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Food is lifeBy Ken Root Food is life, but to some critics industrially produced food is death. A documentary highlighting what is bad about our food production system did not win the Oscar, but its nomination has escalated the debate on how food is produced in the United States and exposed some coordinated tactics among government and "locavore" groups who want to change our food production system. (Locavore is not a real word but merge "local" with "omnivore" and you've got it.) Science and technology have made the American food production system highly successful. From farm gate to dinner plate, the entire production and processing chain works very well in delivering an abundance of safe and nutritious food to the general public at a very low cost per serving. However, the popular media is saying that everything agribusiness has done right is now wrong. The noble humanitarian goal of ending malnutrition and its debilitating effect on human health is now being criticized because we provide a large quantity of food at an economical price through our "industrial" food system. The critics could help us all by explaining how we can provide economical food without consumers eating too much of the sweet and starchy stuff and not enough of the green stuff--a serious issue and yet one that circles around like a young tiger chasing his tail. As I recall, in that fairy tale of my youth he spun so fast that he eventually turned into butter. There has to be some symbolism in that. A documentary called "Food, Inc." is getting a lot of attention from general media because it paints a negative picture of the industrial food production system. It encourages food shoppers to buy locally produced foods and fits with the new USDA slogan: "Know your farmer, know your food." None of this is really bad if both sides are presented, but there is a new tactic emerging and being employed by formerly balanced media. The producer and director of "Food, Inc.," Robert Kenner, says he tried to get the farming industry involved when he was making the film, but most declined to talk. He says the food industry at first ignored the film, but companies have protested more loudly as the film has gained attention. "They are realizing their consumers are concerned," he said. "These are complicated issues and we don't mean to offer the solutions to these problems totally, but we do mean to create a conversation about them." This is the same tactic used by Time Magazine with a one-sided cover story called "Getting Real about the High Price of Cheap Food" by Bryan Walsh. When interviewed on AgriTalk, Walsh said, "Time is trying to say rather than do a story where you do 50 percent on one side and 50 percent on another, you allow the writer to look at it and make some of his own judgments; that's why the story came out in many ways the way it does." This is the most disturbing change in today's media. Rather than taking an issue and sorting out the facts, the (formerly) most credible media outlets are siding with a cause and bashing the opposing view without balance or rebuttal.The activist groups have a distinct advantage in getting their inflammatory information to media that assigns space and time for very biased stories. I have never believed that Fox News is "fair and balanced," but now no one else is either. If every decision-maker in food production and processing suddenly said: "We're wrong," and shut down their food production facilities, what would happen? We'd have panic, chaos and starvation. Then the survivors, or survivalists, would produce their food from their own sweat and the chaos would stabilize. Then, people would specialize and improve the quality of their products. Government regulation would impose additional restrictions on suppliers and the economy of scale would cause mergers and acquisitions. The final equilibrium would be a system very similar to the one we have today. Why are we going through this? Are we on an elitist guilt trip because we can't control the appetites of people who have enough money to buy food but not enough self-discipline to eat responsibly? No society has ever had the means to feed its people any better than we do in developed countries, and yet we have malnutrition and obesity living next door to each other. Might factors other than corporate greed and cheap corn be causing our problems? The hallmark of a democratic society is freedom of the people to express their views without threat of retribution by government. Shouldn't it also be the responsibility of media to present issues so that citizens can find the truth within and react in a logical manner? Editor's Note: Ken Root is an independent agricultural journalist. He was named the 2009 Farm Broadcaster of the Year and was the 2008 winner of the Oscar in Agriculture. He is an Oklahoma native and an experienced print, radio and television journalist. He has spent the last five years as Lead Farm Broadcaster at WHO Radio in¬ Des Moines, Iowa. He and his wife Gail have two adult children and two grandchildren.
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