Tell Obama What To Do About Food and Ag Policy

That's what Local Foodie big shots did over at Grist. Sustainable food and ag folks (I'm not sure why this was a separate category) pitched in here.

They did so because food policy and agricultural policy (perhaps the same thing, as Michael Pollan has argued) are at once issues of health, energy, and climate change. To wit, Pollan would tell Obama to appoint "a Food Policy Czar in the White House. Why? Because, as I've written recently, progress on the all-important issues of energy independence, climate change, and health care costs depends on reform of the food system--and, crucially, an ability to connect all those dots when making policy."

Josh Viertel, president of Slow Food USA, would say this: "We need a green job corps, not only of green energy technicians and solar panel installers, but of gardeners, farmers, bodega owners, and lunch ladies."

Vera Fabian of the Edible Schoolyard project in Berkeley, CA, would say this: "Make it a national priority to give our children the opportunity to grow, cook, and share good food at school."

Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved, would say this: "ensur[e] women's rights...[prevent] the dumping of U.S. crops in foreign markets, [seek] the removal of agriculture from the World Trade Organization, and support land reform and sustainable agriculture."

And there are more.

PS: Speaking of the propensity to think in Czar-like terms, you might consult Brian Unger's views on how to solve the nation's biggest problems. He had a good take. Though it has nothing to do with food.