Catholic Community of Pleasanton

Social Justice Newsletter Archive

Selected Article on the Environment

Slow Food, the Food Movement, and the Global Agricultural Economy

SLOW FOOD

SLOW FOOD, THE GLOBAL ORGANIZATION - excerpts from the website, http://www.slowfood.org:

Slow Food is a global, grassroots organization with supporters in 150 countries around the world who are linking the pleasure of good food with a commitment to their community and the environment. 

A non-profit member-supported association, Slow Food was founded in 1989 to counter the rise of fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people's dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world.  

Today we have over 100,000 members joined in 1,300 convivia - our local chapters - worldwide, as well as a network of 2,000 food communities who practice small-scale and sustainable production of quality foods.

Our Philosophy

Slow Food stands at the crossroads of ecology and gastronomy, ethics and pleasure. It opposes the standardization of taste and culture, and the unrestrained power of the food industry multinationals and industrial agriculture. We believe that everyone has a fundamental right to the pleasure of good food and consequently the responsibility to protect the heritage of food, tradition and culture that make this pleasure possible. Our association believes in the concept of neo-gastronomy - recognition of the strong connections between plate, planet, people and culture. 

Our Vision
 

Our Mission
 

Good, Clean and Fair

Slow Food's approach to agriculture, food production and gastronomy is based on a concept of food quality defined by three interconnected principles:

• GOOD a fresh and flavorsome seasonal diet that satisfies the senses and is part of our local culture;
• CLEAN food production and consumption that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health;
• FAIR accessible prices for consumers and fair conditions and pay for small-scale producers.

SLOW FOOD USA - excerpts from the website http://www.slowfoodusa.org:

Our Mission: Slow Food USA seeks to create dramatic and lasting change in the food system.  We reconnect Americans with the people, traditions, plants, animals, fertile soils and waters that produce our food.  We inspire a transformation in food policy, production practices and market forces so that they ensure equity, sustainability and pleasure in the food we eat.

Our Vision: Food is a common language and a universal right. Slow Food USA envisions a world in which all people can eat food that is good for them, good for the people who grow it and good for the planet...

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Slow Food USA has local chapters in many of the states of the U.S. and many chapters in California. The former Berkeley and East Bay chapters are now merged and have a website, http://www.slowfoodberkeley.org.

CCOP's Social Justice Committee has begun discussions of how the ideas of Slow Food could be adapted to our church community and possibly promoted in Pleasanton. We would welcome your comments.

THE FOOD MOVEMENT

A very good article about the food movement was written by Michael Pollan for the New York Review of Books. See http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/jun/10/food-movement-rising/. In the U.S. there has been a growing awareness of the harmful effects of eating processed food and of the increasing prevalence of diabetes and obesity. There has also been an awareness that many health problems in the U.S. have been the result of subsidies to commodities, particularly corn, and that millions of dollars are spent by agribusiness to influence members of Congress to retain those subsidies. In response, we have seen a growing presence and popularity of farmers markets and community supported agriculture (CSA). There has also been a renewed interest in growing your own food.

THE GLOBAL AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY

Subsidies for agricultural products have had harmful effects on people's well-being not only in the U.S. but also on a global scale. Agricultural commodities are subsidized in Europe also and these have distorted the market globally. Farmers in Third World countries, particularly in Africa, are unable to compete against the subsidized farmers of the U.S. and Europe. Many cotton growers in India have committed suicide when they were unable to pay back loans.

The global agricultural economy is obviously very complex. More attention needs to be devoted to understanding it, and more pressure needs to be put on legislators to work for globally fairer policies.

The chief international organization dealing with the global agricultural economy is the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, http://www.fao.org. Two important non-profit organizations dealing with this subject are Food First, http://www.foodfirst.org, and Bread for the World, http://www.bread.org.

One of the seven issues addressed by the Catholics Confront Global Poverty initiative jointly sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Catholic Relief Services is "Reform Global Trade and Agriculture Policies". The webpage dealing with this issue provides a Moral Framework which includes the statement,

"Livelihoods of farmers and food security. Most of the world's poor live in rural areas and depend on farming for their livelihoods. Poor farmers are often not able to compete with much more efficient, highly subsidized farmers in developed countries. Trade policy must address the needs of small and medium-sized farms both in the U.S. and abroad in developing countries."

A sidebar on this webpage contains the image

This image is accompanied by text that begins with the statement, "Rasmata Sawadogo is a rice farmer in Burkina Faso. In developing countries like Burkino Faso, small farmers often teeter on the edge of survival, struggling to compete with much more efficient, highly subsidized, large-scale farmers in developed countries. The recent global food crisis has exacerbated Rasmata's bleak situation." The descriptive text is followed by the following:

Trade Facts

• Global trade is worth $14 trillion
• International assistance is worth $100,000 a minute, international trade is worth $10 million (100 times as much)
• The World Bank estimates that is Africa increased exports by 1 per cent it would generate $70 billion a year - compared with 14.6 billion provided through international assistance and debt relief.
• Rich countries generate 2/3 of the world exports. Developing countries with almost four-fifths of the world's population generate 1/3.

Governmental financial support to agricultural producers in developing countries adds up to about $ 280 billion per year (OECD estimates, 2006), about three times the level of 2006 global development assistance (World Bank, 2005).

See http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/globalpoverty/ccgp_issues_tradepolicies.shtml