Take Back Our Food; The Scourge of Industrial Farming
“Cutting the Curd” gets political with Heather Squire, the coordinator for Occupy Wall Street‘s (#OWS ) food preparation and delivery. From washing dishes to feeding over 3,000 people in a single weekend, Heather explains how she and the food team in Zucotti Park have devised a large-scale food distribution system: The Peoples Kitchen.
Delving into another facet of the food justice movement in tandem with Occupy Wall Street is dairy farmer and activist Lorraine Lewandrowsky and fromager Tia Keenan. The group discusses cheese economics and the plight for more transparency (sic) which comes from more small dairies and less industrial farming and processing. Learn how you can help this movement, from volunteering to sending food supplies or attending the Occupy Big Food movement.
Related Articles:
- From Slow Food USA
- From Civil Eats
- From the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
- From Mother Jones
Action Alert
Grist Magazine, June 10, 2009
“As the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill moves forward in the House, Big Ag interest groups are circling their plows and sharpening their pitchforks. Some of the largest corporations in the agribusiness sector-including the GMO-and-herbicide giant Monsanto-are pushing to control how agriculture would fit into the bill’s cap-and-trade scheme.
The main agent for their will is House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), who has launched a veritable jihad to make sure the historic climate legislation hews to the interests of “production” (i.e., industrial) agriculture. Via Farm Policy blog, here’s an MP3 clip of Peterson’s latest harumphing on Waxman-Markey, in an interview with a radio program called Agritalk, which is sponsored by Monsanto, Syngenta, and Archer Daniels Midland.”
Is this the change that you voted for?
Don’t Let Big Agribusiness Ruin Food Safety Reform
June 16th, 2009
Dear Supporter,
Here’s the good news: after countless recalls, including the disastrous peanut butter-related Salmonella outbreak this winter, Congress is finally considering Congressman Waxman’s food safety bill — the bill goes to the House Energy and Commerce Committee this week. The bad news? You guessed it, big ag is pulling out all the stops to weaken the bill. Can your tell your Member of Congress you want a strong food safety bill?
Big ag will always have more money to fight these battles than we do, but we have something they don’t — thousands of activists who will contact Congress. Congress needs to hear from all of us if they are going to stand up to big ag.
Here’s what your Member of Congress needs to hear about the food safety bill:
1) The bill must include frequent inspections of food processing plants. The Peanut Corporation of America debacle showed that industry self-regulation just doesn’t cut it.
2) It must set strong standards for imports that are equal to the standards that apply to domestically produced food.
3) It must include sensible regulations that work for farmers of all sizes – that include flexibility, not one-size-fits-all rules geared toward the largest operations.
We won’t get many chances to fix our broken food safety system, so it’s critical that we stand up now and stop big ag from weakening Congressman Waxman’s food safety bill. Can you contact your Member of Congress today?
http://action.foodandwaterwatch.org/t/741/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1122
Thanks for taking action,
Alex, Sarah, Noelle and the Food Team
Food & Water Watch
goodfood(at)fwwatch.org
