What's in a phrase?

Last evening I watched the web cast of a forum on the Farm Bill from UC Berkeley. It was definitely too Berkeley in places. It's an attitude of the privileged left that is every bit as anti-intellectual as the Bush right. Some of the statements some of the panelists made were self-congratulatory hyperbole, with a little food mythology thrown in.

On the other hand, it was good to see a leader among farm workers included.

One remark made by the last speaker was to the point. He mentioned that no one had brought up the matter of food security.

Food security seems to mean something different to each player or group of players in our food system.

To those who work with the poor in our communities, food security means knowing where your next meal is coming from, or knowing that if there is no food in the house, you have the means of getting some.

To the locavore movement, food security means that as oil is depleted and energy costs spiral upward, communities will be able to meet their basic food needs without imports.

Someone commented on my report of the ratio of acres in chardonnay to acres in vegetables in Sonoma County. Mono-cropping is not just an issue on the prairies, or in the global south. Land prices here where I live have pushed a single crop - grapes - to the point of challenging the food security of this rich county with a benign climate.

To some, food security means that the food they purchase, prepare and eat will not poison them. Whether it's spinach from Salinas or industrial cat food, we've seen enough to know that bigger isn't necessarily better in food safety.

At the national level, food security may mean simply can the United States feed itself? or are we relying too much on imported food? If terrorists disabled our ports how would we fare? We know some cities would be hungry in short order if our transportation systems were disabled. Las Vegas comes to mind. There are, of course, different solutions for these scenarios depending on where one is on the political spectrum.

And to ADM and Monsanto "food security" means something else. Like promoting GMOs among the global poor. It's a classic case of perverting language.