In Obama’s administration, should food be a symbol?
It may just be that never before in modern American history have we been so interested in food. From the high price of food to the worth of organics and local agriculture and the impacts of all of the above on global warming and world hunger, not to mention whether it’s important for consumers to be able to account for every last calorie or gram of trans fat or the whole issue of junk food and fast food, Americans at least are probably more food-obsessed than ever before.
So I guess in that context it makes sense that so many people are thinking about, and talking about, what the next presidential administration can, should and must do when it comes to America’s food. Michael Pollan has talked about overhauling the school lunch program and making farmers market vouchers a part of the food stamp program.
Guiding Obama’s choices
Nicholas Kristof says Obama needs a Secretary of Food rather than a Secretary of Agriculture, given that fewer than 2 percent of all Americans are actually engaged in agriculture, but we all have to eat.
Policy needs to focus more on what’s best for people — in terms of nutrition, health and the environment — as opposed to what’s best for the farm lobby, which is what the current Department of Agriculture focuses on, Kristof argues.
A group of almost 90 notables in the field of food sent a letter (seen here in PDF form) to Obama suggesting that he think long and hard about his selection to the Cabinet post because the obstacles are so daunting:
America must come to understand the environmental and human health implications of industrialized agriculture. From rising childhood and adult obesity to issues of food safety, global warming and air and water pollution, we believe our next Secretary of Agriculture must have a vision that calls for: recreating regional food systems, supporting the growth of humane, natural and organic farms, and protecting the environment, biodiversity and the health of our children while implementing policies that place conservation, soil health, animal welfare and worker’s rights as well as sustainable renewable energy near the top of their agenda.
They suggested a few names for the post, including Chuck Hassebrook, the executive director of the Center for Rural Affairs; Fred Kirschenmann, an organic farmer and president of the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture; and Neil Hamilton, director of the Agricultural Law Center at Drake University in Iowa, among other policy experts and former state agriculture commissioners.
Food is about more than one office
Whoever the Secretary of Agriculture turns out to be, some of those food luminaries, including sustainable chef extraordinaire Alice Waters, say Obama needs to go further than just appointing one person who has the right ideas about sustainability and changing the food system.
In fact she argues he needs a whole, literal kitchen cabinet of food advisors, a White House chef who serves local, sustainable, organic and seasonal foods and an organic garden on the White House lawn.
These steps would serve as reminders to the nation that everyone can make small changes than benefit their own health and the health of the planet, as well as showing people that “good food should be a right and not a privilege,” she told the New York Times.
She says that such a huge push to get the president to make such choices might not have happened previously, but “I think this is an unusual president,” someone who is interested in the quality of food his own family eats and who can help those already in the sustainable food movement to shift the conversation from thinking about food merely as fuel to considering it as an important part of our culture.
(By Sarah E. White for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)
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After doing a bit of reading and seeing what people like Alice Waters and Michael Pollan have to say about what Obama should be focusing on, I really agree that by solving our food problems, he’ll be well on his way to solving our nation’s other problems. Food sounds like such a frivolous focus, but it really does affect just about everything else. I’m interested in seeing where this goes.