https://civileats.com/2024/03/26/in-barons-austin-frerick-takes-on-the-most-powerful-families-in-the-food-system/ Daily News and Commentary About the American Food System Mon, 10 Jun 2024 23:58:26 +0000 hourly 1 https://civileats.com/2024/03/26/in-barons-austin-frerick-takes-on-the-most-powerful-families-in-the-food-system/#comment-309481 Wed, 27 Mar 2024 19:23:48 +0000 https://civileats.com/?p=55738#comment-309481 I really appreciate this piece and cannot wait to read Frerick’s book. The food system is so complex it is difficult to make completely cogent arguments for reform. For example, Frerick wants good healthy food to be available in Dollar stores, but that would likely mean less dollars flowing to the farmers and ranchers producing the food. The way to make it possible for all income levels to buy good food is to raise wages, particulary for the 10% of employed Americans who are food chain workers and the lowest paid sector in the country. As we are seeing in California where we have raised wages and created overtime for farmworkers the cost of food will rise. Perhaps the solution to this dilemma rests in a combination of higher wages and education to increase the willingness of Americans to spend more on food because we realize the consequences of cheap food to our health, worker lives, rural economies and the ecosystem. I also agree that we need to completely rethink the Farm Bill. Its evolution is controlled by corporate money. Agriculture claims to not like government, but government is the basis of most profits in the commodity sector, it is welfare for agribusiness. When the first Farm bill was born during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression it was designed to protect the soil, ensure fair pricing for farmers and feed the millions of hungry Americans healthy food. Money in politics warped the system over time. We need to get back to the original goals. The current USDA is using the right language and heading in the right direction, but corporate money blunts change. One key is to set extreme limits on how much money flows to large agricultural businesses and to stop subsidizing insurance for producers not using organic and regenerative practices. In addition, we need to experiment with a new approach to food system infrastructure. Let’s create some pilot meat processing and school food production facilities that are public utilities owned by the communities in which they are located. The mission of these facilities should be to ensure human nutritional health, a clean environment and a robust rural economy. Our food system is clearly broken and full of contradictions, but because of Civil Eats and other publications on the beat, authors like Frerick, thousands of food system activists and progressive farmers and ranchers, real change is becoming increasingly possible.

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