On Wednesday night, I attended an interesting panel discussion about the Food and Farm Bill, which is being written in the House Agriculture subcommittees and will be taken up by the Senate later in the summer. The panel was sponsored by the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUESA, the group that runs the much talked about Ferry Plaza Farmers Market), the California Coalition on Food and Farming, and San Francisco Food Systems. The panelists were Ann Cooper, the “Renegade Lunch Lady” of the Berkeley Unified School District and author of Lunch Lessons; Grant Brians, Farmer, Heirloom Organics; Larry Cohen, Director, Prevention Institute; Kari Hamerschlag, Director, California Coalition on Food and Farming; Paula Jones, Policy Director, San Francisco Food Systems. The discussion was recorded, and a digital edition might appear on the CUESA website someday.

About 100 people took time on a weeknight to get wonky on a Wednesday. They were rewarded with a broad range of perspectives on the Food and Farm Bill–public health, school lunches, farming, and poverty. Most of the presentations were introductions to the Food and Farm Bill; I won’t recount them in detail, but instead will describe some of what went beyond the normal Food and Farm Bill orientation. (Basics on the Food and Farm Bill can be found in many places on the web, including the Ethicurean’s Farm Bill category and Michael Pollan’s NYT Magazine piece.)

This next paragraph is about two San Francisco-specific items from the evening–Non-San Franciscans can hit the More button below to go directly to my notes about the event. First, remember that San Francisco’s representative in the House is the Speaker of the House, a position of enormous legislative power. Kari Hamerschlag listed three of these powers in her presentation: 1) Speaker Pelosi can find money for food programs elsewhere in the budget, 2) when the bill is being debated on the floor of the House, she has the power to decide how many amendments can be offered (Rep. Peterson seems to think that this number is zero; I hope he is wrong.), and 3) she can throw her support behind reform measures before the debate has even started, thus influencing what everyone else does. The California Coalition on Food and Farming has a sample letter for SF residents to send to the Speaker. Second, if you want to learn about the Food and Farm Bill, the Alemany Farm is having forum on Saturday June 9 from 2 to 4 PM. Check the Alemany Farm website for details (it is also listed on the Ethicurean Calendar.)

U.S. food policy, according to the Larry Cohen, almost completely ignores the role of prevention. Instead of national policy making it easier for people to choose healthy foods and live healthy lifestyles, our food policy makes diabetes, strokes, heart disease and tooth decay the easy choice through direct subsidizes to corn and soybeans (which indirectly subsidize meat and fats). Mr. Cohen and his institute want to connect agriculture with public health; they want to “build a movement.” One step in the process was the release of “Cultivating Common Ground: Linking Health and Sustainable Agriculture (PDF), a report which details the many ways that agriculture affects the health of workers, neighbors, and consumers.

Ann Cooper talked about how previous Food and Farm Bills have led to “fake food” being served in schools. For example, federal school lunch programs provide USDA chicken nuggets, tater tots, and fruit cocktail (complete with HFCS), but very rarely fresh fruits and vegetables. Ms. Cooper wants a Food and Farm Bill that supports real food, like vegetables, fruits and whole grains.

The farmer on the panel, Grant Brians of Heirloom Organics, has been into organic farming for a long time (he was one of the creators of the California Certified Organic Farmers organization back in the 1970s.). He grows vegetables and othe “specialty crops” because he likes to eat, and finds it to be deeply satisfying to grow something that can be eaten directly from the plant or with minimal preparation. His crops don’t require feedlots, milling, or addition of alpha-amylase and glucoamylase enzymes (used in production of HFCS) to be edible.

Mr. Brians sees danger in fruit and vegetable subsidies, which have been supported by quite a few legislators. Cash payments could lead to the “lowest common denominator” and a decrease in quality in exchange for higher yields. Spending money on promotion of fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, is a great idea. A strong national research network is important, but we need to ensure that much of the research is “common benefit research,” i.e., research that will help all of society, instead of helping a massive biotech conglomerate obtain a few new patents or create new GMO products.

The fourth presenter, Paula Jones of the SF Food Systems, could be said to have the Food and Farm Bill in her blood. She grew up on a farm in central Illinois and her mother administered Farm Bill programs for the USDA. After summarizing the state of hunger in San Francisco (a serious issue that seems to be getting worse), she mentioned a few USDA programs that deserve more funding in the next Food and Farm Bill: commodity supplemental program (produce for seniors), a Department of Defense program that buys local foods, and a program that would help schools buy local produce (it was authorized in the 2002 bill but never funded). Ms. Jones pointed out two big events on the horizon. In the near term, the U.S. Conference of Mayors is meeting in Los Angeles at the end of the month, and it is expected that they will issue a joint statement asking for policy reform in the Food and Farm Bill (The Ethicureans will keep our eyes open for this). In the longer term, the reauthorizing of child nutrition programs is expected to occur next year.

Kari Hamerschlag spoke about the status of the Food and Farm Bill bill. She started on a sour note, describing a meeting many months ago in which House Ag Committee chairman Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN) said that the 2007 bill would look a lot like the 2002 bill. His actions so far have shown that he wasn’t kidding. In the Senate, however, Ag Committee Chairman Harkin–despite being from the commodity-growing state of Iowa–is apparently reform and conservation minded. Ms. Hamerschalg noted that many of her group’s priorities are supported by Sen. Harkin.

After the panel discussion and Q&A, there was a tremendous buzz of energy as the attendees brainstormed on outreach ideas, talked about what they were planning (for example, a Food and Farm Bill letter writing party–a great idea!), and made new activism and social connections.

Ethicurean readers can visit the California Food and Farming action page to learn how to help improve the Food and Farm Bill.