Four environmental and food groups launched a campaign to make food policy an element of the presidential campaign as a step toward assuring that the next president is committed to reform. “Candidates need to realize that food is a big issue,” said food writer Mark Bittman. Ricardo Salvador, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, added: “This requires executive leadership,” because the president sets the tone for cabinet members. “There is a huge tailwind [of public support] to take this up.”
The “Plate of the Nation” campaign includes an online “petition to our next president” urging “bold steps to reform our food system to make sure every American has equal access to healthy, affordable food that is fair to workers, good for the environment and keeps farmers on the land.” Backing the campaign are Food Policy Action, the Union of Concerned Scientists, HEAL Alliance, and Food Policy Action Education Fund.
Pollster Celinda Lake said surveys by her company found a large majority of voters favored federal incentives to encourage sustainable farming practices and half wanted to limit subsidies to the largest farmers. Younger voters, minority group members and unmarried women were particularly supportive, said Lake during a teleconference. “The public is way ahead of the political system here,” she said. Lake and Tom Colicchio, of Food Policy Action, also presented results of the survey at the “Food for Tomorrow” conference sponsored by the New York Times.
Salvador and Bittman joined author Michael Pollan and professor Olivier De Schutter in a lengthy “memo to the next president” earlier this month to list their ideas for food policy reform. There were two dozen items, including a return to diversified farming, elimination of routine non-medicinal use of antibiotics in animal agriculture, a federal grain reserve to buffer spikes in food prices, using food stamps for the “purchase and consumption of healthy foods,” encouraging states to adjust sales taxes to discourage unhealthy foods, supporting more food education in schools, and “maximum transparency in food labeling.”