'Til we eat again

I just got back from seeing Food, Inc. with roommates Emily and Andrew. A film about where our food comes from and the 5 corporations that control our food market, it sparked quite the debate on the ride home. Mostly we discussed the weak (or maybe not so weak?) nature of the call to action at the end of the film, and the apparent futility of most efforts to change our food system. The film advised us to vote three times a day on food issues, plant a garden, cook dinner with our families and tell our representatives to pass Kevin's Law.

The fact that food is even traded as a commodity is problematic in itself and this way of thinking it so entrenched in this country. Moreover, the companies that control the industry are especially powerful, backed by money, politicians and the law. Is the food production system something we can even dream of changing?

To me it doesn't seem any less helpless than stopping overfishing or making a dent in the fight against global warming (I mean, we take on special interests all the time and win) but, as Emily pointed out, its a little different with food. People are going to eat no matter what, and most are going to eat what's cheap. But then again, CFL lightbulbs haven't always been cheap. I'm choosing to retain my optimism but when even a movie like this can't really tell me what I'm supposed to do to affect a food revolution, where am I to turn?

I've been wondering for several months now what will be the tipping point for the food movement. How can Michael Pollan be a little more like Al Gore or Van Jones? Could Food, Inc. be as influential as "An Inconvenient Truth"? Not yet. The food movement is still so problem-oriented. So far, most of the popular solutions are super local. We don't have wind/solar, green jobs or other big scale, common-sense solutions to our food problems yet.

I think the answer may lie in the the food safety/public health angle, tied with putting people to work in urban agriculture. Pretty soon someone will find a way to make it profitable. How great would it be to green Detroit and create jobs growing broccoli in brown fields? Viva brassica!

The guy who checked me out at Trader Joe's the other night told me he doesn't believe in buying organic, thinks its all a scam. And this was in Massachussetts, where folks don't blink an eye at composting, acai berry eating mixed-race lesbian households. Eating organic is just a given to all those who can afford it. The vote with your fork angle isn't going to pull mainstream America into the fold. The farms to schools notion is pretty sexy - We probably could fight to get local, healthy food in public schools, and that would be a huge accomplishment. However, until there is a significant movement to shift the bottom line in food markets, food deserts will grow more commonplace, the childhood diabetes epidemic will continue to spread and Monsanto will still be making hamburgers with ammonia-treated beef. Gross!

In the organizing-to-win world of change-making, we're quick to dismiss people who make a big deal out of starting community gardens and organizing new farmers' markets. I say thank God for them because the food justice revolution is going to be a long, ugly fight and we might as well share zukes and cukes with our neighbors in meantime.