Systemic glasses. Like 3-D, only better. Something to help me "see the forest for the trees". If I only knew how to invent them, I'd patent them and call them Pandora Glasses, after the planet in Avatar. They would be soooo cool, because for the first time ever, we'd be able to see the connections between things, like the Na'vi do. They could be a handy way to reveal how our individual actions and small projects impact the gargantuan engine at the heart of a system, say for example, the "the food system".
Being a generous person, I'd give the first pair to our president. He could be a beta tester. I'm thinkin' he could really, really use these gizmos. It's clear that he's having a very hard time with the forest-seeing thing. I have to believe that his eyesight is the problem, or I'd have to impute some really ugly qualities to him, and I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. So, operating on the assumption that his vision is poor, maybe my glasses will help.
I'll stop beating around the bush, or in this case, the field. Let's begin with a post I wrote right after the election (the site referenced is dead -- which says something ). This post was part of a national grass-roots effort to get the Obama's to install an organic garden on the White House lawn. Check. Done. Most of us who care about food, were also hoping the USDA would get deep reform. A highly credible Kathleen Merrigan, a veteran of the sustainable agriculture movement, was named deputy secretary. She oversees the National Organic Program at the USDA among other initiatives, and under her guidance the agency is beginning to flex its muscles. Check. Another victory. There are more gains to catalogue, but let's take a moment to put on those sexy new glasses I just invented (mine are purple, in case you're wondering).
Hey, look at that! The Big Picture! The connections, if you will, that are well-laid out in the cover story of the latest issue of The American Prospect -- Slowed Food Revolution. You can read it online here (but you'll need to take off your new glasses). With the help of Heather Rogers, who must have her own cool glasses, you'll see a USDA that is a revolving door for Big Ag, much as Goldman Sachs is for the government's economic advisors and the Interior Department has been for the gas, oil and mining industries. Big surprise, though we voted for "Change We Can Believe In", U.S. ag policy, the engine that drives what food we get and what it costs, is still being deeply influenced by industrial agriculture interests, especially Monsanto. Obama has done almost nothing to change that. If fact, the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, epitomizes the Big Ag man. So we find him proselytizing for biotech and biofuels. He encourages greater subsidies for commodity crops headed for export while neglecting the needs of small American farmers, who are continuing to go broke. Our policies still encourage farmers to plow land for biofuel crops that earn them less in the long run and yield a fuel that is more polluting. So not only is food/ag policy impacting what we eat, but it's distorting our energy policy too.
Yes, there are a few trees here and there that are growing and looking good. But that sickly forest is going to soak up all the resources, leaving nothing of value in the end. If you can't see that forest -- the connections between the policy, the greed, and the absence of resources for real farmers and eaters -- you will continue to congratulate our government for doing too little, too late. Putting on those glasses will at least force you to see what is and not just what you hope for.
As for me, I'm switching from rose-colored glasses to Pandora glasses ...and I'm going to stop accepting cosmetic change as if it matters. What about you?
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