DECLARATION FOR HEALTHY FOOD AND AGRICULTURE

29 Aug 08 - Sloweb

Slow Food Skagit River Salish Sea urges you to read this declaration and, if you agree with it, go to www.fooddeclaration.org and electronically provide your endorsement.

Burk

In occasion of Slow Food Nation, the largest celebration of American food in history which began today in central San Francisco, a Declaration for Healthy Food and Agriculture was signed on 25 August to help accelerate the transformation of the present industrialized agricultural system in the US.

Endorsed by academics, students, agricultural institutes, writers, farmers, filmmakers and chefs, the declaration emerged as the movement to establish better food and farming in the US gains continued strength and support from all sectors of society.

The declaration states:

‘We, the undersigned, believe that a healthy food system is necessary to meet the urgent challenges of our time. Behind us stands a half-century of industrial food production, underwritten by cheap fossil fuels, abundant land and water resources, and a drive to maximize the global harvest of cheap calories. Ahead lie rising energy and food costs, a changing climate, declining water supplies, a growing population, and the paradox of widespread hunger and obesity.

'These realities call for a radically different approach to food and agriculture. We believe that the food system must be reorganized on a foundation of health: for our communities, for people, for animals, and for the natural world. The quality of food, and not just its quantity, ought to guide our agriculture. The ways we grow, distribute, and prepare food should celebrate our various cultures and our shared humanity, providing not only sustenance, but justice, beauty and pleasure’.

There are twelve proposed principles which should frame future food and agricultural policy, ensuring better health and wealth in all countries worldwide. These are:

1. Forms the foundation of secure and prosperous societies, healthy communities, and healthy people.

2. Provides access to affordable, nutritious food to everyone.

3. Prevents the exploitation of farmers, workers, and natural resources; the domination of genomes and markets; and the cruel treatment of animals, by any nation, corporation or individual.

4. Upholds the dignity, safety, and quality of life for all who work to feed us.

5. Commits resources to teach children the skills and knowledge essential to food production, preparation, nutrition, and enjoyment.

6. Protects the finite resources of productive soils, fresh water, and biological diversity.

7. Strives to remove fossil fuel from every link in the food chain and replace it with renewable resources and energy.

8. Originates from a biological rather than an industrial framework.

9. Fosters diversity in all its relevant forms: diversity of domestic and wild species; diversity of foods, flavors and traditions; diversity of ownership.

10. Requires a national dialog concerning technologies used in production, and allows regions to adopt their own respective guidelines on such matters.

11. Enforces transparency so that citizens know how their food is produced, where it comes from, and what it contains.

12. Promotes economic structures and supports programs to nurture the development of just and sustainable regional farm and food networks.

For more information, or to express your support, visit www.fooddeclaration.org

Victoria Blackshaw

v.blackshaw@slowfood.it

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STOP IRRADIATION OF SPINACH AND LETTUCE

There is a Comment Period on the FDA site.

PLEASE take the time to comment....

To stop the FDA from destroying the nutritional value in our food...And then we have to wonder what other foods they will want to Irradiate.  Will it eventually be all of them?  What will it cost the consumer . . . in price at the store and in taxes to pay for the equipment and people running it?  Hmmm . . . food for thought.

http://www.organicconsumers.org/irrad/irradiationcomment.htm

 

This is one of the biggest issues facing our nation today.  This could

jeopardize our entire food system and compromise the security of farmers everywhere.  Remember, it was the end of August, first of September, last year--2007-- that mandatory pasteurization of almonds was instated--and is still going.  These laws and developments are an assault to our basic human rights.  But more importantly, they are hazardous to our very existence.   People have survived all through history without these unearthly measures being mandated.  Of course there have been some instances of unsafe food--But does that constitute blanketing all foods with this infringement of our basic rights?   We risk our life more each time we drive our vehicle.  Please make a comment and help stop this atrocity before it is too late!

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PRESERVE OUR ABILITY TO FEED OURSELVES

If you feel that farmland is precious, and should not be sacrificed to development, please write to the Mount Vernon City Council and the Skagit County Commissioners to share your thoughts.

To the Editor, Skagit Valley Herald

Mount Vernon Mayor, Bud Norris, should reconsider what is in the best interests of his constituents. (4/19 'MV eyes farmland for growth')

All people, including residents of Mount Vernon, need to eat every day. Food comes from farmland. We have high quality, fertile farmland here in the Skagit. Few communities have such a valuable resource. What makes Mayor Norris think that anything is more valuable to his constituents than food growing nearby?

Friday, the Seattle Times reported that food prices have risen by 83% worldwide in the last 3 years. People are dying and rioting because food is not available. Locally, some farmers and food producers are experiencing difficulties due to dramatic increases in the prices of flour, animal feed, and fuel. Consumers see price increases at the supermarket. Locally, this is a hardship and an inconvenience. Unlike people in Egypt, we still have plenty of food to eat.

As agricultural land and oil resources diminish, our future will be very different from our immediate past. The most important aspects of a community will not be the size of its houses, or the dollar value of its industry. Most valuable will be the quality and proximity of food producing farmland.

Farmland is not "empty" because there is nothing built on it. Farmland is the most productive land of all. It produces the food we need to live. You can't tear down a mall, or a housing development, to make a productive farm. Farmland is our most valuable resource, and we must not waste it on "development." We eat every day. Other than air and water, nothing is more important.

It is the responsibility of our City Officials and County Commissioners to preserve our ability to feed ourselves. Please don't let us down.

Carol Havens

Anacortes

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