In Business, Creating Sustainable Enterprises & Communities

A CONVERGENCE OF GOOD TASTE

In Business, March-April, 2006, Vol. 28, No. 2, p. 28

The director of a Pennsylvania sustainable agriculture group explains why food affects wellbeing, and how and where it's grown are so critical.

Brian Snyder

AS AN AVID STUDENT of physics in my youth, I often wondered what it would have been like to witness some of the major scientific revolutions that occurred in history. What was the day like, for instance, when humankind finally discovered the Earth is not situated at the center of the Solar System? How did it feel when Einstein discovered relativity?
If such events happened today, would they even make the cover of Time or Newsweek, or prompt the major television news anchors to extend their broadcasts, recapitulating critical scenes and interviews long into the night? Would the kids get an unplanned day off from school?
Unfortunately, major revolutions generally occur in far more subtle ways. Sometimes it takes decades or even centuries for a sense of disquiet to develop within the scientific community that might impugn commonly accepted theories as inadequate to explain observed events.
Scientific revolutions occur more as a dynamic convergence of otherwise disparate thinking at the edges of the scientific community, led as much by cultural readiness as empirical data.
And when such a revolution is “complete,” if indeed it ever is, antecedents of the resulting new theories can often be identified in the guise of long held suspicions and older forms of wisdom or philosophy previously thought to be antiquated. Scientific history, it seems, is more cyclical or at least uneven in its progress than arrow-straight.

UNDERSTANDING FOOD AND FARMING SYSTEMS
This is inevitably the nature of our understanding of food and farming systems as well. Despite the insistence of those who profit most from the dominant paradigm, we travel together on a severely winding road toward a common conception of how food affects our health and well being, and how various farming methods affect the food.
There is increasing evidence, however, that we are fast approaching a critical and necessary fork in that road. Most striking is the apparent total lack of consensus among food scientists these days about what is good, or not good to eat, especially in terms of its potential lasting effects on our bodies. Almost no week goes by without the release of another landmark study challenging the conventional wisdom that might itself be only a few months or years old.
Case in point. Not so long ago, conventional nutritionists were nearly unanimous in their condemnation of fat of any kind in our diets. Now confusion reigns on that score, led initially in the public's perception by the enigmatic Dr. Atkins, but sustained by mounting scientific evidence of the positive qualities of some fats versus others.
No major food group has escaped scrutiny altogether. Some foods fall into and then out of scientific favor like hairstyles. But the most significant convergence occurring in the midst of all this confusion is the growing sense that the good or bad qualities of food depend heavily on how farmers apply their craft.
This seemingly benign or even obvious point is actually the equivalent in terms of food system philosophy to the first smashed atom in physics. The entire conventional paradigm in American agriculture depends on the notion that milk is milk, carrots are carrots, beef is beef ... and it is what's for dinner.
No more threatening and revolutionary a concept can possibly be interjected into the calm waters of our national food paradigm than the notion that it actually matters how food is produced. So it really is no surprise that many food manufacturers and purveyors, and even some of the larger producers, would fight back in ways aimed on delaying, perhaps indefinitely, the coming revolution in how the public perceives its sustenance.
A prime example of such activism is the recent passage of the National Uniformity for Food Act (H.R. 4167) in the House of Representatives. The bill, if eventually enacted, would basically prevent individual states from requiring anything on food labels not deemed relevant by the federal Food and Drug Administration. As such, this is really just one layer of a comprehensive industry strategy to make sure no governmental entity, whether local municipality, state or nation, behaves as though it matters how one farm or factory produces food as compared to another.
But in every shortsighted solution lies a persistent problem that will reemerge and provide opportunity to those with a more comprehensive vision. There may be no series of events that would produce a food-borne revolution faster than if food uniformity actually became the law of the land. This is because the empirical evidence available to every man, woman and child actively challenges this finding - people can taste the difference.
In the meantime, for any sustainably-minded company, whether directly involved with food or not, there is no better business opportunity available today than to climb on the “good food” bandwagon. In fact there is no business of any description that is somehow beyond the benefit that can come from a tighter relationship with the farmers and others who provide local sources of wholesome, good tasting food for that company's employees and customers alike.
We know this very well at the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA), because good food really is our business. Since we began to take this identity seriously a few years ago, interest in our various charitable programs has increased dramatically, our membership has tripled and attendance at our flagship Farming for the Future annual conference has nearly doubled to around 1,600 people.

GOOD FOOD, GOOD BUSINESS
Good food has indeed been good business for PASA and for other similar organizations across the country. But that is only where the potential for the sustainable business community begins. Just as any business might ponder its use of energy resources, ecological footprint or human capital, so can it pause to consider the type of food system it supports.
Beyond engendering a mere feel-good strategy, such an approach can make good economic sense as well. Businesses that understand the connection between the health (and attitude) of their employees and bottom-line of the company will naturally want to know how to make wholesome, locally grown food available both at lunchtime and for their workers to take home.
Not only traditional company cafeterias, but corporate sponsored CSAs and farmers' markets may very well comprise the wave of the future that will finally bring the local/good foods revolution ashore. Some companies may prefer instead to just facilitate the introduction of their employees and customers to the farmers, grocers, restaurateurs and others that make local food available. This overall strategy is one PASA will be testing in the years to come in our Pittsburgh area programs, and elsewhere around Pennsylvania.
There are so many reasons to buy locally grown food, as documented in this and other publications over and over. A sustainable vision for our food system suggests that such activity is good for the economy, good for the environment and good for both rural and urban communities. Many of us involved in the movement, however, see the issue quite simply as the only reasonable long-term strategy for survival of the planet we live on and its people.
But in order to get there, a revolution of thinking must indeed take place. In that light, it is perhaps encouraging for us to think of the current confusion in food science as equivalent to the experience of astronomers who puzzled for centuries over the observed retrograde motion of planets. Likewise, bureaucrats who flail around with policy efforts to protect the supposed uniformity of food are like the church leaders of yesteryear who asserted Biblical authority in favor of an Earth-centered universe.
Maybe we should not be thinking what it was like to finally conceive of the Sun as central to our Solar System, but imagining instead the leap of faith it takes to see the whole system in a still larger context. Maybe in our lifetimes, scientists may yet awaken to realize the deep conceptual connections between a commodity-based food system and the economic, environmental and healthcare crises currently in the making.
But while they are figuring that out, we at PASA invite you to join us in preparing for the dynamic convergence of local food and good taste that will eventually change the world.

Brian Snyder is Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture based in Millheim, Pennsylvania.

Sidebar:

BUY FRESH, BUY LOCAL

BEGINNING three years ago, PASA joined with nine other local foods advocates from across the country as part of a local food ss learning community sponsored by the FoodRoutes Network. One result of that collaboration was the development of a national brand identity for locally grown food, now known as the Buy Fresh, Buy Local campaign. In impleme nting this campaign, PASA has identified several different geographical regions within Pennsylvania that roughly match farm production capacity to the corresponding urban centers where most consumers are located. This strategy has been developed with help from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and other organizations throughout the state, and is specifically designed to work with local businesses to positively impact the food system in each region. For more information about the Buy Fresh, Buy Local campaign, please visit www.foodroutes.org, www.buylocalpa.org.

MEET PASA
THE Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture (PASA) is a statewide organization with a fast-growing membership (currently about 3,500) that increasingly represents the broader Mid-Atlantic region as well. Members are sustainable farmers, businesses, educators and environmental or consumer advocates who appreciate and support the sustainable sources of their food.
In existence since 1992, PASA is best known for its diverse array of farm-based education programs throughout the growing season, and for its flagship Farming for the Future conference held in State College, Pennsylvania. The next conference will be held February 1-3, 2007. For more information about PASA, its educational programs or the annual conference, visit www.pasafarming.org.