Not everyone can or wants to raise their own food. I guess as a farmer, that's good for my business, but I do want them to to care, to take part in the decision of what they eat and how it is grown. Just as it is wrong for the corporate media to only offer part of the news, it is also wrong for the corporate food industry to basically say "shut up and eat".
When nearly 75% of the US market spinach crop is grown in one valley in California and repeated bacterial contaminations ensue, we need to question our reliance on the corporate food system.
When millions of pounds of beef are recalled due to bacterial contamination and when, by the count of the Centers for Disease Control, 76 million Americans come down with food poisoning, 73,000 cases of e-coli infection and 63 deaths occur in the US each year, we need to question our reliance on the corporate food system.
When the World Health Organization tells us that in the US some 60% of the adults and nearly 13% of the children are obese, we need to question our reliance on the corporate food system.
When scientists from around the world tell us the vitamin and mineral content of our food has fallen significantly over the past 60 years, we need to question our reliance on the corporate food system.
When groundwater nitrate levels climb year after year because industrial size farms raise too many animals producing too much manure on too little land, we must, question the industrial concentration of our food system.
When the World Health Organization blames the increase of infectious diseases in part on the "industrialization of the animal production sector" and the emergence of H5N1 (Avian Flu) on "intensive poultry production", again we need to question our reliance on the corporate food system.
We are told this is the safest food system in the world, but is it? Is high tech, high production, industrialized agriculture the way to feed the world? It seems not, millions still starve, the US is obese and we still have tainted food. Do safe handling instructions on food packaging make it safe? Hardly, it merely shifts the responsibility from the processor to the consumer. If you get sick you are at fault, if the meat has animal manure in it you should be sure to cook it properly, then it will be safe. Need more safety assurance, let us irradiate food and kill the bacteria so you don't have to concern yourself with what went on during the processing.
We are, however, comforted by a virtually unlimited choice in how to spend our food dollars, but is it really a choice when, of the nearly 40,000 food items found in the average supermarket 50% of them are produced by 10 companies? Do we have choice when 3 companies control over 75% of the beef produced in the US?
Sadly, we as consumers have allowed this to happen. We have become complacent and dependent on this industrial food system. We must remember that the vast majority of contaminated food has come directly out of the industrial food system, not local markets.
We can seek out local alternatives and safer alternatives. While the cost for local or organic food may be higher, we need to remember the highest cost food items are the most highly processed foods, foods that are the least nutritious, contain the highest level of "empty calories" and those that account for the highest use of chemicals, preservatives and artificial ingredients. Since they are the big cash cows of the corporate food industry, they also return less income to local farmers and communities but more to the corporate office.
But, this system can be changed, the Farm Bill, the huge all encompassing monstrosity that covers everything from farm subsidies to food stamps is still tied up in committee. You can do something about our food system, especially if you are from an urban area.
Everyone thinks farm state legislators control the farm bill, but look at the numbers. Urban legislators are often ignored, the lobbyists, the Farm Bureau and the rest of the Big Agribusiness pressure groups often write urban areas off when it comes to agriculture.
You are the beneficiaries or the victims of our food system, depending on what you choose to be. Encourage your representatives to support an increased budget and more inspectors for the USDA. Request a cap on farm subsidy payments that go to the largest farms and a price safety net so small farmers can survive the rough times. If it bothers you that most imported food is not inspected, let them know. If you want organic standards that mean something, if you want to support local food initiatives, Do something! Don't you think it is time you let Washington know that YOU are the "decider's"? Time we heeded the advice of Mary Elizabeth Lease and decided to "raise less corn and more hell". Contact the National Family Farm Coalition and ask them how you can help!!
Below the list of who's on the conference committee. There are actually quite a few urban and non-ag-committee legislators who are on the committee to address specific provisions. Even if their official role is not on a provision you care about, they're in a position to do some bargaining.
We did an action alert about the NAIS issue in the Farm Bill:
action alert
House Members from the Agriculture Committee:
Joe Baca (D-CA), p: 225-6161, f: 225-8671
Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), p: 225-6131, f: 225-0819
Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO), p: 225-4676, f: 225-5870
David Scott (D-GA), p: 225-2939, f: 225-4628
Leonard Boswell (D-IA), p: 225-3806, f: 225-5608
Jerry Moran (R-KS), p: 225-2715, f: 225-5124
Collin C. Peterson (D-MN), p: 225-2165, f: 225-1593
Mike McIntyre (D-NC), p: 225-2731, f: 225-5773
Bob Etheridge (D-NC), p: 225-4531, f: 225-5662
Robin Hayes (R-NC), p: 225-3715, f: 225-4036
Frank Lucas (R-OK), p: 225-5565, f: 225-8698
Tim Holden (D-PA), p: 225-5546, f: 226-0996
Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), p: 225-4005, f: 225-9615
Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), p: 225-5431, f: 225-9681
House leadership on the conference committee:
Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), p: 225-3661, f: 225-4890
Adam Putnam (R-FL), p: 225-1252, f: 226-0585
Senators on the conference committee:
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), p: 224-4843, f: 228-1371
Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), p: 224-3521, f: 224-0103
Richard Lugar (R-IN), p: 224-4814, f: 228-0360
Charles Grassley (R-IA), p: 224-3744, f: 224-6020
Tom Harkin (D-IA), P: 224-3254, F: 224-9369
Pat Roberts (R-KS), p: 224-4774, f: 224-3514
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), p: 224-4822, f: 228-0325
Max Baucus (D-MT), p: 224-2651, f: 224-0515
Thad Cochran (R-MS), p: 224-5054, f: 224-9450
Kent Conrad (D-ND), p: 224-2043, f: 224-7776
Patrick Leahy (D-VT), p: 224-4242, f: 224-3479
Additional House conferees (these conferees are likely to have input on only specific provisions):
Spencer Bachus (R-AL), p: 225-4921, f: 225-2082
George Miller (D-CA), p: 225-2095, f: 225-5609
Maxine Waters (D-CA), p: 225-2201, f: 225-7854
Howard Berman (D-CA), p: 225-4695, f: 225-3196
Brad Sherman (D-CA), p: 225-5911, f: 225-5897
Henry Waxman (D-CA), p: 225-3976, f: 225-4099
Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), p: 225-8050, f: 225-3002
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), p: 225-3931, f: 225-5620
Jim McCrery (R-LA), p: 225-2777, f: 225-8039
John Conyers (D-MI), p: 225-5126, f: 225-0072
John Dingell (D-MI), p: 225-4071, f: 226-0371
Jim Oberstar (D-MN), p: 225-6211, f: 225-0699
Sam Graves (R-MO), p: 225-7041, f: 225-8221
Heath Shuler (D-NC), p: 225-6401, f: 226-6422
Earl Pomeroy (D-ND), p: 225-2611, f: 226-0893
Frank Pallone (D-NJ), p: 225-4671, f: 225-9665
Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), p: 225-5516, f: 225-5758
Edolphus Towns (D-NY), p: 225-5936, f: 225-1018
Nydia Velasquez (D-NY), p: 225-2361, f: 226-0327
Charles Rangel (D-NY), p: 225-4365, f: 225-0816
Jim Jordan (R-OH), p: 225-2676, f: 226-0577
Steve Chabot (R-OH), p: 225-2216, f: 225-3012
Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), p: 225-6511, f: 225-0764
Todd Platts (R-PA), p: 225-5836, f: 226-1000
Bart Gordon (D-TN), p: 225-4231, f: 225-6887
Nick Lampson (D-TX), p: 225-5951, f: 225-5241
Joe Barton (R-TX), p: 225-2002, f: 225-3052
Lamar Smith (R-TX), p: 225-4236, f: 225-8628
Michael McCaul (R-TX), p: 225-2401, f: 225-5955
Bobby Scott (D-VA), p: 225-8351, f: 225-8354
Cathy McMorris-Rodgers (R-WA), p: 225-2006, f: 225-3392
Nick Rahall (D-WV), p: 225-3452, f: 225-9061
Several years ago Wangari Maathai winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the Green Belt Movement in Africa shared with author Anna Lappe' an analogy she used to help Kenyan women reclaim their power to choose. She asked them what they would do if they got on the wrong bus, going in the wrong direction? Well of course they would get off.
So why would anyone stay on the wrong bus? Perhaps you had the wrong information, you didn't think you had enough money to get on the right one, or you didn't even know there was another bus. All valid reasons, the same basic reasons farmers continue to follow the industrial production system and the same reasons consumers continue to eat the food it produces. It's time to get off the bus folks, corporate agriculture is taking us in the wrong direction.