NEW YORK, February 1, 2011: (by Mark Bittman) For decades, Americans believed that we had the world’s healthiest and safest diet. We worried little about this diet’s effect on the environment or on the lives of the animals (or even the workers) it relies upon. Nor did we worry about its sustainability.
We’ve come to recognize that our diet is unhealthful and unsafe. Many food production workers labor in difficult, even deplorable, conditions, and animals are produced as if they were widgets. It would be hard to devise a more wasteful, damaging, unsustainable system.
Here are some ideas — frequently discussed, but sadly not yet implemented — that would make the growing, preparation and consumption of food healthier, saner, more productive, less damaging and more enduring. In no particular order:
- End government subsidies to processed food.
- Begin subsidies to those who produce and sell actual food for direct consumption.
- Break up the U.S. Department of Agriculture and empower theFood and Drug Administration.
- Outlaw concentrated animal feeding operations and encourage the development of sustainable animal husbandry.
- Encourage and subsidize home cooking.
- Tax the marketing and sale of unhealthful foods.
- Reduce waste and encourage recycling.
- Mandate truth in labeling.
- Reinvest in research geared toward leading a global movement in sustainable agriculture, combining technology and tradition to create a new and meaningful Green Revolution.