Dirty Words? L@$&! F@%D
Posted in Local Food, What's Up With That? on 27. Jan, 2010
Ostensibly, the initiative aims to connect local consumers with local producers to create new economic opportunities for communities. The campaign includes a short video of the secretary of agriculture encouraging consumers to get to know their farmer and promoting the importance of local food.
I don’t have a sense of the authenticity of this campaign. Is there real action behind these words? The U.S. has the most industrialized agricultural industry in the world so I have my suspicions that this new campaign may lean towards talk the talk rather than walk the walk. Indeed, most folks in the alternative food scene in Oregon that I talk to about the ‘campaign’ are cautious if not outright distrustful that it, in anyway, represents actual change. Just lip-service.
Or, with optimism and perhaps Obamaism, these words may actually be a first step towards real positive change. I recently sat down for a chat with an extension agent in Oregon. He commented on how his colleagues in USDA are all excited (the ones who embrace alternatives) about the new direction of the current administration. Apparently it is even fun to work at USDA in this new era
– it sounds like those who resent industrial agriculture and desire change didn’t enjoy their time under the Bush administration.
A month later, I begin reading reports, blog entries, and notices on listservs that the British government released a document entitled: “Food 2030” outlining a new vision of a sustainable food future for Britain. There have been critics of the plan, suggesting that it is at best inadequate in utility because it places too much of the burden of change on the consumer, and at worst an underhanded greenwash for an industrial agricultural future. Yet, my sense is that it, like the American “Know Your Farmer” campaign, is at the very least a good place to start – simple public acknowledgement of the potential of alternative agro-food futures. The start of a much needed dialogue. At least they’re talking about it.
Food activists in Canada would probably pinch themselves if they heard Gerry Ritz, our Minister of Agriculture, muttering such blasphemy as, “Support the development of local and regional food systems” or “Do you know your farmer?”.
Indeed Local (The “L” word) seems to be considered a dirty word by our federal government. I’ve heard tales of proposals for federal funding for local food initiatives being turned away or substantially revised to rid the proposal of all mention of the dreaded “L” word.
Domestic marketing is the preferred language – which effectively re-defines ‘local’ as ‘national’ or ‘grown in Canada’ – yet I would imagine that there are few Canadians who would consider an apple grown on Vancouver Island to be local if it was being eating on Prince Edward Island. Such stale and neoliberal language (domestic marketing) also denudes local food of all the environmental and ethical values that many local food proponents espouse.
The message is clear – the federal government supports export-orientated production almost exclusively.Buy why? Most of us believe in supporting ‘local’ at some level. There is a growing demand for locally produced food that supports farmers, reduces transportation, allows for closer connections between eater and farmer and builds both food security and food sovereignty at multiple scales – from local to global.
There are many arguments for supporting local that appeal to different folks with diverse politics. Indeed, the catch-all nature of the word ‘local’ is problematic in that it can easily include many of the models of agriculture that some believe to be extremely destructive (e.g. there are many industrial hog barns within 100 miles of Winnipeg).
Yet, the broad attraction to ‘the local’ is also a wonderful uniter – most seem to understand the benefits of supporting your neighbor, your community, local business, etc. (re-) Localization seems like a relatively easy movement to get behind for lots of different reasons. Two reasons that should appeal, at the very least, to our federal government are: new niche opportunities for farmers (read: possibilities for increased farm viability) and improving food security of the country. But alas…
Perhaps it isn’t necessarily the ‘L’ word that threatens the federal government but but the ‘F’ word - Food.
Despite being titled the Department of Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, their agricultural focus is almost entirely on commodity production. Agricultural value is seen in $’s and cents whereby producers grow agricultural outputs that become commodities destined for a global market. Commodities only become F@%D after they are aggregated, transported, disassembled, manufactured, recombined, inspected, and finally appear on the grocery store shelves – i.e. when value is added by the many hands that handle the food on the way to your plate. Perhaps a more fitting (or honest) name for the Department would be Agriculture and Agro-commodity Canada. But that just doesn’t have the same ring to it does it?
Is it really that radical to push for shorter, closer relationships where farm products become food very soon after they leave the farm (or better yet are never commoditized and remain as food from farm to fork)? To develop L@$&! F@%D systems or networks that meet the growing demand for fair, safe and clean food. Hardly a radical proposition – is it?
Why the resistance. What is it about L@$%! F@%D that, despite a huge interest from the Canadian citizenship, L@$%! F@%D receives almost no attention from our federal agricultural ministry. It is hard to believe that our leaders in the Federal Government can tell themselves that the state of our current agri-food system is all roses.
Poverty runs rampant, the farm family may need to be put on an endangered species list, food safety scares abound, our agri-food practices damage the earth, obesity, waste, pain, injustice…. In the face of such a multidimensional crises, if we can’t even get our government to even admit the potential of alternative visions of an agro-food future (e.g. local food), we have a long ways to go before substantial positive tangible change is made in the Canadian agro-food system.
Time to wake up Ottawa! Let us seek opportunities at home as well as abroad for our farmers and ranchers. Let us pursue a more balanced and resilient future for food and farming in Canada. Can we at least start talking about it?
