”When our food is at risk we are all at risk.”
There are few things more personal than the food we put into our bodies. With less than 10 corporations controlling more than half the food on grocery store shelves, we are all eating food that comes with a bigger price than what we pay out-of-pocket. Soil destruction, genetically modified seeds, polluted water, loss of family farmers, inhumane treatment of animals, and a number of health epidemics, including diabetes, heart disease and some forms of cancer…these are but some of the consequences of our current food system.
Today–Monday February 27, 2012–tens of thousands of people — including farmers and food workers, parents and students, urban gardeners and chefs — are participating in a Global Day of Action to Occupy our Food Supply, founded by Rainforest Action Network. The event is bringing together over 60 Occupy groups from across the country, as well as sustainable farming, food justice, buy local, slow food, and environmental groups, healthy food leaders and advocates.
Want to know more? Here’s my roundup of some good resources on the web:
- Read this Huffington Post article Why We Must Occupy Our Food Supply, written by Willie Nelson, president of Farm Aid, and Anna Lappe, author of Diet for a Hot Planet.
- Dr. Vandana Shiva, food activist and founder of Navdanya, a movement to occupy the seed, talks about seed sovereignty in this article appearing in Grist.
- Christopher D. Cook, author of Diet for a Dead Planet, shares his article Big Food Must Go: Why We Must Radically Change the Way We Eat.