3 Pillars of a Food Revolution

As marketers learn to fake climate-friendly food, how do we spot the real thing? Anna Lapp says it's a question of values. y Anna Lapp posted Aug !", #$!$

%hoto y &ichael %orter A few years ago, ' stum led on a (nited )ations study that transformed how ' think a out the climate crisis. 'n the report, researchers pegged greenhouse gases from the livestock sector at !* percent of total glo al emissions. +om ine this with other aspects of our food chain,from agricultural chemical production to agri usiness driven deforestation to food waste rotting in landfills,and food and agriculture sector is responsi le for nearly one third of the planet-s manmade emissions. &ove over .ummer/ it-s time to say hello to the ham urger. 't doesn-t take high-level math to reali0e if we-re serious a out averting the climate crisis, we need to add the food chain to our conversation. 12f course, we should e talking a out agriculture-s impact on the environment for a host of other reasons, too. Agriculture is the world-s single largest user of land and water, using up 3$ percent of the world-s freshwater resources every year. Agriculture is also responsi le for widespread air and water pollution and agricultural chemical runoff that causes aquatic dead 0ones around the world. At last count, there are more than 4$$, including one in the 5ulf of &e6ico that swells every year to a si0e three times larger than the 7% oil spill. +limate-friendly food means more than 8ust following a 9green: checklist/ it means considering the values underpinning our food system. ;o what can we do? <hankfully, we-re learning every day a out the power of sustaina le food systems to help reduce emissions from the food chain and mitigate the climate crisis. )ow, the 9food system: may sound 1and feel= like an a stract concept that has nothing to do with the sandwich sitting on your desk for lunch, ut it-s all related. And that sandwich you-re a out to eat connects you to the livelihoods and fates of farmers and food workers around the world. 't also connects you to the climate.

>very ody >ats .ow a community food system works. ?e can, with every food choice we make, align ourselves with a 9climate-friendly diet: y choosing to

eat sustaina ly raised food and steer clear of feedlot meat and industrial dairy, for instance. A climatefriendly diet also means going for fresh, whole, real foods, not the processed victuals so typical in our supermarkets, and limiting food packaging and food waste. 7ut a climate-friendly food system means more than 8ust our following a 9green: checklist/ it means considering the values underpinning this kind of food system, foremost among them ecology, community, and fairness. <hat values 9frame: is critical, now more than ever. As the food industry catches on that more and more of us care a out the climate impacts of our food and that we-re asking more questions a out the provenance of what we eat, they-ve stepped up their green marketing messages. &c@onald-s recently launched an 9>ndangered ;pecies: .appy &eal, 9to engage kids in a fun and informative way a out protecting the environment,: e6plains pro8ect partner +onservation 'nternational. A far cry from their 5& partnership several years ack, which launched the .ummer .appy &eal and ended only after 4# million toy .ummers had een given away. >arlier this year, ;ara Lee unleashed with much fanfare a new line of 9>arth 5rains: read that promotes 9innovative farming practices that promote sustaina le land use: as part of what the company calls its 9%lot to ;ave the >arth.: <his new wave of food industry marketing is creating a green-tinged fog for some of us who are trying to sort out what-s truly green and what-s 8ust spin. 7ut, ' elieve, if we frame a climate-friendly system in core values, we can see more easily through the fog. 7y shifting the conversation to core values, it-s much harder for the message to e co-opted, no matter the savvy of the marketers.

Ecology
>cology, from the 5reek oikos, for house or dwelling, and logia, for the study of, draws attention to the relationships etween living things and their environment. +oined in the !*3$s, the term took root in the (nited ;tates in the !"A$s as environmentalists strove for a way of emphasi0ing the importance of these relationships. As we struggle to understand the role that food plays in the climate crisis 1 oth its power to harm and to heal=, the value of agroecology is key to our understanding. %erhaps the clearest case for the need for agroecological systems was e6pressed in a ground- reaking study released in April #$$* in Bohannes urg, ;outh Africa y a consortium of more than 4$$ scientists from around the world. <he report,with the tongue-twistingly long name the 'nternational Assessment of Agricultural Cnowledge, ;cience and <echnology for @evelopment,stressed in no uncertain terms the importance of agroecology and small-scale farming and the need for sustaina le management of livestock, forest, and fisheries. <he 'AA;<@, as it is known, urges a transition to 9 iological su stitutes for agrochemicals: and 9reducing the dependency of the agricultural sector on fossil fuels: to foster a healthy food system and one that will help us mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis. D?e don-t need a single super gene or a super variety that somehow will e a silver ullet approach to climate change. 't-s a technological engineering approach to a iological pro lem.: -&olly Anderson (nderstanding ecology allows us to poke holes in the quick-fi6 solutions to climate change we-re hearing from agri usiness, like &onsanto-s promotion of genetically engineering seeds to withstand drought. 1<he company-s recent ad campaign,9.ow can we squee0e more from a raindrop?:,seems to e in every maga0ine '-ve picked up lately.= 7ut as &olly Anderson, an e6pert on agroecology and an author of the 'AA;<@ saysE 9+limate change is not something you can engineer a gene into a plant

for. +limate change is a really comple6 set of processes. ?e don-t need a single super gene or a super variety that somehow will e a silver ullet approach to climate change. 't-s a technological engineering approach to a iological pro lem.: ?hen we talk a out our ecological food values, we-re focusing on the importance of interconnections and of the comple6ity of a truly sustaina le food system. As agroecological farmers like to remind us, sustaina le food is not 8ust defined y the a sence of chemicals,it-s a out the creation of a healthy ecosystem, especially healthy, car on-rich soils.

Community
2nce a week, my one-year old daughter and ' stroll the twelve locks from our apartment to a towering church in 7rooklyn-s +o le .ill neigh orhood to gather our fruit and vegeta le 9share.: &y daughter has had her first taste of rasp erries, green eans, asil, plums, peaches, summer squash, and more, thanks to the 5reen <hum Farm. As 9shareholders: in this community-supported agriculture 1+;A= farm, we invested at the eginning of the growing season,along with ### other families,and we all enefit from it weekly. ?e also share the risk. ?ith the mercury at record highs this summer, the tomatoes have een thriving. ;ays farmer 7ill .alsey of 5reen <hum FarmE 9&ay e the est of the century, if not longerG: 7ut the lettuce? For the first time in fifteen yearsE )ada. <oday, advocates say there are etween H,$$$ and 4,$$$ +;A programs connecting families directly with farmers across the country. 1'n the latest agriculture census IpdfJ, the (;@A estimates there are even moreE !#,K4"=. 2f course, +;As are 8ust one piece in a patchwork of solutions to reknit regional foodsheds, ut more importantly they e6emplify the value of community that undergirds a climatefriendly food system. <he relationship etween farmer 7ill and us eaters upends a fundamental principle of the marketE that producers and consumers are necessarily opponents. ' got another taste of this profound shift when ' traveled to ;outh Corea a few years ago. ?hile there ' met with leaders in the consumer cooperative movement. ' thought our local %ark ;lope Food +oop was impressive with more than !4,$$$ mem ers. <ry !K$,$$$. <hat-s the mem ership of 8ust one of several consumer coops ' met with.

Food LevolutionsE 3 ;teps to ;olving the Food +risis Lesistance to the trade and 9aid: policies that displace farmers and increase hunger. ?hen ' sat down with ;eong .ee Cim, a leader of the .ansalim coop, he descri ed its programs connecting farmers with consumersE summer camps on farms for city kids, workshops on sustaina le food production, investments in akeries stocked with local food. <he core usiness of the co-op is the direct sale of hundreds of food items, the prices of which are mostly decided at their annual meeting. ?hen the farmers- reps and consumer reps sit down together, the conversation always ends in a fight, 8ust not the kind of fight you might imagine. Lice is the most contentious, Cim e6plainsE ?ithout fail, the consumers insist they should support the farmers y paying more than the market price for the rice. <he farmers insist that, no, consumers should actually pay less than the market price, since the cost of

production is lower than what the market charges. 9And then, they get into a ig argumentG: said Cim, laughing. .ow did .ansalim achieve this shift,from producers and consumers seeing themselves as competitors to seeing themselves as on the same team? <he answer, Cim e6plained, has to do with values, community values. 92ur producers see themselves as responsi le for the health and well- eing of the consumers. And the consumers, they know the farmers and see very clearly how they-re responsi le for their well- eing,: he said.

Fairness
Fairness in the food chain means ensuring that all the workers, farmers, food producers,everyone along the food chain,is treated fairly and gets a fair wage. 't also means ensuring all consumers, no matter where they live or what ta6 racket they-re in, have access to afforda le healthy food. 'n #$$A, consumer ehemoth ?almart, and the nation-s largest grocer, made headlines when it announced its move into organic foodsE 9?al-&art >yes 2rganic Foods,: declared <he )ew Mork <imes. ?ithin a year, some of the country-s iggest organic food providers were on oard, including the farmer-owned co-op 2rganic Nalley. 7ut as the co-op-s ?almart usiness grew, it egan to short its other customers,and the co-op-s oard and +>2, 5eorge ;iemon, started questioning their decision. ;aid ;iemon in an 'nc. &aga0ine articleE 9All of a sudden it hit usE ?hat are we doing? I... ?e'reJ treating every ody poorly, and damaging our reputation. ?e need to decide what's most important.D ;iemon-s iggest concern was that ?almart would ecome the coop-s iggest customer, causing 2rganic Nalley to lower its la or and production standards to meet ?almart-s demand for lower prices. For ;iemon, the decision to reak away from ?almart was clearE 9>ventually, ?al-&art could consume so much milk that the co-op could ecome eholden to one client and vulnera le to pressure to lower prices,violating its fundamental mission of providing fair prices to farmers.: And so 2rganic Nalley walked away, returning its focus to the mainstay of its usiness since the mid-!"*$sE natural foods stores across the country. %lus, no matter how much ?almart says it-s enefitting the planet and farmers y purchasing organic foods,and the origins and true sustaina ility of those items have een rigorously questioned,we can remain critical of the company-s flagrant disregard for workers- rights. ?almart recently admitted to failing to pay overtime, vacation, and other wages totaling O*A million to #H#,$$$ +alifornia workers. A host of other class action lawsuits are pending.

An Organic Peach and the Climate Crisis

7y considering the values of ecology, community, and fairness as a lens through which to understand the connections etween food and climate, we can perceive the need to go eyond our plate. ?e aren-t going to ring these values to life solely y filling our 1reusa le= shopping ags with real food from farmers we know and workers who were paid a good wage, though that is certainly a good start. 2nce we etter understand and em race these three values in relation to the food system, we can see clear ways work to protect,and advance,them. 2ne powerful way to do that is through policy, such as promoting access to healthy foods and making it easier for everyone to connect to farmers. ?e can see, too, the power of developing uniform, and trusted, product standards such as the organic certification. And finally, we can see the role the government should play in regulating marketing

through odies like the Federal +ommunication +ommission, which has historically created limits to fraudulent green claims on products.

* ?ays to Boin the Local Food &ovement ?ith historic floods devastating as many as #$ million people in %akistan, a chunk of glacier four times the si0e of &anhattan reaking free from 5reenland, and temperatures from &oscow to )ew Mork +ity hitting historic highs and leaving us all roasted, more and more people are starting to feel the direct impact of what may very well e the signs of climate chaos to come. 'n order to get ack to the level of greenhouse gas emissions we need to e to sta ili0e the climate, every sector must play a role. )ow, nearly five years after ' read that (nited )ations report a out livestock and the climate crisis, it-s ever more visi le the role that food systems plays, not only in e6acer ating the crisis, ut also in helping address it. )ow, ' know, with stakes so high, suggesting that a local, organic peach can make a difference might feel laugha ly inconsequential, ut if choosing a local peach is a tasty reminder of our growing, unified, powerful vision for shifting our food system toward a more sustaina le model, then it might not e so inconsequential after all.

Anna Lapp adapted this article for M>;G &aga0ine, a national, nonprofit media organi0ation that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions, from a speech she gave for )ational +ooperative 5rocers Association. Anna is the author of Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and co-author of Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organi !it hen and Ho"e#s Edge. ;he is a founding principal of the ;mall %lanet 'nstitute.