The plethora of news lately about the global food crisis has left me both concerned and curious about what’s going on in the world. This crisis comes at the heels of dropping significantly more at the grocery store for the same products, and reevaluating our need for organics or Whole Foods when we look at our budgets. Those organic strawberries aren’t looking so super anymore when they’re $6 a pint.

Of course, finances are one thing–what about those starving children in Myanmar who have no access to food, who can’t be so picky?

Pardon a harried mother’s confusion at all the different stories I’m reading. The point of this entry was specifically to direct you all to this report, posted by MarketWatch.

Compared to averages for 1998 through 2007, the report forecast that prices, adjusted for inflation, are projected to be:

• 20% higher for beef and pork;

• 30% higher for raw and white sugar;

• 40-60% higher for wheat, maize and skim milk powder;

• 60% higher for butter and oilseeds;

• 80% higher for vegetable oils (driven by food and bio-fuels demands)

Reading that, I’m feeling a little less inclined towards collecting leftovers these days (I have to pay for two boys’ college education, you know). And ordering take-out is, well, out — since obesity contributes to global warming. Sigh.

On a happier note, MarketWatch also gave me 8 reasons to celebrate $8-a-gallon gas, since it’ll be a catalyst for change. While it’s a tad over-optimistic, it’s true that we’re all going to have to adjust in some significant ways, and sooner than we think.

Oh yeah, like I’m going to be able to address that in a single blog post….

When you get down to it, what we eat and how it is produced is the Meta-issue of this blog. Our questions about food safety, technology, health, environment, food prices and availability, environmental impact, etc. all end up being answered by the choices we make as consumers (what we buy), and as producers (how we grow it).

So much of what I read is narrowly focused on a single problem or single solution. In a larger context there is an entire web of cause and effect around each of these single issues. We have a food system that cannot be separated from our economic, environmental, political and ethical/religious systems.

If we were to design a food system from scratch, what would it look like? Let’s start by creating a wish list. Please give us your opinions about what should be on our list, and in what order of importance.

• Safe: By most accounts we have the safest food supply in the world, in terms of food-borne illnesses. How do changes in how our food is produced affect safety (i.e. locally produced without USDA oversight, non-pastuerized milk, intensive/monoculture vs. extensive/mixed systems).
• Affordable: Americans spend less of their disposable income on food than almost any other country. Can we/should we be willing to pay higher prices in order to achieve some of our other food goals? What about the impact on those with lower incomes?
• Nutritious: The basic purpose of food is to nourish us. In reality, flavor, convenience and price probably play a larger role in our choices.
• Sustainable: We need to produce our food in a way that doesn’t rob Peter to pay Paul. Can we be truly sustainable without decreasing our food supply and having devastating effects on some of the other issues here?
• Environmentally responsible: Notice the avoidance of the term “friendly” here. If we really were going to be environmentally friendly, we’d choose not to perpetuate our species. Given that we choose to exists, how can we care for the earth and still meet our food needs?
• Practical: It’s common knowledge that fresh is best, but let’s face it, most of us ‘give’ on other issues for convenience. I bet most people wouldn’t put “easy” high on the list of food priorities, but voting with their dollars shows otherwise.
• Ethical: Food issues are tied at a gut level to our belief system. Don’t try to talk an ethically-motivated vegan out of their position through scientific arguments. What is “ethical” in food production? Do we hold our food production system to a higher ethical standard than we do our other consumer goods (sweat shops in India for textiles, environmental impact of steel/plastic/transportation)?
• Feasible: I”m a big local food supporter, but realize that a totally local food system is not currently feasible in many areas of the country. Many of the production methods I use myself on my own ranch are difficult (impossible?) to implement on a national scale.

What did I miss? How do these rank in importance relative to each other?

I’ve had a couple of e-mails from people in the beef and pork industries in the last couple weeks. The gist of their gripe is that the local, pasture-raised beef and pork I sell is causing damage to animal ag industries. They have some legitimate points: “Negative campaigning” against traditional agriculture is an oft-used marketing method for foods bearing labels of alternative production methods. All too often at the Farmer’s Markets, I hear that food from the grocery store is not safe, is loaded with chemicals and hormones or is causing everything from global warming to early puberty to worldwide hunger. I hear all sorts of exaggerations of reported ill-effects, many of which fall into the realm of urban myths.

It is these very issues that are part of the reason I blog. We’ve barely scratched the surface here with posts on early puberty, organic honey and free-range chickens, cloning, food labels and a variety of other topics. There is never a shortage of material; just a shortage of time to do the background research to provide a balanced and accurate review of the issue at hand.

So, by promoting our locally raised meats, am I contributing to the downfall of American Animal Agriculture? I maintain that I am promoting it. Here’s why:

• There is no better spokesperson for agriculture than a producer. Consumers and producers are usually separated by multiple companies. When I sell local, I reconnect the consumer to agriculture. I remind them that ultimately all our food is produced by PEOPLE, not corporate conglomerates.
• When I hear wildly exaggerated claims and misconceptions, I can correct them. The same quirk of human nature that causes people to believe their neighbor before they’ll believe a corporate expert works in reverse too.
• I have customers eating meat that wouldn’t otherwise. For their own reasons (whether I agree with them or not), many of my customers are willing to buy meat from me, when they buy much less or none otherwise. How can this be hurting the industry?
• The products I sell DO taste better than run-of-the-mill grocery store items. They also cost more ($2-$4/lb more). Most people agree that homegrown tomatoes taste better than (even organic) grocery store tomatoes. Why does it seem so surprising that homegrown, individually managed, top genetics beef tastes better? If this creates a demand for higher quality products, isn’t that a good thing?

There is a knee-jerk dislike of movements like local, grass-fed, or organic among many of my more traditional Animal Industry colleagues, and a similar distrust of corporate agriculture among many of my customers. I hope, in my small way, I am building some bridges.

Our friends at Barfblog have posted this article from the NY Times, which says that babies prefer organic formulas because they use cane sugar, making them significantly sweeter.

I’m all for buying natural food for my children, and organic formula seems to make sense, right? And if my baby likes the way it tastes, isn’t that a win-win?

“No health problems in babies have been associated with Similac Organic. But to pediatricians, there are risks in giving babies cane sugar: Sucrose can harm tooth enamel faster than other sugars; once babies get used to its sweeter taste, they might resist less sweet formulas or solid foods; and some studies suggest that they might overeat, leading to rapid weight gain in the first year, which is often a statistical predictor of childhood obesity.”

We all love big, bouncy babies, but this article makes me pause. How many mothers think about over-consumption when their child is upset and hungry? And how many of them will, like one of the mothers quoted in the article, re-think their formula choice after finding this out?

We tend to just grab a product that says “organic” and head towards the check-out, but there’s a lot more behind the labels then we take the time to find out. I want what’s best for my children, and as both a mother and someone who wants to stay informed I have to make time to find out the facts. And as a bonus, this helps me teach my children to make better choices. But what’s the right choice here?

PS: Daddy Types has a great take on this, too.

TAGS: organic; baby; food labels

We’re starting a new feature this week: a digest of links I and my partners-in-blogging-crime have come across recently. Many of which we’d love to have featured full-length analyses, but the rest of life intervened. Some are great resources and some are merely interesting.

Clash over CO2 and food miles. Is African agriculture more eco-friendly?

New Food Safety Rules May Do More Harm Than Good . The food safety regulations established in response to the spinach E. coli outbreak are threatening environmentally friendly farming practices.

The great organic myths: Why organic foods are an indulgence the world can’t afford.

Organic Myths Rebutted.

More Choice for Women Means More Sustainability. Expanding the capacity of all women to choose when to bear children is thus the surest route to achieving an environmentally sustainable population.

Eating Fresh and Seasonal. Seasonal guides to help you navigate the world of produce from the supermarket to your kitchen

And one that we will be posting more on soon, Pew Commission Says Industrial Scale Farm Animal Production Poses “Unacceptable” Risks to Public Health, Environment

The seemingly unlikely partnership of organic farming and GMOs is in the news again in the Washington Post. This article supports Lisa’s post from earlier this month, and again challenges us to abandon caricatures and look at the synergies.

The article also mentions a new book entitled Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food, by Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak, a wife and husband team of plant geneticist and organic farmer. The Amazon.com review characterizes it as:

“a tale of two marriages. The first is that of Raoul and Pam, the authors, and is a tale of the passions of an organic farmer and a plant genetic scientist. The second is the potential marriage of two technologies-organic agriculture and genetic engineering. Like all good marriages, both include shared values, lively tensions, and reinvigorating complementarities. “

I succumbed and ordered it. I’ll read it as soon as my few minutes of spare time allow and post my review.