How we produce and consume food has a bigger impact on Americans\u2019 well-being than any other human activity. The food industry is the largest sector of our economy; food touches everything from our health to the environment, climate change, economic inequality and the federal budget. Yet we have no food policy \u2014 no plan or agreed-upon principles \u2014 for managing American agriculture or the food system as a whole.<\/p>\n
That must change.<\/p>\n
The food system and the diet it\u2019s created have caused incalculable damage to the health of our people and our land, water and air. If a foreign power were to do such harm, we\u2019d regard it as a threat to national security, if not an act of war, and the government would formulate a comprehensive plan and marshal resources to combat it. (The administration even named an Ebola czar to respond to a disease that threatens few Americans.) So when hundreds of thousands of annual deaths are preventable \u2014 as the deaths from the chronic diseases linked to the modern American way of eating surely are \u2014 preventing those needless deaths is a national priority.<\/p>\n
A national food policy would do that, by investing resources to guarantee that:<\/p>\n
\u25cf All Americans have access to healthful food;<\/p>\n
\u25cf Farm policies are designed to support our public health and environmental objectives;<\/p>\n
\u25cf Our food supply is free of toxic bacteria, chemicals and drugs;<\/p>\n
\u25cf Production and marketing of our food are done transparently;<\/p>\n
\u25cf The food industry pays a fair wage to those it employs;<\/p>\n
\u25cf Food marketing sets children up for healthful lives by instilling in them a habit of eating real food;<\/p>\n
\u25cf Animals are treated with compassion and attention to their well-being;<\/p>\n
\u25cf The food system\u2019s carbon footprint is reduced, and the amount of carbon sequestered on farmland is increased;<\/p>\n
\u25cf The food system is sufficiently resilient to withstand the effects of climate change.<\/p>\n
[Keep reading. . .]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The food industry is the biggest sector of the economy.\u00a0 Food is a major factor in health.\u00a0 Food production has a major impact on the environment.\u00a0 Food is a factor in policies about poverty, foreign aid, and entitlements.\u00a0\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t we have a\u00a0 coherent national food policy, other than an agriculture bill that rewards farmers for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,17,19],"tags":[2984,3428],"class_list":["post-20169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-food","category-government","tag-food-2","tag-food-policy"],"yoast_head":"\n
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