Food Sleuth: Save the Homeland by Protecting the Farmland

By Melinda Hemmelgarn

Columbia Daily Tribune

March 12, 2008

Available online at: http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Mar/20080312Food011.asp

Michael Chandler’s award-winning documentary "Knee Deep" tells the story of Josh Osborne and the love and loss of his family’s third-generation dairy farm in Farmington, Maine. Osborne left school in the sixth grade to work alongside his father on the farm, with the promise that it would all be his one day.

So you can imagine and perhaps understand Osborne’s reaction when years later, after his beloved father died, his mother announced plans to sell the farm to a developer. Osborne wanted to kill her.

That’s what compelled Chandler to create his film.

Osborne’s mother escaped contemplated matricide, but in the end "West Grandview Estates" took the place of rolling pasture and a functioning dairy farm.

Anyone who likes to eat should be concerned about the commonplace conversion of farmland to residential and commercial development. For example, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, development gobbles up 3,000 acres of productive U.S. farmland daily. The American Farmland Trust claims that "every minute of every day, we lose two acres of agricultural land to development." And Farm Aid reports that nearly 5 million fewer farms dot the American landscape compared with the 1930s. Of the 2 million remaining farms, only 565,000 are family operations.

Whether you see the shift of land use as progress or foolishness depends on how comfortable you feel about importing a greater percentage of your food. Consider what happened to Britain in 1942. During World War II, Germany stationed its navy in the Atlantic, cutting off food imports to Britain. The German tactic was so successful that at one point Britain had only six weeks’ worth of rations before the British people starved. As a result, Britain realized importing food was not the most efficient way to eat, and the country launched a "Dig for Victory" campaign encouraging citizens to grow more of their own food to regain food security.

Interestingly, China takes a similar position. Speaking last month at the Midwestern Organic Conference in La Crosse, Wis., Roger Blobaum, a Washington, D.C.-based agricultural consultant who has traveled extensively in China, said that "food self-sufficiency is part of their national policy."

Andrew Kimbrell, an attorney who directs the Center for Food Safety in Washington, D.C., also spoke in Wisconsin. He suggested that when we speak of "progress," we should ask ourselves, "Progress toward what?" Kimbrell believes "sacred" is not too strong a word to use when describing homegrown food and the farmland that sustains us.

Chandler’s film unveils more than Osborne’s tragic tale. As I watched the gut-wrenching destruction of the still-solid barn built by Osborne’s grandfather and listened to the cruel, crushing sounds of the bulldozer as it demolished in two days what took three generations to build, I thought of our nation’s loss of "food self-sufficiency."

Consumers can influence the direction of our farm policies, preserve American farms and protect true homeland security. Here are some key strategies:

● Shop at farmers markets and keep local farms on the map.

● Dine at restaurants that feature locally grown food.

● Keep up to date about farm and land-use issues, and let your legislators know how you feel.

● Plant a garden. Grow something this year, even if it’s just a single pot of herbs or cherry tomatoes.

● Stay informed - American Farmland Trust: www.farmland.org; Farm Aid: www.farmaid.org; Sustainable Table: www.sustainabletable.org/issues/family farms; Missouri Rural Crisis Center: add your name to the mailing list for updates on local agricultural issues, such as concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, that threaten our air and water quality and land values: 449-1336.

Special thanks to visionary community leaders Paul Sturtz and David Wilson for bringing "Knee Deep" and its producers to Columbia for the True/False Film Festival. If you missed this important documentary, view some clips at: www.kneedeepthedoc.com.

Melinda Hemmelgarn, M.S., R.D., is a clinical dietitian, advocate for sustainable food systems and 2004-2006 Food and Society Policy Fellow. She lives in Columbia.