Would you like more gas on your corn?
Last Thursday I skipped out on classes for a half day to go see Michael Pollan at the Minnesota Arboretum. I felt somewhat self-conscious in a room full of foodies, a term I'm only beginning to accept. Pollan's address was centered on the notion of sustainability as it relates to the food system. Much of it was a recap of last year's best seller, The Omnivore's Dilemma (which I've raved about in previous posts). Some interesting points:
- 17% of U.S. oil consumption goes to food--as much as we spend on our cars. That's primarily fertilizer (made from nat. gas), transportation costs, and factory equipment.
- We used to get 2 calories of food for every one calorie of fuel consumption. That ratio has gone from 2:1 to 1:10.
- Four out of the top ten causes of death in the U.S. are diet related
- At least one poultry producer grows chicken in the U.S., ships it to China for processing, and then ships it back to sell in supermarkets. This is strangely cheaper than doing it all locally.
- Due to the nitrogen from fertilizer run-off, there's a "dead zone" the size of New Jersey in the Gulf of Mexico
- Consumers have 10 times more conversations at farmer's markets than they do at the supermarket.
- Only four companies produce 80% of the nation's beef--the centralization of this and other systems poses both a health (see the E. Coli spinach outbreak last fall) and national security (poisoning a lot of people becomes fairly easy).
- Speaking of E. Coli, the most common strain now didn't really exist until 1980. It's a product of corn fed cattle whose ancestors fed on grass.
- In 1960, Americans spent 5 percent of their income on healthcare and 18 percent on food. Today, those numbers are 16% and 9% respectively
- Just this year, corn consumption in the US has gone from 80 to 100 million acres, mostly due to the demand for ethanol. Pollan's comment: "Now that we've run out of ways to get corn into our food, we're feeding it to our cars."
- There was also much talk about the upcoming renewal of the Farm Bill, and how it tends to subsidize overconsumption of both corn and soy, rather than using the same money to encourage healthier and more sustainable farming practices.
Now there's certainly more important fish to fry in the world, but what stood out the most to me was how globalization and centralization have taken over the food supply. On a more fundamental moral and theological level, I view our task as people as being the restoration of community: relational, economic, political, etc. An unfortunate side effect of globalization has been the degredation of that--stores look the same everywhere, I don't know or talk to anyone there, and I certainly don't know the people who made the things I buy. Again, this isn't everything, but at the same time, there's something very appealing and just plain simpler about a more locally based economy. It appeals to values that resonate with my faith: simplicity, stewardship, community, concern for the dignity of people. And, as any good Marxist would point out, separating producer and consumer is a great way to extract profit from both.
I also recently listened to a podcast address from geographer David Harvey, one of the big names in the field. He made a comment toward the end of his session that he didn't think local solutions were enough--that some kind of alternative global system was needed. I just don't know enough to respond to the tension that brings up, but it certainly gives me some research questions...
Image credit to http://www.hugg.com/user/crackedfacade/history/