Newsletter April 25, 2008

Food focuses attention like few other things. Great-tasting, sustainably raised fare prepared to highlight farmer and regional distinctives has driven a cultural shift in North America toward farmer-friendly, ecologically sound agriculture. But it is the spectre of not enough food raised by the global rice shortage in the past two weeks that has generated a level of dialogue on food security not seen in recent decades.

Our society has grown accustomed to—and even complacent with—poor people being hungry. But food scarcity for even people with disposable income is not something our post-modern sensibilities know how to compute. Many voices are demanding, in response, greater reliance on failed high-input approaches that have actually contributed to our current related food, health and ecological crises.

Let’s think about ways to raise food and fuel our economics that actually solve problems rather than worsen them. Let’s get to work on:

• Finding sustainable biodiesel systems that look at life-cycle impact is a part.

• Piecing together food systems built from the ground up to fit the needs of different people groups and places—as proposed by this month’s benchmark global scientific report.

• Taking advantage of soil-building agriculture that pulls carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to fight global warming while it also boosts productive capacity and protects health and watersheds. That’s the policy goal of a new position paper from the Rodale Institute.

• Keeping certified-organic agriculture viable in the U.S. by finding how to support these farmers as their input costs skyrocket as consumer purchasing power falls. Start here to understand the challenges.

• Helping each other find the land, plants and seeds to grow our own food as creatively as we can as we also re-think the importance of healthy food in our lives, budgets and community life.

It’s spring. Breathe deeply and think creatively about real solutions amidst the growing food anxiety.

Greg Bowman for the Rodale Institute editorial team