“Yearning in the human soul to smell a flower, pet a pig, and enjoy food with a face has never been stronger,” preaches Joel Salatin, the man responsible for Polyface Farms, one of the best known working cases for commercially viable sustainable agriculture. I hope – no, pray – that he is correct. Because sometimes I worry that I am wrong, and that the growing trend towards eating organic, beyond organic, local and hyperlocal does not exist. What if it’s just a fad?
I read a lot about sustainable agriculture – books, articles, blogs, and even down to the mini-conversations that try to happen within 140 characters on Twitter. And it seems to me that people really care a lot about what they eat and where it comes from. But maybe it only looks like that to me because I’m paying attention to it. I am increasingly connected to the various sustainable food movements. It is like that psychological principle that we seek things out that reinforce our preexisting beliefs – confirmation bias. I become more aware and I believe in it. Then I filter my inputs so that it seems like everyone is on board.
But confirmation bias aside, it does seem like the right moment for the sustainable agriculture to succeed, or to fail. In spite of some depressing food-related legislative changes, we have a White House with a vegetable garden on the lawn, and a first lady who publicly advocates real food as a matter of course. No matter how depressing they may be, at least legislative developments from the Farm Bill to food safety indicate that food is a big issue.
Food is also increasingly connected to the public dialogue on health and health care. Obesity has become an epidemic in the United States. Diabetes, especially Type II and childhood onset diabetes are receiving increased media attention. Michael Pollan connected the dots between food and health in his recent New York Times op-ed.
But while being a big issue is necessary for a substantial level of change to occur, it is not always sufficient. In fact, too much talk translated into too little action will result in fatigue. The issue once in the front of peoples minds is pushed to the back by rhetoric and too much babble. We are already seeing it happen in terms of green washing. What will it take to prevent it from happening with sustainable agriculture as well?
If the battle for real food is going to be won, we must see sufficient change before the chatter is too loud for too long. And in order for that to happen, the sustainable agriculture movement needs to find some level of consensus on wat success looks like, and how it will be measured.
What does sustainable agriculture mean to you?
Photography: http://www.flickr.com/photos/galant/ / CC BY 2.0
