A Glimmer of Hope?

On the One Hand . . .

. . . there’s more money in this farm bill for nutrition programs and, for the first time, about $2 billion to support “specialty crops” — farm-bill-speak for the kind of food people actually eat. . . There’s also money for the environment: an additional $4 billion in the Senate bill to protect wetlands and grasslands and reward farmers for environmental stewardship, and billions in the House bill for environmental cleanup. There’s an important provision in both bills that will make it easier for schools to buy food from local farmers. And there’s money to promote farmers’ markets and otherwise support the local food movement.

On the Other Hand . . .

But as important as these programs are, they are just programs — mere fleas on the elephant in the room. The name of that elephant is the commodity title, the all-important subsidy section of the bill. It dictates the rules of the entire food system. As long as the commodity title remains untouched, the way we eat will remain unchanged.

A Glimmer of Hope

What finally emerges from Congress depends on exactly who is paying closest attention next week on the Senate floor and then later in the conference committee. We know the American Farm Bureau will be on the case, defending the commodity title on behalf of those who benefit from it most: the biggest commodity farmers, the corporations who sell them chemicals and equipment and, most of all, the buyers of cheap agricultural commodities — companies like Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.

In the past that alliance could have passed a farm bill like this one without breaking a sweat. But the politics of food have changed, and probably for good. If the eaters and all the other “people on the outside” make themselves heard, we just might end up with something that looks less like a farm bill and more like the food bill a poorly fed America so badly needs.

These are excerpts from a fantastic article by Michael Pollan (author of the Power Steer article under “Important Stuff” in the side bar). It’s a great wrap-up of what’s been going on with the Farm Bill these past few weeks. He provides some good insight into just how things have been working on Capitol Hill, and how things are beginning to change. Just maybe there is some hope. Eaters unite!

An Observation

I recently read a great post by healthycookie about MSG and learned some things I hadn’t heard before. It appears to be a well researched and thought out post. Here’s a tidbit, that will hopefully inspire you to read more:

MSG is not a preservative, vitamin, or mineral. MSG goes by dozens of different names and is a highly addictive and destructive drug. A drug that attaches to glutamate receptors located on major organs in our body including the pancreas and heart, as well has the potential to cross the blood bran barrier (protective barrier around the brain).

Having that on my mind, I recently observed my son’s eating behavior with certain foods.

When at any of the grandparents, B generally is up before anyone else, and therefore consumes boxed cereal for his breakfast. I’d noticed that he often refilled his bowl multiple times. At home, if I buy boxed cereal, it’s usually some organic variety, although those aren’t exempt from suspicion. However, I noticed he seemed more satisfied with those, usually, and didn’t have so many refills.

I mentioned before trying some homemade cereal recipes. My most recent was an oat granola that turned out quite well. B had a bowl of that yesterday, and that was all. Just one bowl. This morning, he opted for a boxed ‘o’ shaped variety offered by the grandparents, and had no less than three refills. In light of the MSG article I found that very interesting.

This link has a list of aliases for MSG.The cereal B had this morning had modified corn starch in the list of ingredients. I wonder if that is the same as modified food starch in the alias list. I think I need to learn a bit more about this little additive. Thanks, healthycookie, for the heads up.