Health Spectator

We can’t say we’ve yet read Barbara Kingsolver’s popular book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. However, assuming the following quotes excerpted from her interview on another channel are representative of her work, we look forward to doing so:

On average, 85 cents of every food dollar goes to the processors, packagers, advertisers and oil companies who profit handsomely from our lack of regard for soil, water, climate and the future. Farmers have no choice but to respond to consumer demand. They can only grow what we will buy….

It’s not “natural” that organic and whole foods cost more than tallow-fried junk. We choose that through our tacit approval of the Farm Bill that defines food and nutrition policy in this country. We’ve elected to subsidize corporate commodity farms while leaving small, diversified fruit and vegetable farmers on their own, trying to compete. For organic farmers it’s even worse-–-we make them pay for their own inspection and oversight. If we’d like to flip this over and subsidize healthy rather than unhealthy foods, we can call our legislators and start talking. This is a good time to do it, because the Farm Bill is being renegotiated at this moment.

We think Ms. Kingsolver’s notion of contacting your legislative representatives is a good one. To make it easier, you can find contact information for all your U.S. government officials here. (In fact, this source will show you how to contact your state representatives as well.)

As for the Farm Bill, it has passed the House and is now being debated and modified by the Senate. You can find additional information and ideas about what the Farm Bill might better include at OxFam America. As a general guide, agribusiness doesn’t need help to keep going. But small farmers—who have to compete with the large farms and their economies of scale—can use all the help they can get. They are the main source of hope for healthy and sustainable—not to mention local and organic—agriculture.

Thus, while “farm subsidies” has become a near-epithet for many in recent years, we shouldn’t overlook aid to small farmers, particularly those who are bucking the current trend in conventional agriculture by producing organic farm products. As Ms. Kingsolver points out, why should organic farmers have to bear an additional economic burden in paying for inspection and oversight to make sure they are farming in a way that we should all hope they do? Perhaps the U.S. should pay more attention to subsidizing small-scale, sustainable, organic farming techniques so that we can all have healthier choices of food that don’t degrade the environment.

It’s a good idea to let your representatives know how you feel about topics such as the Farm Bill, organic farming, and genetic modification. And if you’re not sure how you feel about those topics, go to our site search or our category listings on the left sidebar and find articles we’ve provided on these subjects.

We hope to be bringing you more in the near future. Come to think of it, you might even use the Make a Donation button at left to help assure that we can.

[Editor's Note: to see Dan Rather's thought-provoking coverage of the U.S. Farm Bill, click here.]