Elson Floyd about the reading program this afternoon and offered to pay for Michael Pollan’s trip as well as pay for the full cost to cover the Common Reading Program.

Now that is democracy in action. Congrats!

Amy Goodman has an interview with Michael Pollan where he declares “don’t buy any food you’ve ever seen advertised.”

It’s a wide ranging discussion that covers everything from CAFOs to Monsanto’s involvement in Africa.  The real meat is where Pollan talks about how Big Food has been trying to co-opt some of his original ‘rules’ such as don’t buy anything that has more than 5 ingredients in it, and don’t eat anything with high fructose corn syrup.  Since Big Food is so creative, Michael had to come up with some new rules that can’t be twisted or distorted by fancy PR magic. Plus it’s true - you’re never going to see your local farmer’s market on the teevee.