About Cater to the Earth
It began with a single news item. While skimming the morning news for some interesting blog fodder, New Dream staffers were struck by a study about the significant environmental threat posed by methane from cow manure, beginning a vibrant conversation about the entire livestock industry (not just the back ends). As we examined the link between cattle and climate change, we quickly realized that a campaign focused on the environmental impact of food production and consumption was a perfect complement to our existing work on energy and water consumption. As with water and energy, the choices we make concerning food have tendrils that stretch well beyond our national borders.
Our current industrialized food economy contributes more to greenhouse gases than anything else. According to a 2006 report from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, global greenhouse gas emissions from the livestock industry are greater than those from any other sector—including transportation. In fact, one recent study showed that the food system is responsible for as much as 37% of our total greenhouse gas emissions (Michael Pollan, New York Times).
What about food is so polluting? The better question might be: What isn’t? Chemical fertilizers are made from natural gas, pesticides from petroleum. These chemical enhancements runoff into the nation’s waterways, and beyond, disrupting ecosystems. Farm machinery, food processing and transport produce carbon dioxide and air pollutants. Ruminants bred for food produce prodigious amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas at least twenty times more potent than carbon dioxide. Ever more voluminous food packaging requires more energy and natural resources and contributes to solid waste.
Food is more than fuel for the body. It is also a key ingredient in family and community life around the world. Acknowledging that our current food system is unsustainable forces us to carefully examine the links between food and social structure. Food systems affect the environment, human health, the strength of local economies, international trade, the role of government in determining how and what we eat, and the place food occupies as a source of pleasure and social engagement.
If food choices are so important, what choices should we make? An increased focus on food, food politics, and sustainable agriculture means consumers have greater access to information about responsible food choices. Unfortunately, even for people who want to “do the right thing,” not all the information out there is easily digestible. As New York Times food columnist Mark Bitman recently wrote in Why Take Food Seriously:
Food continues to be fetishized; organic food has been commodified; the federal government subsidizes almost all of the wrong kinds of food production; supermarkets peddle way too much nonreal food; and weight-loss diets still discourage common-sense eating. But questions like “Would you prefer a mass-produced organic grape from Chile or a nonorganic one from a backyard vine in Upstate New York?” are more common in conversation, and the dialogue about food routinely includes words like locavore, vegetarian, sustainable and flexitarian.
The real issues — how do we grow and raise, distribute and sell, prepare and eat food? And how do our patterns of doing these things affect the rest of the world (and vice versa)? — are simply too big to ignore.
The Cater to the Earth campaign will address these “real issues,” unpacking the buzzwords and, most importantly, finding the critical links between food production and consumption on the one hand, and people and the planet, on the other.
We will help you, New Dreamers, learn more about how your food choices affect the environment, your health, and social justice. Over the next few weeks, we will expand our educational section and launch a personal pledge page to help illustrate how what you eat affects your carbon footprint. We’ll also blog about food issues, and provide you with earth- and belly-friendly recipes to try out.
We intend for the Cater to the Earth campaign to be a conversation about food. An exploration of this complicated, compelling, and delicious subject with other New Dreamers. Let us know what issues are important to you, and look for upcoming opportunities to share your wisdom and culinary know-how.