Take a Bite’s Anna Lappé Writes Back to TIME
- Topics:
- Hunger & Food Crisis
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008, 1:02 PM
Post-the Slow Food bash, TIME magazine published an article from Bryan Walsh: “Can Slow Food Feed the World?” In it, he repeated the now outdated claim that organic farming can’t feed the world. I wrote a response and much to my surprise (because they didn’t contact me), the mag printed it! Here’s what they published (and below what I sent them):
The Case for Slow Food
Thanks for your coverage of the Slow Food Movement [Sept. 15]. It is misleading, though, to claim that industrialized food “is the only way to economically feed a global population.” There is nothing economical about a system contributing a big chunk of our greenhouse-gas emissions. The drivers of global deforestation are large-scale agribusiness–not Sunshine heirloom-tomato farmers from Sonoma.
Anna Lappe, Brooklyn, NY
What I sent:
Dear Editor,
Thanks for your coverage of the 50,000-person strong Slow Food Nation pow-wow in San Francisco (“Can Slow Food Feed the World?” September 4, 2008), but let’s be clear: with all of the evidence about the environmental and human consequences of industrial farming, it is dangerously misleading to claim that industrialized food “is the only way to economically feed a global population nearing 7 billion.” There is nothing “economical” about a food system that is contributing to one-third of the devastating – and did I mention costly? – greenhouse gas emissions driving the climate crisis. Nor is there anything “economical” about the polluted waterways and impacted lives from the chemical contamination of the billions of pounds of active ingredient pesticides used every year in the United States and abroad.
Furthermore, Walsh takes another disingenuous jab at organic farming by claiming that the “Slow Food initiative might lead to turning more forests into farmland.” The drivers behind deforestation are large-scale agribusiness pushing into wetlands in Indonesia and rainforests in the Amazon, not Sunshine heirloom tomato farmers from Sonoma.
Anna Lappé
Take a Bite out of Climate Change
Brooklyn, NY
www.takeabite.cc
