This is a precis I have written of Michael Pollan‘s viewpoint in his book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”. Pollan is an American author, journalist, activist, and the Lewis K. Chan Arts Lecturer and Professor of Practice of Non-Fiction at Harvard University. He is also professor of journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Currently in America there are 160 million acres of monoculture – alternating between corn and soya bean – corn is for carbohydrates and soya bean for fat/protein in processed food. Why is this an issue?:
- Environment – this monoculture system requires huge amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to sustain it. In Iowa, to take an example, farmers apply 200 lbs./fertilizer/acre (100 lbs. is more than enough). The runoff from this fertilizer runs into the Des Moines River – from which Des Moines get its drinking water – and then into the Mississippi River where it spills out into the Gulf of Mexico, creating a dead zone at some times of the year the size of New Jersey.
- Health – as omnivores humans need a mix of macronutrients and micronutrients of all kinds that we cannot get from processed food. As such, kids in America are showing up at health clinics who are overweight but deficient in minerals.
So who benefits?
The food industry which can make huge profits. For example, a 7c bushel of corn can be turned into a $4 packet of cereal.
So is organic an alternative?
To serve the supermarket chains, organic has to be at a level of industrial organic. So-called “free range” chicken operations raise their chickens in CAFO-style operations. The consumer has to pay more for organic food, but as it becomes more prevalent, prices are coming down and some efficiencies are making it more competitive with cheap food.
The role of regenerative agriculture
Under the industrial-agricultural system the basic assumption is more for us and less for nature is taken as a given i.e. a zero sum. On a visit to Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm in Virginia, Michael Pollan spent 7 days studying his farming practices. Salatin raises 5–6 different species on 100 acres, with his land broken up into little units and based on mobility. Basically, using this system soil is created from the bottom up using the ruminants such that – even though a very large amount of produce is taken off the land – there is still more soil, equaling greater fertility and diversity, at the end of each year.
So how can change to the current system be effected?
The plethora of cheap food is basically down to the current farm policies that were introduced to encourage farmers to overproduce corn (40% GMO) and soya bean (70% GMO) via a subsidies system, which results in, for example, high fructose corn syrup that is prevalent is most processed foods. Such policies have worked too well. The need now is to create a level playing field between the cheap unhealthy calories (normally foodstuffs found in the centers of supermarkets) and the more expensive healthy calories (foodstuffs found at the edges of supermarkets).
Currently the average American spends 9.9% of their income on food, which compares to Europe, for example, where the average European say in France or Italy spends between 15 – 17% of their income on food. In comparison, Americans spend more on healthcare – around 16%, $250 billion/year – on health-related diseases such as obesity.
So is regenerative agriculture the solution?
Under the current system there is a cultural problem where the consumer is letting the food corporations do the cooking for them, so the outsourcing of cooking has got us into trouble. Under the regenerative system, more farm laborers will be required as it is more labor-intensive and the food is non-microwavable etc. so the emphasis will have to be on re-educating people to cook once more e.g. by introducing cooking classes back into schools (Alice Water’s The Edible Schoolyard Project is already doing this).
To really achieve regenerative agriculture’s success, buying “local” has to acquire the same glamour as buying “organic”. Pressure needs to exerted on the institutional buyer of food such as hospitals, schools etc. which will force the big food corporations to respond (and respond they will as they are incredibly sensitive both to food scandals and food trends).
