Green Means

Sustainably Produced in the USA

By Shannon Scott

           

            Several months ago China’s vice president, Xi Jinping, poised to become president next year (now Pres. 2013), visited Iowa farms, met with Iowa’s governor, and toured the Port of L.A.  This diplomacy lent the impression that China will continue importing American food crops keeping American farmers and farm corporations flush with cash -  temporarily.

            All nations want food independence, to not be beholden to foreign lands to feed their people.  China doesn’t want our soy beans.  They want how we farm.  This means selling advanced biochemically engineered crops, farming strategies, and state of the art equipment technologies that took companies like Monsanto and John Deere decades to develop. 

            Chinese officials are negotiating with big AG companies to export U.S. farm methods to China.  This will increase cash windfalls to North American agricultural company giants as they secure deals to take current widely used farming techniques abroad.  Once the Chinese increase per acre yield, and implement better food safety measures to avoid toxins and poisons that have resulted in numerous illnesses and deaths, deals for U.S. and Canadian food crops will be fewer.

            America’s state of the art super yields may seem idyllic to developing nations, but they are not suitable for human, environmental, and economic health.  We know how chemicals like Round Up created super weeds, caused human health problems, broke down soils, and made farms increasingly dependent upon super chemicals in order to grow anything at all.  Instead of being dependent upon crop imports, China will become dependent upon chemical and equipment imports. 

            In the midterm, China may increase production, but with the country’s contaminated soils, limited water, and heavily polluted air, crops will remain unsafe.  Consumer demand for foods grown in the U.S. and Canada will continue – as long as consumers here, who firmly grasp the largest purchasing power in the world, demand sustainably grown, unadulterated food crops. 

            Increasing numbers of middle class and affluent domestic and global consumers prefer foods grown, harvested, and processed with health and sustainability in mind.  If we, U.S. consumers, support sustainable agricultural methods, organic or nearly organically grown foods, we will control and dictate the global market on premium, safe foods while ensuring that foods we eat are top quality. 

            Farmers will plant what yields the highest profits, and currently that’s corn and soy for the commodities market, dictated currently by China.  Our buying power can start to change this.

            Our first prudent step is to stop buying Chilean grapes, South African pears, and other imported produce.  Buying local and regional food crops in season will keep the money here in the U.S. and encourage farmers to plant more of what we want, what Americans actually eat.  Apples are only fresh in fall and winter, come spring and summer check the labels – they’re likely coming from New Zealand or elsewhere.

            U.S. farmland has supplied the world with incomparable amounts of food, sheltered wildlife, supplied scenic vistas and open space, helped air quality (provided that chemicals were minimized), and improved nearby living conditions.  We must get back to the land of past decades in order to save soil and produce food high quality safe foods for our domestic market, and to set a global standard.  The best is always in demand. 

            So what’s imperative to save our farmlands and our economic future? 

·       Rewrite the Farm Bill so that agricultural giants who are currently subsidized to grow commodities for the foreign market no longer get huge amounts of our tax dollars.  The 2008 Farm Bill, due to be rewritten this year, has provided $4.9 billion per year with most of it going to big agricultural operations, like Cargill  and ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) the largest grain producer in the world and whose earnings annually are in the tens of billions. Very little money actually gets to small farms.

·       Instead of farm subsidies that promote industrial farming tailored to emergent nations, let’s increase funding for programs that support local and regional food production.  Let’s subsidize what we want to eat, not what sells abroad. 

·       Agricultural colleges must receive funding to study the impacts of locally produced foods on local and regional economies, human health, and the environment.  It’s important for us to stay firmly abreast and ahead in agricultural science.

·       Avoid buying foreign grown, imported produce.  Why buy apples and pears from South America or grapes from Chile?  Eat seasonally available foods grown in the U.S., Canada, or Mexico: apples, potatoes, and squash in the fall and winter; leaf crops, berries, and beets in spring and summer. 

·       Congress should remove barriers in commodity subsidies that bar farmers from planting fruits and vegetables.  We don’t eat enough of the foods the USDA recommends for optimal health – more fruits, more vegetables, not sugar beets for high sugar, highly processed foods.

·       Congress and the USDA must improve federal crop insurance policies for healthy-food farms – not those that exist to produce high fructose corn syrup, and other non-healthy food additives.

·       Congress should expand small scale lending programs to farmers who sell to local and regional markets, not internationally.

·       We can make farmers’ markets common in every community, supporting standards and guidelines for produce and processed foods sold.   

·       Most importantly, buy in ways that support human, national, and planet health.  Not everything has to, or must, be organic, but if it’s “Product of the USA” this will give us a strong start.