Rural Routes/Margot Ford McMillen

Sustainability Needed Now More Than Ever

For the last couple of months, an ordinary TV watcher (me) has seen video of the attacks of 9/11 about 100 times. That’s just a guess, but you get the picture. Boom crash, terrified people, strong rescue teams, cut to a commentator. So, I got to thinking … what else were we thinking about 20 years ago?

We all may have forgotten this, but the ports and airports were completely closed for two days after the attacks. Here’s what I said in a column written right after 9/11: “At a time like this, it may seem silly taking up column space to discuss food … But food security — the access of all people at all times to the food they need for an active and healthy life — is an important concern.

“If you’ve eaten some fresh produce today — lettuce, tomato, some perishable — and you haven’t raised it yourself or bought it at the farmer’s market, you’ve eaten something raised outside the United States.”

The rest of the column focused on particulars—tomatoes and onions from Mexico, beef from South America. And, now, food security is worse. Despite the emphasis on buying local, the line on the import graph for produce crossed over 80% in 2018 and is still climbing. This fragile situation, highlighted today because of Covid was also highlighted after 9/11.

In 2001, the system quickly ran out of fresh flowers, and florists started calling local growers. Then grocers started running out of fresh produce.

Consumers can get by with paper or plastic flowers, but food is another matter. And as COVID-19 has proven, our food supply chain now is every bit as fragile as in 2001. So, for at least the last 20 years, we have been pretending that our food system, depending on imports, will sustain us. We’ve been ignoring the truth.

The trouble is consolidation—big corporations gobbling small competitors. A year ago, meat producer Smithfield had to shut down meat processing plants because COVID-19 was ravaging the workforce.

The Smithfield shutdown led to shortages—and empty grocery shelves. Here’s a short list of the brands Smithfield owns: Smithfield’s, Eckrich, Nathan’s Famous, Farmer John, Farmland, Armour, Carando, Cook’s, Curly’s, John Morrell, Pure Farmland, Healthy Ones, Margherita, Kretschmar. Many of these were small, independent meat producers 20 years ago. As Smithfield says on their webpage, they “benefit from vertical integration.” Meaning they own the animals from birth to slaughter, and they own the slaughter plants and the distribution channels.

But the question is: Do producers and consumers benefit from Smithfield’s vertical integration?

The answer is no, and the Biden administration has set out to make things right. Last month, the administration issued an executive order to promote competition. The order includes 72 directives and involves 12 different federal agencies. One directive orders USDA to listen to farmers. So, farmers can now speak out for themselves if they’ve been hurt by corporate practices; the old system required that the entire industry was harmed. Another point in the order insists that if farmers speak out, a corporation cannot retaliate by manipulating the market to work against them.

Another anti-competitive strategy addressed in an order is the practice by farm equipment companies of refusing to sell farmers the software and tools to repair their own equipment. While it has been a long tradition for farmers to spend the winter in their machine shed tinkering with machinery, now the equipment has to go to a licensed facility for repair. And, forget about getting it fixed by an independent garage. Manufacturers are refusing to sell to them also. This means that only licensed dealers can repair your tractor, and if that dealer is far away place, oh, well.

Other orders encourage agencies to think about how mergers have affected rural communities. Mergers have closed local hospitals, leaving many counties without healthcare hubs. This can mean the difference between life and death in an emergency, the difference between a 30-minute ride in an ambulance and a two-hour ride in a helicopter for help.

Mergers have reduced the number of banks also, leaving one in four rural counties without a bank.

Some industry practices were in place to fool consumers. The “Product of USA” label could be applied to meat products that were processed in the United States even if they weren’t raised here. Biden’s executive order encourages the Federal Trade Commission to create labels that are clear and accurate for consumers.

But encouraging the government isn’t the same as guaranteeing that changes are made. The only solution for ordinary consumers is to find a farmer we trust, purchase from them and ask lots of questions. We must, in other words, learn how our food is raised, prepared and sold to us.

Here’s how my column concluded in 2001: It’s time for a farm policy that focuses on American sustainability. Write the people you’ve sent to Congress and tell them.

Same conclusion today.

Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. She also is a co-founder of CAFOZone.com, a website for people who are affected by concentrated animal feeding operations. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History”. Email: margotmcmillen@ gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, October 1, 2021

Populist.com