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Thursday, August 26th, 2010, 11:07 AM
Check out this video from Nourish, a multi-year media and education initiative aimed at getting people to think and learn more about the food system – and to get involved in the food revolution.
Bite Blog is produced by Anna Lappé with friends and colleagues from around the country.
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August 26th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
One of the remarks in this video clip warrants correction… organic isn’t necessarily good for the environment. Perhaps our greatest challenge in changing our food system is in conveying the story about how our food affects the world around us.
The present aim of a label like organic isn’t to tell a story. It’s merely to make people who are concerned about where their food comes from feel good about purchasing that food. The organic label has become a smokescreen, and it’s going to take a lot more than a label to educate consumers about the myriad of relationships that a living entity like food has with the resources that sustain it, and us.
September 7th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
While I certainly agree that the USDA organic label doesn’t tell us everything about how our food was produced, it does at least impart more knowledge than no label at all. With the USDA certification, we know that most synthetic chemicals have not been used, that our food was not irradiated, does not include GM ingredients, nor was raised with sewage sludge. Yes, there may well be producers who skirt the law and/or take advantage of loopholes, the onus is on us to continue to put pressure on our government institutions tasked with upholding the meaning of organic to ensure that they do.
While the USDA organic certification does tell us this–and more–about how our food was produced, it says nothing about the labor conditions or the scale of production, for instance, nor does it purport to tell us how far away our food was grown.
I completely agree we need to go far beyond just a certification regime–any certification system–to educate each other about how to build a food system that is truly sustainable for all–for people and for the planet.