FARM LEGISLATION IS ABOUT YOU!
Why aren’t we talking about the Farm Bill? Why do we seem to think it’s about someone else? Farm legislation is being written and voted on right now. We are ignoring an opportunity that comes only once every 6 years; an opportunity to influence how our tax dollars are spent on the most basic, crucial, and insecure segment of our economy, and our lives.
I’m talking about food. We all eat. Every single American, every single day, requires food to survive. Farms produce our food. Currently, our tax dollars support the production of high fructose corn syrup, and ignore the production of clean, healthy, locally produced food. Current farm subsidies do not help small, local farmers who produce fresh, healthy food for our communities throughout the country. Let’s tell our legislators that we want our farm dollars spent on small farms all over America; farms that produce food near where Americans live and eat.
Food is not a luxury. It is not even an important convenience on the level of gasoline for cars or electricity for air conditioning. Each person in America must have food every day. Shouldn’t food be produced in as many locations, and near as many people, as many eaters, as possible? Doesn’t it seem normal that we should have food growing near us, near our kitchens and our tables? Shouldn’t food security be a basic, everyday, top priority for all of us? Food security means securing our food production within our borders, and within reach of the people who need food. That is every American! It is the responsibility of our government to produce farm legislation focused on support of local food production. That means supporting smaller farms producing a variety of food products in all regions of the country.
Why is more and more of our food produced farther and farther away from our people? We are extremely lucky, here in the Skagit region, to still have food growing conveniently near us. We can still get fresh, varied, tasty, healthy food, produced by our neighbors. It has required the work of many individuals and organizations to keep what we have, to this point. Most small farming regions in the country have not been so lucky, especially those near large population centers. Current legislation supports the big and centralized, and ignores the small and regional. Current legislation supports large scale commodity production, not small scale local food production. Farming on a small local scale cannot compete, by price, with huge, subsidized, agribusiness operations, especially those in less developed countries.
How have we become convinced that price is the only consideration in selecting the food we eat? Can’t we see the huge added costs in food produced with chemicals, processed and shipped across the country or the world? Can’t we see the costs to our air, our health, our climate, our water? Can’t we see the cost in depleted nutrition, and loss of flavor, of foods grown purely for shipping? What are we doing to our soil, our water, our children and our future?
When food is grown near our community it doesn’t have to be trucked or shipped across great distances, burning fuel and polluting the air. It is not vulnerable to disruptions in transportation, from any source. When food is grown near our community we can be aware of the farming methods used, and the results of those methods on our food, and our environment. We can get to know the people who grow our food. The money we spend on our food can go to our neighbors, for them spend in our community. Some think it’s more efficient to grow masses of one food item in one giant agribusiness location somewhere with cheap land and cheap labor. I think it’s more efficient for every community to have food nearby, near the market, near the kitchen, near the table.
When I was young, good nutrition meant getting enough to eat. That’s it. We now know that what we eat is as important as how much. We know that it does matter whether we survive on sweet, fatty, processed junk, or thrive on healthy, fresh, clean food. Our farm legislation has been stuck in the past, supporting commodity production instead of fresh food. One of the reasons it is stuck in the past is because we have allowed it.
When I mention the Farm Bill here, even to farmers, they seem to think that this legislation is not about them, not about us. But, it is about us. It must be about us. This is our money and it is our food. What food do we want our tax money to support?
This year there is potential for movement toward better, more responsible and appropriate farm legislation. This year we have a chance to convince our representatives that we want our money spent on our food. We want our money spent all over the country, in small farming communities struggling to keep land in food production. We want our money spent to increase local food production throughout this country.
The Farm Bill legislation is being written right now. It will be voted on during the next couple of weeks. We must let our representatives know what we want so they can represent us. We must tell our legislators how we want our money spent. We must let our government know that we do not accept the farm legislation of the past. We expect our representatives to move into the future with farm legislation that actually helps everyone in the country, by supporting local food production in every state, every region, every community.
Carol Havens - Convivium Leader
Slow Food Skagit River Salish Sea
Washington (State) USA
chavens AT cnw DOT com
