Five Bites to Freedom
Campaigning to Take Back Our Food Supply
Visit any police station or town hall and there's a good chance you'll see that detective dog McGruff. Plastered on posters in civil service offices coast to coast, he represents no-nonsense safety first, as well as good humor and protection, and he aks everyone to take responsibility for themselves. He's sort of the unofficial mascot of this piece, as the title, "Five Bites to Freedom," was inspired by McGruff's growled slogan: "Take a Bite Out of Crime." In the mood of McGruff, I want to inspire the feeling, "yeah, we can do that."
Practical McGruff represents the wisdom of common sense safety consciousness. While McGruff's message helps communities fight crime, this is a look at how communities can operate in the same spirit to protect regional food security, safety and democracy.
A Disclosure
It's been 20 years since earning that Agricultural Science BS from a distinguished land grant college in California. Initially focused on insect ecology, Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and pesticide reduction strategies for farms, my work segued into tropical gardening and the regional politics of sludge and waste treatment systems.
I helped co-manage a non-profit green waste composting operation, straining in the stale airs of inequality and disenfranchisement. Academic studies had begun to illuminate my vision of the overwhelming institutional obstacles that maintain the status quo. Now, a decade later, I was on the ground and in the field, living, testing and feeling it for myself.
Life is rough, full of competing interests, but I do believe human cultural development and agricultural development CAN evolve along sustainable lines. Society can be informed by complete and fair economic reasoning, and it can operate with the approval of those most affected. I feel that consumers have more economic leverage than they realize or know what to do with, and also that the discussion must get LOUDER.
We stand on the moral and political shoulders of those who have gone before us. We bear a responsibility to future generations to exercise our available tools and repair what we can, while doing our best to shed light on issues we can't yet solve. Paraphrasing Noam Chomsky: democracy and freedom are not just principles to be treasured, they are keys to our very survival. We are mandated to use these freedoms to prevent them from being stolen.
A Resolution
How will the world's food supply be faring when our children and grandchildren are having kids? If you are reading this, it is likely that you already feel strongly about ensuring that the resources and freedoms we enjoy will be there for our descendents. But, despite everyone's willingness to make good choices, good choices are often tough to discern. Sadly, there are still many awareness gaps that hinder us from making them.
We must prioritize finding ways to forge stronger ties between independent farms and consumers. How can consumers and the food supply megalopolies engage in meaningful communication that improves corporate environmental and social accountability? Such questions can be like torches that illuminate the process of discovery and create new choices.
Despite largely successful and longstanding organic activism and consumer demands for pure safe foods, globalization has created a host of ironies and inefficiencies. For example, we are witnessing the eruption of large-scale organic production systems which eschew biodiversity, being as they are, monocultures. Large-scale organic production is increasingly common, while small family farms — organic and otherwise — continue to dissolve. Today's increasingly ubiquitous industrial agricultural corporations operate internationally and aim for total control, from seed to table, from farmer to consumer. Let's reject that.
Highly Questionable, Potentially Dangerous and Un-Monitored
Some recently introduced genetically modified crops are designed to restrict farmers' choices with an insidious combination of economic, social and legal pressures. Controlling tactics disenfranchise farmers and ultimately threaten to put consumers and the entire food system at risk. While biotechnology research and development has ushered in a frighteningly fast-paced era of industrial agriculture, oversight by Federal agencies such as the EPA, FDA and USDA is non-existent.
Certain biotechnology crops, with and without "terminator genes," are being developed and strategically used to force farmers' increased use of agricultural chemicals. Most notable in this category are GM crops produced to tolerate the herbicide Glyphosate (RoundUp). Concern has most recently arisen over the planting of RoundUp Ready Alfalfa, which poses serious risks to existing farms that supply GM-free alfalfa on the open market. While just 5% of the total national production is exported, 75% of that export is destined for Japan, which insists upon GM-free alfalfa. Easily cross-pollinated by bees and other insects, alfalfa is the latest poster crop for this new pollution threat: genetic pollution.
Turning a New Corner in our Quest to Uphold Safe Food Choices
The issues are staggeringly complex and certainly overwhelming, but there are important and effective tools for action that we can all put to better use, simply and immediately.
"Five Bites to Freedom" implies a multi-pronged approach to facing our food systems head on and demanding alternatives. In this approach, like with IPM, we are required to combine all optimal strategies to the best possible advantage, working toward a program of homeostasis and sustainability. It will involve putting more time and effort into developing alternative paradigms.
Encouragingly, U.S. nonchalance regarding genetically engineered crops is not a shared attitude in many countries around the world. Organized food awareness movements in Japan and Europe have insisted on labeling for GMO foods and products, and this trend works in our favor when we bring the issue to the attention of our elected representatives.
What We Can Do: Putting "Five Bites to Freedom" Into Practice
Exercise Free Speech and Democracy
Write to your representatives to express concern about the safety of genetically modified foods. Ask them to support legislation favoring organic and bio-intensive farming. Ask them to seek assurances from responsible federal regulatory agencies that long and short term environmental and safety concerns are addressed to a standard that gives priority to the best interests of the environment, the public and the farm producers.
Insist that the FDA, EPA and USDA be active and responsible in monitoring the development and use of GM crops, or establish an additional agency that can be objective, responsible and well-equipped for the purpose. Insist on the need to have established and enforceable safety protocols in place before introducing GM organisms into the open environment. Respond to appeals and make your views known.
Finally, demand that all GM foods and products produced through GMO technology be labeled as such. Alaska has passed the nation's first state legislation requiring the labeling of genetically engineered salmon in that state. Other states should follow suit.
Support Local Farming and Organic Agriculture by Buying Through a Regional CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) or your farmer's market.
Choose foods which are produced in a Sustainable Manner: that is in a way that is ecologically sound, economically viable and socially just. Encourage your friends and relatives to buy organic, and buy locally, as much as possible. We mustn't simply preach to the choir. It is imperative that more consumers understand the gravity of their food choices. We indeed do vote with our dollars, and food choices are about the most politically instantaneous votes we can cast.
Smart-Sourcing Foods and Feeds
If you must eat meat, choose free-range or humanely-produced products that should be labeled as such. Be aware that tremendous pressure has been put upon the National Organic Standards Board to slacken requirements and weaken the organic label, especially when it comes to dairy, eggs and meat, so it is important to understand the methods used to produce the foods you purchase.
Ocean fishing using drift nets and other industrial means creates huge amounts of "by-catch" and waste. Such fishing is a threat to dolphins, endangered sea turtles, sharks and many other species. The tremendous destruction and waste associated with industrial fishing operations has greatly disrupted ocean biodiversity and health.
Forage-wise, if you buy alfalfa, let your feed vendor know you prefer to buy GM-free feed. And if you grow alfalfa, be sure to request GM-free seed from your supplier.
Growing a Garden of One's Own
Even if there's only space in pots, everyone can get a feel for producing food that's healthy and local. There are many resources to support all aspects of organic gardening. Everything from composting to container planting has been covered in the famously useful Rodale publications. I also recommend The Mother Earth News, which represents a tremendous collection of information gathered over the past thirty years. So go for it: grow and learn.
Excercising Political Capital
Spending dollars (or not) is the exercise of "political capital" and some politicians wish we would forever forget that. Consumers can be more vocal to influence agricultural development decision making, whether it is corporate or community based. Arguably, our most powerful tool is our capital: our dollars, euros, yen, baht and pesos. Boycotts and embargos are traditional tools in the economic exercise of power. Thus, we should all be reminded of our voting power, and encouraged to use it in every sense — both economic and political.
Taking Back Our Food Supply
We owe it to future generations to try to ensure that a significant measure of food sovereignty will prevail. There is a lot to defend. Recent battles over resources foreshadow the dark wars ahead. Control of water and food resources are the new battlegrounds.
The more we know about our food supply, the better our chances will be to secure safe food systems. Consumers, farmers and the environment all need protections and assurances, and they all need to interact. Let this list invite other thoughts and perspectives to flesh out the campaign and enhance our effectiveness as we work toward our common food security goals.
There's much to do, concurs McGruff, and just one or two bites might not be enough.