Sustainable Greenville

I just saw "Food, Inc." this past Sunday with some friends. The film has been highly lauded among those involved with the sustainable agriculture community, and I heartily agree with everything I have heard after seeing the film. The film is at once entertaining, informative and shocking. Even someone like me who tries to keep up with the issues was surprised by some of the investigative content on how problematic and deadly our current food system is. Yet most people know very little about the system and its potential ramifications.

A good deal of the film focused on food safety. With the passing of HR2749 (the media and industry termed Food Safety Bill) in the House of Representatives two weeks ago, all sides of the issue are crying Victory or Fowl (pun intended). There are few unbiased viewpoints being raised. That is one of the problems: too many people are highly biased, and comments from within most of the sustainable agriculture community lean toward anger and panic. Yes, the bill could ultimately be devastating to small farmers, organic farmers, home growers and consumers alike. It could literally make "Food, Inc" look like either an enemy or a savior to our future.

What really needs to be done is to create a bill on the senate floor that rewords the bill to be more lenient and supportive of those within the sustainable agriculture sector. Once the bill is fully passed in the senate as it is currently worded, the larger powers to be (USDA, FDA and large agribusiness corporations and processors) will use their lobbyists, watchhounds and scientists to back those measures that will support a system which increases profits and visibility for large scale agribusiness, while slowly degrading the growing sustainable food system. It will become obvious over a period of time that sustainable agriculture will face more challenges to get wholesome food to the market. Some of the smaller operations will not be able to handle these challenges and ultimately they will succumb to the pressures of an overly regulated system. Many will disappear, creating a missing component to the diet of many health conscious Americans.

It is important that a united front from the sustainable food community galvanize around a phone, mail and email campaign to their senators. Films, like the new "Food, Inc.", are showing people where the current food system is falling way short. This independent film has had little mainstream media exposure (both New York Times and Times magazine have published articles on the film), but has been selling out around the country. People are "hungry" for a new food system. So what has media been showing? They have been pushing HR2749 as a food safety bill without mentioning the outcry from the sustainable community about the impact this bill could have on small farmers, home growers, consumers and the environment.

So, in the end, individuals need not only call and write their senators, but also call local media and demand fair and comprehensive reporting on HR2749. And probably one of the most powerful tools we have at hand is "letters to the editor", one of the most read sections of the paper.