Tuscaloosa Food Summit

I am trying to organize a food summit for the fall here in Tuscaloosa.  If you are interested in reading about this have a look.  An informational and forming meeting is taking place at Grace Aberdean - Habitat Alchemy at 2124 9th Street in Tuscaloosa tonight at 6:30.  Here are my remarks for tonight. (if you come you will get to hear me read a version of this - bonus!)  We will have a meeting on campus in a few weeks depending on how this one goes tonight.

The decision what to eat can be one of the most private and personal of human experiences.  At the same time, almost no one eats food that they are solely responsible for making, growing, finding, or cooking.  Personally, I recall being a child and eating meal after meal of highly processed food.  Our food came from a freezer in Sam’s club.  At the same time, I can also remember going to visit my grandfather’s house and picking most of what we ate out of his garden.   So what happened in a few generations? 100 years ago, almost everyone in this country was responsible for making a substantial part of their food.  With the industrialization and commoditization of our food chain, we have allowed business and government policymakers to take control of what we eat, how we eat, and where we eat it.  Many of us feel that some incorrect decisions were made along the way and substantial change must occur. Some statistics that I find interesting along these lines:

According to the CDC, 1 out of every 4 children born in the year 2000 or later will get diabetes in their lifetime.  For African- Americans and Asians born after 2000, specifically, that number jumps to 1 in 2.

For the first time in over 50 years we have seen a decline in the life expectancy though the CDC says that is not a trending occurrence.

1 in 8 Americans rely on Food banks or similar assistance for their groceries or food.  Of those 40% have full time jobs.

Over 1/3 of all Americans are obese.  Over 2/3 of all Americans are either overweight or obese.  2 out 3.

That obesity rate is even higher in lower income citizens.

In Birmingham, a person living in Ensley without a car has to take 2 buses and spend more than 3 hours round  trip to buy what most would call even decent food.

If you go to the cancer.org website and read about nutrition, you will see that about 70% of the space in your grocery store is out.

We subsidize the production of a few crops building mountains of corn that ends up in most of that 70% of the grocery store space. 

3 companies – Monsanto, Dupont, and Syngenta own over 47% of the world seed patents.  They own even seeds they had no part in creating.  If your field that is next to one planted with their seed gets contaminated, you pay the price.

We talk about making cheap food available for all but ignore the externalities that abound from this food in terms of much higher health costs, social and environmental costs, and a reduction in our general quality of life.

On the other hand, the prevalence of farmer’s markets has made them almost ubiquitous in most communities at least one day of the week.  Even the white house has a garden.  We have seen even Wal-mart get into organics and move to offer more locally produced food.   There is certainly a lot to be excited about.

 

This is an event for the community.  I think the food summit model of a one-day conference with a day of classes and tours is the right style.  But that should be discussed.  One person cannot make something like this happen.  There are many, many things that need to be addressed. If you would like to help, let me know.

Email mdlawrence@crimson.ua.edu
Phone: 205-936-6120 


Here is an itenerary that of what I woul like to see happen.

Breakout Session and Panelist Topics

Ø   - The Health Benefits of Eating Organically Produced Food

Ø   - The Complete Cost of Food (a discussion of the economics, social implications, health consequences, and environmental impact of eating from the modern food supply system)

Ø  - Monocultures and the concerns over the reduction of biodiversity

Ø  - Community Gardens and Urban Agriculture

Ø   - Seed banks, Genetically Modified Food, and the Patenting of Seeds

Ø  - Food Banks, Food Security, and Food Deserts

Ø  - University of Alabama Dining, Campus Farm?, Campus Composting?

Ø  - CSA’s and their role in sustainable agriculture

Ø  - The Slow Food movement

Ø  - The Role of Faith Based Initiatives in Sustainable Food

Ø  - The Future of Urban Farming – Vertical Farming, (http://www.verticalfarm.com/) The Hantz Farm of Detroit (http://www.hantzfarmsdetroit.com/introduction.html) Jones Valley Urban Farm

Ø  - How can business be part of the solution?  - A sustainable food supply chain, The Stonyfield Story, Net Impact (http://www.netimpact.org/)

Ø  - The Grocery Gap – The work of Social Compact (http://www.socialcompact.org/)

Tours/Events

Ø  Snows Bend Farm

Ø  The Druid City Garden

Ø  The garden at Canterbury Episcopal Church

Ø  Any others that would like to host

Ø  Taste $2.78 – an invitation to Tuscaloosa’s chefs to prepare their best, healthy meals for the cost of a school lunch

Ø  Classes

Ø  Canning/Cooking raw vegetables

Ø  Bread Making

Ø  Home yogurt and cheese making

Ø  How to start an organic garden

Ø  Composting