Most can agree that laws enacted by our government should be, first and foremost, in the collective best interests of The People. The Farm Bill, supposedly designed to “ensure productivity, global competitiveness, and food security” (Nestle 18) in our nation’s agricultural system, however, seems to only benefit a few disconnected special interest groups. Marion Nestle, in her essay titled Utopian Dream: A New Farm Bill, argues in favor of a total restructuring of the bill, to better address the current needs of our society and environment (15). In her essay, Nestle promotes her grand “utopian vision” for a new farm bill that supports farmers, the environment, and farm workers, links nutrition to agricultural policy, and applies health and conservation standards to animal agriculture (18,19). I imagine most would agree with her farm bill’s new mission statement. The real question is, how are these not already the goals of our current farm bill?
The current design of the Farm Bill seems only to promote our nation’s economy, and in doing so, ultimately sacrifices a more universal good. Our current bill fails to mitigate the vast environmental impacts of large-scale agriculture, to protect the rights and needs of marginalized farm workers, and instead, promotes the overproduction of staple crops by subsidy-dependent crop farmers while simultaneously forbidding them from producing fruits and vegetables.
So who’s responsible for this mess of misguided legislation? While your first guess may be Congress, Nestle points out that lobbyists were the real reason why this monstrosity was passed. Because of the bill’s size and extensive range of issues addressed, members of Congress rely on lobbyists to relay the “important” parts of the bill (16). While I understand that it would be next to impossible for anyone to read and fully comprehend the 663-page document, you would think that Congress would take the time to learn the ins and outs of such an important bill as this one. Ultimately what this does is benefit special interest groupsBig Ag with crop subsidies, low-income citizens with SNAP benefits, for example and ignores the needs of the general population. “Profoundly undemocratic,” as Nestle puts it, the Farm Bill needs fundamental restructuring in order to meet the needs of The People and the environment (15). I argue, however, that Nestle’s utopian dream of a new Farm Bill is not enough in itself to fundamentally change our agricultural system. If there’s anything I’ve learned in our Food Systems class, it’s that fundamental changes in our food system for the benefit of society first require changes on the individual and community level. A great example of active opposition to our industrial system of agriculture can be seen right here in Eugene, by the efforts of Huerto De La Familia.
Huerto De La Familia, Our Family Garden, in English, is a community organization in Eugene that rents affordable plots of gardening space to Latino families so they can grow their own vegetables throughout the year. The garden plots offer a space for families to learn about and practice traditional gardening methods that, for many, were lost between previous generations living in their native countries and more recent generations now living in the States. The organization’s mission is “achieving a vision of equity,” through establishing “cultural identity, community integration and economic self-sufficiency in the Latino community” (Huerto).
Huerto De La Familia’s effort to improve living conditions for Latino families is an excellent example a community-based food system that defies conventional agriculture as supported by our current Farm Bill. Although Nestle’s utopian dream of a new farm bill that advocates “aligning agricultural policy with nutrition, health,
and environmental policy” (15) is a great step towards a sustainable, holistic agricultural system in the U.S., it is crucial for communities to realize that they already have the power to change their local food system without help from corporate-sponsored legislation like the Farm Bill.
Works Cited
Nestle, Marion. “Utopian Dream: A New Farm Bill.” Dissent 59.2 (2012): 15-19. Print.
“Our Mission.” Huerto De La Familia. 2014. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. <http://huertodelafamilia.org/our-mission-2/>.