My first diary on Kos yesterday was one taking a look at how I saw the cognitive landscape change around GMO's and specifically how the polarization of the subject had changed things for journalists covering the topic.
I realize that I am starting off with such a polarized topic that it would have been useful to provide a little more background on where I'm coming from.
The comment thread turned to the politics of labeling. I tried to lay out the wonkier reasons why I'm opposed to mandatory GMO labeling. Among people who had no idea what my politics are, that predictably lead to acrimony and doubts about my motivations and values. Sadly it wasn't until the end of the conversation that I posted my strategic reasons for opposing labeling:
The Bottom Line:
for me on GMO Labeling is that the Food Movement has limited political capital and resources and instead of wasting them on meaningless labeling that could be achieved by independent groups like GMOFree they could be fighting to:
- Ban the use of non-therapeutic anti-biotics
- Ban the use of neonicotinoids
- Ban the use of Class I pesticides
- Stop the USDA pilot program to decrease meat inspectors while allowing production lines in processing plants to speed up
- Ban sugary drinks from school vending machines
- Properly fund the federal match for school lunches
- Defend SNAP against cuts
and at least a dozen other things that can't be addressed through the marketplace that have real world consequences that are supported by evidence.
Instead of bourgeois whining about GMO labeling we could spend our political capital and use our resources on things that really matter.
That's a pretty good list of the policy issues that matter to me and where I stand on them.
I'm going to be writing about food politics and the food movement. As I go it will be easier to point people towards previous writing to clarify where I'm coming from. In the meantime, I'm happy to take my lumps and try to discuss the issues in the threads.
I have a pretty heterodox take on things, but sustainability, access and nutrition for low income people, and justice for food workers are my top priorities. I part ways with food movement orthodoxy on how to get there sometimes. I think that gap is where I have something interesting to say.
I decided I wanted to write about food politics a few years ago. My background was farm laborer as a kid, followed by campus radical, followed by union organizer, followed by journeyman chef. This is the next step in that evolution.
I realized when I started putting pen to paper (figuratively) that I didn't have the depth of knowledge necessary to write at the level I wanted to write at.
I've spent the last few years digging in and learning everything I could about nutrition, agriculture and the politics of food. That took me to sources that food movement people don't often go: the websites run by crop scientists, blogs by Midwestern commodity crop farmers, Yale psychologists, dissident and mainstream nutritionists. Where I went looking to understand my opponents, I often ended up learning a lot. Sometimes I learned that things I believed were wrong. Sometimes I came to believe orthodox food movement thinking is misguided, either on the facts or strategically.
My goal is to synthesize what I see as the best thinking on these issues and share that with people. I also want to learn to write in a way that can convince people, change minds rather than preach to the converted. Daily Kos is a pugnacious community that provides instant feedback on whether I'm accomplishing that.
So that's where I'm coming from.