Food Drama: Organizers, Writers, Actors, Cooks, Board Members Wanted

by: Brad Wilson

Sun Jan 17, 2010 at 08:52:54 AM PST

I gave a brief panel presentation on the dramatic topic:  "Corn Farming and the World Food Crisis" at a conference of the Community Food Security Coalition in Des Moines Iowa last October.  I started with a bit of drama of my own.  I offered corn "safety nets" to audience members.  I offered two choices, one with a larger farm program "Crop Acreage Base,"  but a smaller "Program Payment Yield," and one that reverses the two.  These were soon rejected by my audience, as they got sort of, well, "hammered."  

I further introduced myself by explaining that I was working on a dramatized version of my presentation which I'm calling "Corn Farming and the Human Spirit."  For 15 years I have categorized my writings on farm and food issues into a series of unfinished, poorly edited, unpublished books, under the series title:  Hog Farming and the Human Spirit:  My Sequel to Moby Dick.  In these writings I seek, often unsuccessfully, as readers at La Vida Locavore can see, to incarnate a "yes" of renewal beyond what I interpret to be Melville's great "no" of renewal.  The "Corn Farming" drama is the latest volume in this larger work.  It is built around a wonkish PowerPoint presentation, starkly contrasted with a dramatic interpretation of my family's history as told through farm bill history (cf. my farm folk song and poetry pamphleteering and other materials in HFHS), and also a series of skits on topics from farm and food history (ie. NFO's dramatic throwing of a huge pile thousands?] of Sears Catalogs in response to the 1962 CED report, which I've mentioned here, or mud biscuits from Haiti [does anyone know the recipe?).  That's how I'm starting to build it.  I believe this work could become a presentation with a series of simple skits, or, with adequate assistance, a powerful play and/or film.

Later last fall I was able to see the artsy farm film, The Real Dirt on Farmer John, at CSPS, a small art and drama venue on the 3rd Street cultural corridor in Cedar Rapids Iowa.  After the show I went out with John and a local playwright who puts on a one man show about Grant Wood.  (Wood was a leading 20th century Iowa regionalist, and the painter of American Gothic).  The film and these conversations inspired me to realistically visualize a production Corn Farming and the Human Spirit at venues like CSPS.  Such a vision is probably not possible, however, without significant and holistic help.

Can X Feed the World? Wrong Question.

by: Brad Wilson

Sun Jan 10, 2010 at 06:49:15 AM PST

It's easy to want to compete on these questions when small farms produce more per acre, (as Andrew Kimbell argued in Fresh) and organic farms produce more bushels (as the Rodale Institute has found in their long term studies).

Surely though, this is the wrong question.

I'm posting this as a separate diary, (rather than on Jill's diary here http://www.lavidalocavore.org/... since it is fundamental, a change of paradigm, and longer than most comments.  I make other specific comments over there on Jill's article.

British Officials Get the Food Crisis Problem But Total Miss the Solution

by: Jill Richardson

Fri Jan 08, 2010 at 17:09:37 PM PST

Speaking at the annual Oxford Farming Conference this week, secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, Hilary Benn, said: 'Food security is as important to this country's future wellbeing - and the world's - as energy security. We need to produce more food. We need to do it sustainably.'

Um, yeah. So how does your government plan to do that?

His speech was followed by one from the Government's chief scientist, Professor John Beddington, re-iterating his call for the use of genetically modified (GM) crops to increase production.

Bzzz. Wrong answer! Thankfully, the Soil Association speaks the truth:

However, Soil Association director Patrick Holden said neither GM technology, nor increasing food production would provide a long-term solution to tackling the food crisis.

He said the UK needed to phase out nitrogen fertilisers, switch to more rotational farming and reduce meat production - all of which he called 'inconvenient truths to the Government'.

OK - now if only THAT GUY was in charge instead of the people who are actually in the government. The Soil Association also calls for more public understanding of the food crisis and increased per capita spending on food. (While people often get angry when calls are made for more expensive food, please understand that there's a trade-off because spending more on better food and less pollution from food production means less spending on health care. I'd rather spend more money on the front end for great food instead of money on the back end for unpleasant medical procedures and decreased quality of life. What about you?)

New Report Exposes Flaws in U.S. Food Aid

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Jun 10, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM PDT

A federal requirement that most international food aid be grown domestically - a boon for America's farmers - is also hobbling efforts to feed the world's hungry, according to a new government report released Thursday.

That paragraph comes from the article "Food Aid Program Helps U.S. Farms, Hobbles Anti-Hunger Efforts."

The article (and, I assume, the GAO report) cites benefits of cheaper food aid as well as less time required to deliver the food aid if we bought it from the countries where we provide it.

What are the findings in the report on the effects of buying American for food aid?

• 65% of the money spent on emergency food aid goes to shipping costs! That's led to 52% LESS food going to feed hungry people from 2002 to 2007

• Because we're buying food here and shipping it there, it takes an average of 147 days (nearly 5 months!) to send food. If we bought locally from the area receiving the aid, it would only take 35. If we bought food from the region of the area receiving the aid, it would take 41 days.

• If we bought from the area receiving our food aid instead of from U.S. farmers, it would cost 34% less for aid to Africa and 29% less for aid to Asia.

As the article notes, food aid purchased from U.S. farmers is a form of subsidies for our farmers. The U.S. has 3 ways it can deal with low prices and excess supply in U.S. agriculture. One is the current subsidy method, one is a price floor, and the third is to take excess food off the market - often by shipping it overseas. And while that's nice as it fills a needed role here at home, it undercuts farmers in those other countries, ultimately making it harder for them to feed themselves. And while I haven't read the full report yet, it seems that THAT aspect is NOT recognized by our government. If we purchased food aid locally for countries in need, we would support their farmers! We would be helping their entire economy as we purchased food from their farmers, who then used the money to pay for their own needs, and the money continued to multiply in the economy.

You can see the full report here or the highlights from it here.

A REAL "Change we can believe in" Dumping Industrial Agriculture

by: jgoodman

Fri Jan 02, 2009 at 11:04:16 AM PST

Macca's Meatless Monday X ...Back To The Egg

by: beachbabeinfl

Mon Dec 15, 2008 at 20:42:36 PM PST

Replacing the protein in meat is the challenge of a vegetarian diet. One of the lower cost alternatives to meat is the egg which contains about 12 grams of protein per egg.

I love to have friends over for Sunday brunch. I usually serve some type of egg dish as they are generally very fast, easy, economical and delicious. Here are some of my favorite egg recipes which can be served at breakfast, lunch or dinner.  With these recipes I can serve 4 people for about $5.00 usd for the entire meal!  About $1.25 per person!

Financial Meltdown Worsens Food Crisis

by: teacherken

Tue Oct 28, 2008 at 07:02:41 AM PDT

That is the title of this Washington Post story, which is subtitled "As Global Prices Soar, More People Go Hungry".

Yesterday I wrote about our domestic poor, and how our political campaigns seem to ignore them, in a diary entitled Rich and Poor, Poor and Rich, and the Middle Class. . . that was honored by being rescued.  As important as the issue of our domestic poor is, in many cases those poor here still live far better than people in other nations.

And a crisis in food production can have catastrophic effects - disease, starvation, disorder, even warfare.   Thus I want to use my diary this morning to point you at the article and to offer a few comments of my own.

Please keep reading.

Hearing on Rising Food Prices: Budget Challenges-by the House Committee on the Budget

by: rebeccak

Fri Aug 01, 2008 at 07:23:03 AM PDT

Representative Spratt of South Carolina and  Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin chaired the hearing and Representative McGovern was given credit for playing a large part in having this hearing.  Representative Ryan talked about getting to the root causes of the global food crisis, of which is firmly pointed to the Federal Reserve and the important role it plays as the 'only institution that can guarantee price stability.' McGovern made a poignant comment immediately prior to the testimonies of how 'hunger is a political condition that requires political will.'

Witnesses included:
Jared Bernstein, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute testified first about the economic context of the food crisis; Josette Sheeran the Executive Director of the U.N. World Food Programme; Susan Berkowitz the director the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center; Steve Hanke from The Johns Hopkins University and the Cato Institute; and a Mississippi-Delta Farmer.

Beware of Suspect Bedfellows When Battling the Food Crisis!

by: Farm Bill Girl

Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 21:47:38 PM PDT