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Shouldn’t Every Day be Food Day?
Welcome to October, a month I usually devote to watching the leaves change, bringing my sweatshirts out of storage, settling into a comfy chair to watch football, and celebrating the harvest that provides abundant, affordable and safe food for us all.
This month also has a number of food-related events, including the annual World Food Prize (October 13) which recognizes “the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world,” and World Food Day (October 16), designed to create awareness and “informed, year-around action” to alleviate hunger.
But this year, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has launched “Food Day,” a campaign to “change the way Americans eat and think about food.” According to CSPI, Food Day is designed to “encourage people to support healthy, affordable food grown in a sustainable, humane way.” It culminates on October 24 with food-focused events where CSPI will gather signatures to send to Congress to support the organization’s food reform agenda.
I think most people who work in the food system share, at least in theory, some of CSPI’s goals for Food Day, such as expanding access to food, alleviating hunger, and promoting safe, healthy foods. But I fear that opponents of modern food production will use Food Day to call for radical changes in how food is produced and brought to market.
What these opponents conveniently forget is that farmers devote each and every day of their lives to producing more food using fewer resources. To them, every day is food day.
Need proof? Learn from more than 65 farmers who have posted tours of their farms on the Farmers Feed US website. There you can learn how Allen Armstrong’s family has cared for the land surrounding their Ohio farm for more than six generations. Or you can see how Shannon and Nathan Kuball of Minnesota provide excellent care for their dairy herd so thousands of consumers can have fresh, wholesome milk every day.
As food related discussions take place this month, farmers across the U.S. should be active in promoting what they do each day to produce enough food for us and millions around the world. They do this day in and day out because it’s not only the ethical thing to do, but because our society depends on it.
Because to farmers, every day is food day.
Posted by Jim F.