Somebody wasn't paying attention

When I got a forwarded message about the Farm Bill a couple of weeks ago I assumed that it was just another trumped up appeal for funds by a non-profit. I mean, the Farm Bill coming up is the 2012 Farm Bill, right?

Wrong.

Or maybe not wrong...
We'll need to see what happens this weekend.

Here's the story in brief.
Last month the chairs of the agriculture committees, senate and house, agreed to send a farm bill to the super committee by November 1. As of today, they still hadn't done so.
http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/farm-bill-update/

You can imagine that their committees, who are taken out of the loop here, and who represent all kinds of agricultural locales and interests, were not happy.
There is a proposal in the works. It cuts subsidies, conservation programs, and food security programs, but with little of the innovation or new, lower cost (as compared to commodity subsidies) programs we might have wished for. There are also some additional bills, adding in support for new farmers and sustainable ags - not of the committee chairs' making, obviously.

Nobody (meaning sustainable ag advocates - the site above, and some word of mouth here in Sonoma County) knows whether something will get to the Supercommittee by November 7. It may all blow up.

Let's hope it does, because this is not what we had hoped for at the time of the 2007(8) Farm Bill. The conversation about food and agriculture has broadened and deepened in this country, and to not have the public conversation we are poised for - well, it simply underscores the frustration so many of us are feeling - frustration with being dealt out of the political process while the big boys buy and sell influence.

If the bill is delivered Monday, it will be posted, and I'm told that sustainable ag advocates here in California will review it and get their comments to Xavier Becerra, who is the only Californian on the supercommittee. Because we Callifornians aren't part of the wheat-soy-corn trifecta, we win far less than our share of supports and helpful programs. This is especially pointed when you consider just how much of the country's food we do produce.

Seems a little curious that NPR ran a story on the rice price crisis of 2008 today - three and a half years later and a week late for World Food Day.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2011/11/02/141771712/how-fear-drove-world-rice-markets-insane
Still, it's a clear and succinct account of how fear and greed created hunger when there was enough to go around. And how globalization and nationalism work at cross purposes sometimes. Certainly India had a right not to sell its rice crop. But that wonderful story of US rice sitting in silos in Japan where it is not wanted, and, unless things have changed, is used for rice derivatives, not for the table as rice, where only Japanese rice is used.

Ah the curious mix of human fraility and sinfulness with cultural pride and preferences.

One wonders when this will happen again.

What will we occupy next?

I just love "occupy the pasture". Why not stage your own demo, reflecting your own economic justice values, in the case of the Larson family in Nebraska, growing their own food to take a stand against corporate agriculture.

http://www.grist.org/food/2011-10-21-occupy-the-pasture

Now, how about Occupy the Vineyard to protest mono-cropping here?

World Food Day is Sunday

and today I am all about food.

I attended our local Food Policy Committee meeting this morning, am working on a sermon and some handouts for Sunday, and about to head out to buy some local cheese for coffee hour and a swing by the community garden, bringing in more tomatoes.

In my preoccupation I may forget to post something in the next few days. Here's a video from the Institute on the Environment, Global Land Initiative, University of Minnesota, that provides a good snapshot of the world's food system.

after much work

the product of the working group on food and environment of the Episcopal Committee on Science, Technology and Faith is finally up.

http://episcopalscience.org/resources/food-systems

A free downloadable booklet, just in time for Food Day.

but not to the South Pacific

I'm referring in the title for this post to the entry below - about moving.

Water supplies have run out in Tuvalu and Tokelau. The drought which precipitated (ouch!)this situation is the result of an El Nina effect in the Pacific. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15163543
But the situation is exacerbated by climate change. As sea levels rise, groundwater sources become saline. http://www.theworld.org/2011/10/an-island-nation-with-no-drinking-water/

Welcome to the world some people don't believe in and others think we can still head off.
While not strictly a food issue, the agriculture practiced in island nations is becoming threatened by the lack of fresh water.

Meanwhile, Samoa has begun rationing. And did you know that there are people in Fiji without access to potable water? Think about that when you see those square bottles on market and convenience store shelves.

What's the good news this St. Francis Day?

Perhaps I'll move to Detroit...

but then I think about the cold, damp winters, and I wonder if that would be such a good idea. Still, this story on Sunday's weekend edition
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/02/140903516/the-gift-of-detroit-tilling-urban-terrain
about urban farming there warmed my heart.

Out of the ashes at the heart of America's notsogreat depression, comes the biggest boom in urban farming.

I do wonder what difference small scale farming in the city has made to the chronically poor and food insecure who live there, and would like to see more of the justice dimensions covered by the media - but still, this is hopeful.

And they have a pretty good ball team. Go Tigers!