On this day, we celebrate agriculture’s abundance … and the subsidies that determine what is grown. As this cartoon, which is featured in Eat Drink Vote, reminds us, the small farmer is being overshadowed by big agricultural companies that influence how government subsidies are allocated. Here’s a link to the day’s events that have been […]
People familiar with Eat Drink Vote may also be interested in a new book by Nick Freudenberg, the director of Hunter College’s Food Policy Center. The book is Lethal But Legal: Corporations, Consumption and Public Health. In this book, Freudenberg explores how profits and public health are dealt with in a variety of industries including […]
While the passage of the food bill reminds us about the challenges of changing the food environment, it is nice to see how an entrepreneur can overcome the obstacles and marketing of the established food industry. Farmer’s Fridge, founded by Luke Sanders, is a fresh food “kiosk” in two Chicago locations with plans to expand. […]
Yes GMOs are political … and they can be funny and thought-provoking as well. Rodale News has posted a slideshow of eleven cartoons about GMOs that are featured in Eat Drink Vote. We hope that you’ll check out the cartoons and share them with your friends. And – a reminder … the current cartoon in […]
Halloween is a wonderful example of some of what is discussed in Eat Drink Vote: it combines marketing to children with support for a product (i.e., candy) that depends heavily on government subsidy for its ingredients. And – the marketing works! Here are a few pieces of information picked up in a quick perusal of […]
Of course … Washington being Washington, this may change. But the size and scope of the legislation is the clearest example of the pervasive influence that politics has on our food. The bill was broken into two parts. The first, which deals primarily with agriculture, was passed in July. Up now: Food assistance, otherwise known […]
On a related note, there may also be a vote to make permanent the Farmer Assurance Provision also known as the Monsanto Protection Act. Information about this may be found here, here, and here.
Quoting from the Introduction to Eat Drink Vote “… A dab of tomato paste on pizza now counts as a vegetable in school lunches. Kids get fewer servings of real vegetables in those lunches. Food companies now know that Congress will take care of them if they don’t like federal regulations. And the public now […]
There are so many great groups working hard to help individuals vote with their forks. One is the American Community Gardening Association. From their website: “The Mission of the American Community Gardening Association is to build community by increasing and enhancing community gardening and greening across the United States and Canada.” Eat Drink Vote attended […]