Edible Chesapeake

THE FARMER AND CONSUMER AS FOOD ACTIVISTS
by Michael Tabor

Farming for more than 35 years, I have learned a lot about the land. As a product of the tumultuous 1960’s who lives near the nation’s capital, I also have a lot of experience with political activism. As it turns out, farming and activism make a good match, although far too few farmers see it this way.  

At times, cynicism, resignation and anger can seem like our only alternatives.  Otherwise, we may just feel overwhelmed or paralyzed into inaction. As farmers, so busy with crops and animals and weather and labor, we often feel we don’t have time for political engagement. Consumers also often assume some government agency is protecting their health and keeping their food supply safe, or that they don’t have any real influence, so their voices don’t matter. Too few of us even know who our elected state and county officials are. (Do you?) 

However, activism—community, electoral and spiritual activist involvement—is a better option. It’s a path that can be rewarding to the individual as well as the community. We have the power to make change happen, and—given our nation’s struggles with health problems like obesity and diabetes, environmental degradation, and poverty—food is a good place to start. If we aren’t paying attention, we can easily end up with laws or choices we don’t like. With issues like food safety and farming practices increasingly at the forefront right now, farmers and consumers need to make sure more than ever they are not asleep at the wheel. 

Activism can effect change. In other words, by being active in our communities, getting to know community leaders and politicians, and getting the most ethical ones elected, we can influence our lives and our futures. I am especially talking about involvement at the state and local levels. National politics are sexy and alluring, but change can more readily happen at the local level—school boards, county and city councils and state electoral politics. Name recognition in politics and the financial advantage of incumbents is central, so once elected, even as a dog catcher, any elected official has a better chance of re-election and moving up than an unknown. We don’t have to be the elected official, but we can know them and meet them from time to time. Reading metro sections of the newspapers and regularly scanning local newspapers to become more aware of local issues is also critical.   

More than a decade ago, through this kind of activity, a group of neighbors and I actually succeeded in preventing a low-level radioactive waste dump from being located near our farm. The company aiming to put it there just didn’t expect opposition. By banding together, talking to county officials, organizing protest meetings and making our case publicly, we were able to stave it off.  

School food is a topic that I’ve been active on for years and is an example of a place where we’re making headway now. The food that our kids are typically consuming in school—and that many of us are eating elsewhere—is killing us. Red meat, white flour, soda and candy all should be eaten in moderation, if at all. A diet of foods laden with fat, fried foods and high-fructose corn syrup encourages type 2 diabetes. Yet in many schools, teachers reward their students with candy, fast-food restaurant coupons, donuts and cola products! Also, vending machines continue to provide kids with junk food, while also allowing corporations to “brand” and addict children.  Instead, we need to offer school children the best, not the cheapest, food. In the long-term, we’ll cut down the hospital, insurance and societal costs that affect all of us.  

So it’s good news that “farm-to-school” programs, which bring fresh local food into our kids’ cafeterias, are on the rise. In Maryland in 2008, the Jane Lawton Farm to School Program was established, something I worked hard to see happen. The program facilitates and encourages including local produce in school lunches and promotes local agriculture through Maryland Homegrown School Lunch Week. The primary sponsor of the legislation, Senator Jamie Raskin (D-20), is an excellent example of how community activism works. Raskin, with virtually no political endorsements, won an election against a 32 year incumbent through the active involvement of a knowledgeable electorate. 

Another, sometimes neglected area of food justice, is equitable distribution of healthily grown local food! We need to make sure our farmers and supermarkets are not solely geared to the wealthiest among us. Good quality, affordably-priced, nurturing and healthy foods should be available to all the public. Our local farmers market should reach out to minorities and various ethnic groups. By ensuring low-income earners can purchase fresh, local food at farmers markets using government electronic debit cards and coupons from the Women, Infant and Children program, as we do at the main farmers market where I sell my products, we can bring fresher, better food to a wider audience. 

Even some corporations can become social justice activists. Bon Appetit Management Company, which operates 400 university and corporate cafes around the country, for example, recently announced it would become the first food service company to enforce fair labor standards. In the wake of a 2008 Florida case in which tomato pickers were beaten and enslaved, Bon Appetit said it will not purchase tomatoes from Florida companies that don’t strictly live up to the new code of conduct. 

Beyond working through existing political structures, we can also become involved in our communities in other ways. A good example is a cutting-edge movement called “Transition Towns” that seems to be spreading like wildfire. We had a meeting about it at our house just the other day, and more than 50 people were there—lots of people in their twenties and with little kids. Started in Ireland and the United Kingdom and now active worldwide, it focuses on a community response to the peak oil crisis and climate change by reconnecting communities with farms, gardens, healthy food, local energy sources and family-owned businesses. At our meeting, food was the biggest interest. (For more information go to: http://transitionmaryland.ning.com/. )  

This kind of activism is critical if we are to have a diverse, fresh, locally grown food supply produced by small-scale farmers who know their customers. Luckily, there’s been a recent increase in books, films, and media coverage of these issues. Michael Pollan’s two recent books, Omnivores Dilemma and In Defense of Food, and former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler’s The End of Overeating are good examples. (For more, but less well-known, reading on healthy food, I suggest the magazines Nutrition Action and Life Extension too.) 

However, a lot more has to be done. We need to seek out as much objective information as possible, and make those connections with local, state and federal officials. A moratorium on vending machines in public schools would be one proactive approach. A tax on sodas and junk foods with the proceeds going into nutrition education and better public awareness of local foods would be another. Eliminating the proliferation of plastic bags and bottles in our markets and communities is a positive step. It would also help if the nation’s chief role model, President Obama, would eat more locally grown foods like broccoli and salads in public (fresh from his new White House garden!). Most importantly, whether we’re farmers or consumers, we have to let the politicians we elect know these are important issues.

He hasn’t forgotten those who are still in limited economic circumstances. His activist roots stretch back to the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s, and for the last several decades, have included advocating for fresh, healthy food for everybody, in all neighborhoods and in public schools. In 2006 and 2008, Tabor helped get farm-to-school legislation passed in the Maryland General Assembly.

He sells direct to consumers in underserved communities, with his largest market on Saturday mornings at 18^th Street and

Columbia Road, NW, in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC, where at least 50 percent of his business comes from WIC farmers market food coupons. You can find Tabor at the farmers market in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington on Tuesdays as well. He also sells to Bon Appetit Management Company and to the Takoma Park-Silver Spring Co-op in Maryland, and he maintains a 75-member community supported agriculture (CSA) program that provides half-price shares to folks on food stamps or WIC FMC. 

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