Food Sleuth: Take Your Conscience to the Market

By Melinda Hemmelgarn

Columbia Daily Tribune

November 5, 2008

Available online at: http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Nov/20081105Food011.asp

When Harry Belafonte took the stage at the American Dietetic Association’s closing ceremony at their annual meeting in Chicago last week, he said he had asked about what topic the organization would like him to discuss. He chuckled and said they told him "just don’t get too political."

"Too political?" Keep in mind that Belafonte has been a long-time advocate for civil rights and humanitarian causes throughout his career. With Martin Luther King, Belafonte helped lead the March on Washington in 1963. His work includes cultural adviser to the Peace Corps and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. He has dedicated his life to uniting people for causes often considered "controversial," and he’s not about to stop.

Belafonte explained that he "gave up the idea of retiring at age 70." Instead, he remains vitally committed to his causes, including work in Africa for the United Nations Children’s Fund and inspiring others to continue the fight against injustice throughout the world.

Belafonte spoke passionately about what he observes as society’s "indifference" to the social injustices we witness each day. He called that indifference both "immoral" and "unethical." And he asked us to join him in helping to repair our society’s "social collapse."

In fact, our food system often reflects that collapse. Consider, for example, the meals we eat in our cars, in front of our computers, or alone - removed from the benefits of human connection. Yet we know that eating in the pleasant company of others aids digestion and builds strong families.

Compare, too, the inequality of foods available to low-income neighborhoods versus high-earning families. Think of a "food desert" devoid of fresh wholesome food compared to the smorgasbord at a Whole Foods market.

The program that provides food coupons to poor women, infants and children frequently denies the purchase of organic foods because of higher "costs." Yet several speakers at the ADA conference presented undeniable science proving the benefits of organic food and agriculture for personal and environmental health.

For example, in one session, dietitian Angie Tagtow described soil fertility as the basis of public health - a connection that Sir Albert Howard recognized in 1940. Franklin Roosevelt also wrote "a nation that destroys its soils destroys itself."

Slick food industry public relations campaigns for high fructose corn syrup, fast food and soft drinks don’t reveal the true environmental and human health costs associated with factory farm food production and heavy fossil-fuel-dependent processing and distribution. Related soil erosion, water and air pollution, and farm worker and meat packer injuries and injustices could be considered immoral and unethical.

Tagtow and colleague Alison Harmon defined a truly "sustainable food system" as one that "conserves and renews natural resources, advances social justice and animal welfare, builds community wealth, and fulfills the food and nutrition needs of all eaters now and in the future."

No matter that it’s post-Election Day. We continue to vote every day with our forks, food dollars and choices. When we allow soft drink machines and fast-food fundraisers at our children’s schools, we enable legislators to underfund public education budgets.

When we purchase organic meat, dairy, fruits and vegetable, we vote for clean water and healthy soil. Conversely, when we buy food from factory farms that routinely use antibiotics and hormones, we vote to degrade our environment and harm public health.

But when we take action to support policies that protect family farmers and source local food, we vote for a democratic and sustainable future.

As Susan Roberts, dietitian and staff attorney for Drake University’s Agricultural Law Center, accepted her ADA Medallion Award for excellence in dietetic leadership, she advised us all to be active citizens. "Question, act and speak out," she said. When consumers join together and voice a desire for change, policy follows. Belafonte would have approved her political message.

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.