Argentine farmworker Fabián Tomasi was an iconic voice against the use of pesticides until his death from cancers caused by pesticide exposure in 2018. He was, as many have been and continue to be, a literal body of evidence of the dangers of pesticides.

Research has shown that more than 90 percent of Americans have traces of pesticides in our bodies, most of which comes from the food we eat. Yet, despite the mass amounts of evidence of the dangers of pesticide use, the world has never used as many pesticides as it does today. The United States uses more than any other country, including some of the most dangerous pesticides that are banned in other countries. 

With the release of the US edition of the Pesticide Atlas, a powerful compendium on the state of pesticide use and why it matters, leaders at prominent US civil society organizations working for common sense pesticide action (including Pesticide Action Network (PAN) North America, the Center for Biological Diversity, Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action, and Real Food Media) highlight the alarmingly persistent use of toxic pesticides in the United States—and what we can do about it. 

In community and solidarity,

Tiffani, Christina, Tanya, and Anna

Read Issue No. 62 of the Real Food Scoop

Download the Pesticide Atlas

The post Real Food Scoop | No. 62 appeared first on Real Food Media.

The world has never used as many pesticides as it does today, and the United States uses more than any other country, including some of the most dangerous pesticides that are banned in other countries. With the release of a US Edition of the Pesticide Atlas, a powerful compendium on the state of pesticide use and why it matters, leaders at prominent US civil society organizations working for common sense pesticide action, including Pesticide Action Network (PAN) North America, the Center for Biological Diversity, Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action, and Real Food Media highlight the alarmingly persistent use of toxic pesticides in the United States—and what we can do about it. 

The US edition of the Pesticide Atlas is one of five published around the world as part of the Germany-based Heinrich Boell Foundation’s series. Other editions include Germany, EU, Kenya, Italy, and Nigeria.

New chapters in the US edition include:

• A snapshot of pesticide use in the United States and the connection between pesticide production, use, and the climate crisis from Margaret Reeves and Asha Sharma of Pesticide Action Network North America;

• A look at how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has failed to properly regulate pesticides and how this has led to the heavy use of dangerous pesticides, and subsequent devastation to biodiversity from Nathan Donley and Lori Ann Burd of the Center for Biological Diversity;
• An overview of pesticide industry PR tactics to deter and delay action on pesticides from US Edition editor, Anna Lappé, and journalist and co-founder of US Right to Know Stacy Malkan;
• A story of dedicated organizing for common sense pesticide regulation on the Hawaiian islands from Executive Director of Hawaii Alliance for Progressive Action, Anne Frederick.

“Sixty years after Rachel Carson warned us of the terrible toll of overuse of pesticides here and around the world, the United States continues to use more pesticides than anywhere else on the planet, including some of the most hazardous pesticides banned in other countries. With rising rates of cancer, infertility, and metabolic disorders alongside a biodiversity crisis, taking action on pesticides has never been more important. This report arms us all with the facts, and inspiration, to do so.” — Anna Lappé, editor of the Pesticide Atlas-US Edition and author, funder, and sustainable food advocate   

“With a billion pounds of pesticides used each year in the US, the American public reasonably expects that these chemicals made to kill living things are tightly regulated by the US Environmental Protection Agency. But unfortunately that’s not the case. As a result, Big Ag in the US relies on pesticides that many other nations have banned because of their severe dangers. Tragically, that regulatory failure causes the greatest harm to farmworkers and their children and our nation’s most endangered wildlife, particularly pollinators.” — Lori Ann Burd, environmental health director at the Center for Biological Diversity.   

On April 26, 2023 at 10:30amPT/1:30pmET join Anna Lappé in conversation with contributors to the US Edition of the Pesticide Atlas in a webinar to share key highlights from the Atlas and their implications. The conversation will center on how we can collectively better understand the connections between pesticide use and public health, the climate crisis, and biodiversity as well as dive deeper into how to understand the policy barriers and opportunities for action on pesticides here in the United States.  Register for the free webinar. 

Contact Info

Anna Lappé

Editor, Pesticide Atlas-US Edition

Food Sovereignty Fund Director, Panta Rhea Foundation

Founder, Strategic Advisor, Real Food Media

anna@realfoodmedia.org 

The post Launch of the US Edition of the Pesticide Atlas appeared first on Real Food Media.

Originally published by Food Tank

Bonnie Haugen and her family run a grazing dairy farm in Southeastern Minnesota. She recently spoke about the impacts of corporate concentration on her community in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform: “When we bought these acres 29 years ago, there were about 12 dairy farms within a three mile radius of us. Now, there’s only one other dairy with approximately 400 cows aside from us. What I’ve seen in my community mirrors national trends: the pressure of corporate ag has taken a fair opportunity away from my neighbors who wanted to keep or pass on dairy farming.” 

Squeezed by inflation that is pushing up the cost of both everyday goods and farm inputs, Midwest farmers increasingly support candidates committed to busting up corporate monopolies in food and farming. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, for instance, in a tight re-election race against Republican opponent Jim Schultz, has led the charge on tackling anticompetitive practices in the agricultural sector that are contributing to inflation. 

“Three of my grandkids ages 8, 6, and 3 want to farm,” continued Haugen in her July 2022 statement, “I want them to have the opportunity to farm without being a serf to corporate ag.” Haugen is a supporter of the Land Stewardship Action Fund (LSAF), dedicated to electing leaders that promote family farming and strong rural economies. 

Farmers Doubly Squeezed

Farmers don’t just grow food, of course; they also consume food–and all manner of basic goods. This means farmers are doubly squeezed by the higher cost of both production and consumption. On the consumption side, farmers and non-farmers alike have felt the increase in living expenses; grocery prices, for instance, are up 13 percent from a year ago. With a few large firms dominating every step in the food chain—from retailers like Walmart to processors like Nestle to seed and chemical giants like Bayer—consolidation is a major contributor to high food prices. 

Former Whole Foods executive and retail market expert Errol Schweizer explains: “Corporate concentration is the strategy, but the goal is extreme profiteering, redistributed upwards to investors and executives. Market concentration increases prices to consumers while hurting worker bargaining power Squeezing farmers is just the first step in a radically inequitable value chain.” 

The Midwest has been beset by precarious farm incomes for decades—dipping into the red more often than not, which means assuming more and more debt. As food analyst Ken Meter points out in his book Building Community Food Webs, between 1996 and 2017, growing corn resulted in an aggregate loss of US$524 per acre while cumulative losses for wheat farmers totaled US$1,236 per acre.

“The commodity system draws wealth out of rural communities,” Meter said. “Over the past century, farmers have really only made money when there was some external crisis, such as the oil crisis of 1973, the global housing finance crisis of 2008, and the war in Ukraine. Otherwise, net income keeps falling even as food prices rise for consumers. But the monopolies in the middle profit every year.”

A new report from Midwest Healthy Ag confirms that Midwest farmers are struggling under the weight of rising costs, including for fertilizers, diesel, and renting land, combined with decreased income from selling milk, grain, and other products. One farmer interviewed for the report said, “Increased fuel prices, along with decreased price for a bushel of corn make me doubt I can survive after 2021.”

Policymakers Rally Against Consolidation

While corporate concentration in agriculture has gone relatively unchecked for decades, food cost inflation has brought the issue front and center. “Corporate profiteering and out-of-control consolidation by big agricultural firms have led to increased prices at every point on the food chain, from the farm to the grocery store,” said Representative Mark Pocan (D., WI—2nd) in a statement announcing the Food and Agribusiness Merger Moratorium and Antitrust Review Act of 2022. 

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has also disparaged corporate concentration in agriculture: “Highly concentrated local markets in livestock and poultry have increasingly left farmers, ranchers, growers, and producers vulnerable to a range of practices that unjustly exclude them from economic opportunities and undermine a transparent, competitive, and open market—which harms producers’ ability to deliver the quality, affordable food working families depend upon,” said Vilsack.

Vilsack’s statement was made in September 2022 as President Biden announced a new US$15 million fund to ramp up collaboration between the USDA and State Attorneys General on enforcement of competition laws, such as the laws against price-fixing. The news follows a December 21, 2021 letter to Secretary Vilsack from a bipartisan coalition of 16 attorneys general offering recommendations for improving competition in the livestock industry.

“One of the ways corporations keep profits high at consumers’ expense is by creating unfair markets where there’s no meaningful competition,” said Minnesota AG Keith Ellison, who spearheaded the letter, “This is especially true in agriculture, where farms and farming communities often face artificially high prices and struggle to afford their lives because antitrust behavior by Big Ag deliberately leaves them with few choices.”

Randy Krzmarzick, a row crop farmer and LSAF supporter in Sleepy Eye, MN, commented, “I’ve been farming some 40 years and I’ve seen continued consolidation in all parts of agriculture, fewer companies that supply our products and buy our commodities.” When asked why he’s planning to vote for Keith Ellison, Krzmarzick said, “I think it’s important to have an attorney general who’s watching out for abuses and who’s on our side—the side of family farmers, of which there’s less and less of us all the time.” 

Photo courtesy of Jed Owen, Unsplash

The post On Eve of Election, Midwest Farmers Squeezed by Inflation Eye Corporate Concentration appeared first on Real Food Media.

The post Bayer Strikes Out, Again appeared first on Real Food Media.

The food and agrochemical industry spends billions of dollars every year to shape consumer demand for their products and public perception about their practices. Some of this vast spending underwrites the most visible form of this narrative shaping: advertising. But billions more are spent around the globe on strategies to shape the story of food without industry fingerprints. 

Anna Lappé joined thousands of people around the world at the 2021 Oxford Real Farming Conference to talk about reporting she and colleagues have been doing on the stealth tactics of industry to shape what we believe about food in order to influence the policies and regulations that most impact the bottom line. “The pesticide industry isn’t using the Big Oil and Big Tobacco public relations playbook, they helped to write it,” as Anna says. In this keynote, Anna talks about the power of narrative, breaks down public relations tactics used by the agrochemical industry, and reminds us of a truth the industry tries to deny: we do not need pesticides to feed the world. 

Additional Resources

• Read Spinning Food, the 2015 report investigating how Big Food and agrochemical corporations are deliberately misleading the public—and the media—about industrial agriculture and organic and sustainable food production. 
• Listen to Real Food Reads episode 14 featuring Carey Gillam on her award-winning book, Whitewash: The Story of a Weedkiller, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science
• Read Monsanto Spin Tactics Revealed

The post Spinning Food: The Stealth PR Tactics Industry Uses to Shape the Story of Food appeared first on Real Food Media.

Anna was thrilled to be a keynote speaker at the 2020 50×40 Global Summit—the global network committed to reducing industrial animal agriculture 50 percent by 2040. Anna talked about the incredible toll of factor farming, from squandering land and other natural resources to huge greenhouse gas emissions and the exploitation of workers and abuse of animals. She shared the staggering rates of meatpacking workers contracting Covid-19, with over 50,000 workers infected as of January 20, 2021. 

We believe this conflux of crises offers us the opportunity to upend the global industrial meat model, but as Anna mentioned in her talk, only if we make it so: 

“The pandemic is an opportunity only if we make it one… When it comes to fighting for a more moral food system—one that protects workers and farmers alike, one that is humane to all the world’s creatures—we must act now and act boldly.”

How do we do that? We do it together. 

Here are four ways to harness our collective power:
 

1. Be bold. Our role as organizers and advocates is to show what is possible—the policies will follow. 
2. Be confident in communicating complexity. Silver bullet solutions won’t do the job here. We have to get to the root causes to create real, radical change. 
3. Think globally. Focusing attention on our individual locales only creates the opportunity for agribusiness to move the problem elsewhere.
4. Celebrate our very big tent. Issues such as the industrial meat model touch on so much that people care about. As we develop strategies, communications, and policy asks, this big tent can be our biggest asset, but only if we consciously nurture these connections. 

Watch the full speech here and make sure to check out out some additional resources:

• Food Mythbusters video: Do We Need Industrial Agriculture to Feed the World?
• Real Food Reads podcast episode 44,  Bite Back: People Taking On Corporate Food and Winning featuring Jose Oliva 
• Foodtopias podcast episode 1, Laboring in a Pandemic, featuring Christina Spach and Axel Fuentes
• Tackling Climate Change Through Food, an organizing toolkit

The post Fighting for a Moral Food System appeared first on Real Food Media.

Now, two decades later, with the rapid expansion of genetically engineered organisms throughout the food system and emergent in animal agriculture and beyond, the wisdom—and caution—of The Pacific Declaration is just as relevant; its words prescient.

To mark this anniversary milestone and reflect on the current context and what we can learn from this history,  Anna Lappé—the daughter of one of the Declaration’s founding signatories—author Claire Cummings, The Center for Food Safety’s Rebecca Spector, The Cultural Conservancy’s Melissa Nelson, and others at the forefront of the conversation about genetic engineering came together to talk about the future of food.

Watch the webinar below. 

The post The Future of Food: Exploring the Politics, Ethics, and Impacts of Genetic Engineering appeared first on Real Food Media.

Photo by Rucha Chitnis

The Pacific Declaration—shared with you below—was a statement drafted by two dozen scientists, ethicists, and experts in agriculture and environmental protection at the dawn of the age of genetic engineering. These forward-thinking leaders, including my own dad, were calling on regulators, policymakers—all of us—to embrace a precautionary approach to these new technologies. Now, as we celebrate the twentieth anniversary of this declaration, their words feel as relevant as ever. We share the complete statement and signatories below. You can read my Earth Island Journal column about it here.

THE PACIFIC DECLARATION

We the undersigned, in recognition of the fundamental importance of our planet’s natural genetic heritage and diversity, and in acknowledgment of the power of genetic engineering to transform this heritage, believe that the proponents and practitioners of genetic technologies must adhere to the principles of prudence, transparency and accountability.

We also aver that respect for life, ensuring a habitable planet, and protecting ecosystems are universally recognized and fundamental human values. For this reason, those altering the genetic integrity of natural species bear the burden of proving their interventions will not jeopardize these values.

We also believe in democracy. In democratic societies, any decision to deploy powerful new technologies must be made with full public participation and accountability. To date, our government, international agencies, public universities and biotechnology corporations have neglected these objectives. Therefore we declare:

1. 1. Environmental safety and public health require the systematic study of any transgenically modified living organism over multiple generations before allowing its environmental release or marketing;
   2. All proposed products derived from genetic engineering must be shown to contribute to the general welfare of consumers, farmers and society without compromising the viability of traditional agricultural practices, including organic farming;
   3. Farmers and agrarian peoples generally who have cultivated, nurtured and developed crops have the right to control their crop materials;
   4. Such control includes the right to cultivate indigenous or conventional species using traditional methods, and freely to use or re-use any genetic seed stock;
   5. People should have access to all relevant data concerning the potential effect of genetically modified organisms on the health of present or future generations;
   6. People have the right to accept or decline any food product for personal, religious or philosophical reasons;
   7. In the absence of compelling evidence showing the equivalence and safety of genetically engineered compared to conventional foods, all food products derived from genetic technologies must be accurately labeled;
   8. The medical injunction to “do no harm” requires adequate and sufficient pre- and post-market testing and surveillance of genetically engineered products;
   9. The present lack of such testing contravenes this injunction and thereby jeopardizes universal access to safe food, potentially putting at risk present and future vulnerable populations including pregnant women and young children; and
   10. Because the fundamental discoveries of genetic engineering were developed through public funding, justice requires that any and all risks, costs and benefits of the products of genetic engineering be equitably distributed in society.

Until we have guarantees and assurances that the above-stated requirements and objectives are no longer compromised by government and industry practices; and

Until our government has created a comprehensive and effective regulatory system for all products of genetic engineering; and

Until such fundamental and constitutionally guaranteed protections of life and liberty, as well as protection of the health of the environment, food security and consumer right to know are vouchsafed;

We call upon our governmental representatives to suspend any further introduction of genetically engineered organisms and to hold the practitioners of genetic engineering, whether they be corporations, universities or governmental agencies fully liable for any adverse consequences of their work.

Signatories

CONFEREES

Alliance for Bio-Integrity
Steven M. Druker, President
Fairfield, Iowa

Campaign for Food Safety
Ronnie Cummins, National Director
Little Marais, Minnesota

Center for Environmental Health
Michael Green
Oakland, CA

Center for Ethics and Toxics
Marc Lappé, Director
Britt Bailey, Senior Associate
Gualala, CA

Center for Food Safety
Joseph Mendelson, Legal Director
Washington, D.C.

Commonweal
Michael Lerner, President
Davis Baltz
Bolinas, CA

The Constellation Fund
Christina L. Desser
San Francisco, CA

Consumer’s Choice Council
Chad Dobson, Director
Washington, DC

Corporate Agribusiness Research Project
A.V. Krebs, Director
Everett, WA

Council for Responsible Genetics
Martin Teitel, Executive Director
Ruth Hubbard
Doreen Stabinsky
Paul R. Billings
Cambridge, MA

The Edmonds Institute
Beth Burrows, President/Director
Edmonds, WA

Environmental Health Fund
Gary Cohen, Executive Director
Lowell, MA

Food and Farming Forum
Claire Cummings, Director
Berkeley, CA

Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy
Peter M. Rosset, Executive Director
Oakland, CA

Foundation on Economic Trends
Jeremy Rifkin, President
Jon Akland, Research Director
Burlington, VT

Friends of the Earth
Larry Bohlen, Director, Health and Environment Programs
Washington, DC

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Mark Ritchie, President
Renske van Staveren
Minneapolis, MN

The Natural Law Party of the USA
Kingsley Brooks, Chairman
Laura Ticciati, Executive Director
Mothers for Natural Law
Fairfield, Iowa

Occidental Arts and Ecology Center
Dave Henson, Executive Director
Occidental, CA

Pesticide Action Network of North America
Ellen Hickey, Director of Research and Communications
San Francisco, CA

Pesticide Watch
Gregg Small, Executive Director
San Francisco, CA

Rural Advancement Foundation International, USA
Michael Sligh, Director of Sustainable Agriculture
Chapel Hill, NC

Rural Vermont
Ellen H. Taggart, Executive Director
Montpelier, VT

Washington Biotechnology Action Council
Philip Bereano
Seattle, WA

Western Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
John Fawcett-Long, Coordinator
William Aal
Seattle, WA

American Corn Growers Association
Dan McGuire, Policy Chairman
Lincoln, NE

ADDITIONAL SIGNERS

Abiquiu Organics
Scott Markman
Abiquia, NM

Alliance for Democracy of Indiana
Stefanie Miller, Secretary
Indianapolis, IN

Association of State Green Parties, U.S.A.
Anna Goeke, Tom Sevigny, Betty Zisk, Co-Chairs
[Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming]

Breast Cancer Fund
Andrea Martin, Founder and Executive Director
San Francisco, CA

Calvary Church
Douglass M. Bailey, Rector
William Shephard, Calvary Green Committee Chairman
Memphis, TN

Center for Environmental Health
Ann Melamed, Health Care
Without Harm Project Manager
Oakland, CA

Community Health Advocates
Michael Freund
San Francisco, CA

Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund
Tom Turner*
San Francisco, CA

Environmental Health Coalition
Joy Williams
San Diego, CA

FarmFolk/CityFolk
Herb Barbolet, Executive Director
Vancouver, BC

Catholic Healthcare West
Susan Vickers
San Francisco, CA

Collective Heritage Institute
Nina Simons, Public Policy and Legal Services Coordinator
Santa Fe, NM

Earth Justice Ministries
Reverend Sharon Delgado
Santa Cruz, CA

Episcopal Diocese of California, Commission for the Environment
The Reverend Sally Bingham, Chair
San Francisco, CA

Green Party of St. Louis/Gateway Green Alliance
Barbara Chicherio, Co-coordinator,
St. Louis, MO

The Humane Society of the United States
Dr. Michael W. Fox, Senior Scholar, Bioethics
Washington, DC

Indicators Program, Redefining Progress
Mathis Wackernagel, Director
San Francisco, CA

Institute for World Religions
Ron Epstein, Research Professor
Berkeley, CA

Mendocino Environmental Center
Linda McClure, Coordinator
Ukiah, CA

Mothers & Others for a Livable Planet
Betsy Lydon, Program Director
New York, New York

Natural Resources Defense Council
Gina M. Solomon, Senior Scientist
San Francisco, CA

Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, Sustainable Agriculture
Program Association
Jeff Rast
Fairfield, ID

Organic Consumers Association
Ben Lilliston, Director,
Little Marais, Minnesota

Our Lady of Victory Missionary Sisters
Sr. Lucy Regalado, President
Leadership Team Council Member
Huntington, Indiana

Physicians for Social Responsibility
Robert M. Gould, President
SF-Bay Area Chapter
San Francisco, CA

Shalom Center
Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director
Philadelphia, PA

Sierra Club
Laurel Hopwood, Biotechnology Task Force Chair
San Francisco, CA

Sisters, Adrian Dominican
Margaret Weber
Adrian, MI

Soul of Agriculture
Stanislaus J. Dundon*
Coordinator
Davis California

Sussex County Mission of the Episcopal Church &
Delmarva Poultry Justice Alliance
Reverend Jim Lewis
Bethany Beach, Delaware

Sustainable Agriculture Working Group
Stacie Clary, Director
Santa Cruz, CA

Univ. of Wisconsin – Madison Greens
John E. Peck
Madison, WI

Women’s Cancer Resource Center
Diane Estrin, Executive Director
Catherine Porter, Public Policy and Legal Services Coordinator
Berkeley, CA

*organizational affiliation listed for the purpose of identification only

The post The Pacific Declaration and the Future of Food appeared first on Real Food Media.

By Anna Lappé, Earth Island Journal

2009. That was the last year there was any significant legislation on the table to confront the climate crisis barreling down on us. The Waxman-Markey Bill passed in the House and failed in the Senate. And that was it: Over and out. Fossil fuel companies helped kill that bill and anything else aimed at regulating the industry, spending an estimated $2 billion since 2000 alone.

These billions have landed blow after blow to the environmental movement and, in turn, to the planet. Now, a new Congress and reenergized environmental movement is breathing fresh life into the idea of comprehensive climate change policy — and food and agriculture could, and should, play a starring role. The Green New Deal is what it’s being called, which The Hill characterizes as “a climate change initiative that aims to fight carbon emissions by transitioning the country to 100 percent renewable energy use.”

Few around the country had even heard of it just a few months ago. But in last year’s mid-term elections a number of the winning candidates, including Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, ran on a platform that included the Green New Deal. A week after those elections, the youth-led Sunrise Movement occupied House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office demanding a select committee on the Green New Deal to hash out just what this bold vision could look like. By December 2018, a whopping 81 percent of all registered voters in a George Mason and Yale University poll — Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike — either somewhat or strongly supported the idea of a Green New Deal. Said Saikat Chakrabarti, chief of staff for Ocasio-Cortez, “We thought it would take a year to get a movement going around the Green New Deal … [Instead] it took weeks.”

While a select committee with teeth was replaced with a climate-focused committee that has more limited powers, the conversation has shifted and popular imagination has been ignited. As bright minds dig into the details, and movements continue applying pressure, it’s critical to keep food at the forefront, not least because our food producers are so vulnerable to the crisis. As Renata Brillinger from the California Climate and Agriculture Network notes: “Farmers and ranchers are on the frontlines of the impacts of climate change, facing drought, wildfires and record-breaking weather extremes.”

But food and agriculture should also be central to a Green New Deal because food producers can play a critical role in climate mitigation and adaptation. As Brillinger adds: Farmers and ranchers “are also on the frontlines of delivering powerful solutions that cut emissions and — importantly and uniquely — sink carbon by improving soil health.”

This food-friendly Green New Deal can take a page from the Golden State, learning, for instance, from the work done by Brillinger and her network, which has helped to pass a suite of agriculture programs that have moved more than $200 million to farmers to incentivize storing carbon, saving water and energy, reducing methane emissions on livestock operations, and permanently protecting agricultural land. This precedent-setting policy could inspire one comprehensive food and agriculture component of the Green New Deal.

It’s impossible to predict what happens next. One thing we do know: Sitting on the sidelines will only help ensure nothing does. Putting our voices behind a big and bold vision, and including food at its heart, could just made the Green New Deal a reality.

Header photo by Sunrise Movement

The post Food at the Heart of a Green New Deal appeared first on Real Food Media.

Readers will learn the basic elements of the bill, its origins and history, and perhaps most importantly, the battles that will determine the direction of food policy in the coming years. The authors trace how the legislation has evolved, from its first incarnation during the Great Depression, to today, when America has become the world’s leading agricultural powerhouse. They explain the three main components of the bill—farm subsidies, food stamps or SNAP, and conservation programs—as well as how crucial public policies are changing.

With a new farm bill just signed into law, we all need to understand the implications of food policy. What’s the impact of crop insurance? How does SNAP actually work? What would it take to create a healthier, more sustainable food system? These are questions that affect not only farmers, but everyone who eats. If you care about the answers, The Farm Bill is your guide.

Download the annotated Table of Contents

The post The Farm Bill: A Citizen’s Guide appeared first on Real Food Media.