Big Teeth, Huge Ass, Unsurprisingly Hungry
By tomstrong | Related entries in BloggingGreetings. My name’s Tom Strong, formerly of The Yellow Line and wheat think, and I’m here to write about food politics and agricultural policy.
Food politics is a hot subject nowadays - consider the recent success of Fast Food Nation, Super Size Me, and The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It’s also a great point for examining how the personal meets the political. Yet it’s hard to find much about food topics on political blogs like this one, and when they are explored politically it’s often from the extremes. I’m more interested in approaching current food and agriculture questions journalistically, with a minimum of cant and a maximum of fact-finding.
That said, everyone has their conflicts of interest and here are mine. Although I’m in the midst of a career change, I’ve worked in the organic food industry as a retailer, marketer, and educator for the past five years. I regard the organic industry as occupying a middle ground - perhaps in some ways a radical middle ground - between the industrial agribusiness model on one hand, and the developing “local” food movements on the other. I am deeply interested in all three of these supply chains, and regard them all as useful and necessary, but I’m probably most sympathetic to the local food chains (perhaps because I like to root for the underdog).
As an eater, I’m all over the map. I’m an omnivore, like all humans; I’ve been a vegan in the past, but am no longer. I’m an amateur chef and baker, and spend a much greater percentage of my income on food than do most Americans. I also take great pleasure in what I eat, though perhaps not quite as much as this guy.
I’m honored to discuss the top edible issues of our times with you. Many thanks to Justin for having me.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13th, 2006 and is filed under Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 14th, 2006 at 9:54 am
Welcome back to the ranks of the omnivores! It’s the moderate dietary position, you know.
July 14th, 2006 at 10:32 am
Hi Tom - I’m a lawyer in Missouri and my most recent client is an organic rice farming and milling operation that wishes to take advantage of the Next Generation Cooperative Tax Credit Act.
I’m a very big believer and supporter in local, organic farmers — from an economic & social/culture & political level. Farming cooperatives, I believe are an incredibly effective way to bring small organic farmers into “economies of scale” and make them competitive with big agri-business.
I’d be curious to get your take on the recent push in many rural states to incentivize (is that a word?) farming cooperatives and if they have been successful and to what degree if yes.
July 14th, 2006 at 11:02 am
Justin, you do have a knack of inviting on the best writers in the ’sphere. Glad Tom is aboard.
July 14th, 2006 at 11:38 am
Hi Dos,
That’s a topic of great interest to me as well. I’m not going to pretend to have a perfect understanding of the situation, but here’s what I know: several states (including Iowa, Minnesota, and Vermont) have made great strides in recent years developing their local food distribution systems, including organic systems, in part through farmer co-op development. Short story: I’m a big fan of these efforts, but it remains to be seen how competitive they will actually be with the big businesses. I think they’re already pretty successful by their own standards, however, and that’s a good thing.
Those cooperatives need to be distinguished from others, though, including some in the same states, that are essentially just a funnel for federal subsidies. Pollan describes one such organization in the first section of his book - just a large, federally-backed commodity corn purchaser. Those co-ops aren’t competing with big business; they’re a link in the chain.
I’ll make time for a full post on this topic in the future.
July 14th, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Thats not always true Alan. After all Justin lets me post here. Every rule needs an exception I guess. Welcome aboard Tom!
July 14th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
What a great idea for a specialty, Tom! Especially since I’m so sick of generalist opiners like myself (especially myself), with little to offer but a turn of phrase.
July 14th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
This program may be supported by some federal grant to the state, I don’t know. From what I’ve been told, the beauty of the tax credit method is (and MO has more than 60 of them) is that it doesn’t show up on the budget - so from a purely political view, it is easier to swallow than a pure subsidy. Of course, the transactional cost is increased and IS paid for by a direct grant from the state (thus DosPeros feeds litter and pays for Dog House).
I look forward to your future post on the subject.
July 14th, 2006 at 11:20 pm
You are the exception to the rule Dyre42. Watch it or else! ;-)