All Politics, All the Time: Food Security

Many of us are familiar with the locavore food movement. It encourages people to buy locally-produced food; food produced via sustainable, land-friendly techniques. Locavores make the argument that local food is both fresher and has less of a carbon footprint. It's food that's good for us and good for the environment.

And then, of course, there is the matter of the safety of our food supply. From concerns about e-coli in U.S. mass-produced food (from beef to spinach, it's a problem that's not going away) to melamine in Chinese-produced food, it's time to acknowledge that modern agribusiness is not serving the world very well.

It's time for new ideas.

Consumption of locally-produced food will do a lot more than improve the quality of the food we eat. Locally produced food grown using sustainable techniques by our regional neighbors has the effect of ensuring that our land is being maintained by responsible land-stewards. Back in the day, we called these folks farmers. But farmers in the United States are an increasingly extinct population, as major corporations have taken over the business of growing our food. Government subsidies for corn and soybean growing have ensured a cheap, though nutritionally-weak, food supply. But it's also a low-quality food-supply, produced by an industrial-model that favors the use of pesticides, fossil-fueled machinery, massive processing and then long-distance transportation. The result is relatively cheap food. It is also nutritionally questionable food. It's time for a new food-production policy; one that helps the nation and our national health.

We already spend billions of dollars to subsidize the food industry, so let's use our dollars to solve some of the big problems on our planet: environmental improvement via sustainable farming methods, providing good local jobs, and making healthier food produced using less fossil-fuels. Better care for our land will result in a cleaner environment. We can ensure ourselves a safer food supply with an emphasis on local growth and consumption; utilizing organic and sunlight-based land care. Food produced in an environmentally friendly way will require more labor, but that's okay, as we have people in this nation who need work. If the United States produces and consumes food grown here at home, other nations will also do the same, thus guaranteeing them a safe, locally produced food supply sustained by local workers.

It won't be easy to change our habits. Americans love cheap, highly processed food. I'm not immune to the pleasures of drinking a high-fructose can of Coke while I eat my salsa and tortilla chips. We can still enjoy those pleasures, of course, though we will likely drink less soda when its costs are no longer artificially lower than a glass of juice or milk. Healthier food grown on healthier land will give us healthier bodies. It will sustain us in so many ways. It will be better for the nation and it will be better for the world.