Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution (36 page)

I
NTRODUCTION

1.
The statistic that the average grocery store item was traveling 1,500 miles (2,414 kilometers), farm to consumer, is a rounding-off of the figure of 1,518 miles (2,442 kilometers) that fresh produce was found to be traveling, on average, in the 2001 “Food, Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa Perspective on How Far Food Travels, Fuel Usage, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions” report from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. The lead researcher on the report is Rich Pirog.

2.
Jerome Taylor, “How the Rising Price of Corn Made Mexicans Take to the Streets,”
Independent
, June 23, 2007,
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/how-the-rising-price-of-corn-made-mexicans-take-to-streets-454260.html
(accessed August 22, 2011).

3.
Sarah Bridge, “Pasta Strike ‘Shocks’ Italy,”
Guardian
, September 13, 2007,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/sep/13/italy
(accessed August 22,2011).

4.
“Argentines Launch Tomato Boycott,” BBC News, October 8, 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7034152.stm
(accessed August 22, 2011).

5.
“World Population Prospects,” United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, Population Estimates and Projects Section, 2008 Revision, figures updated November 10, 2010,
http://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/index.htm
(accessed August 22, 2011).

6.
“Trade, Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, and Health,” World Health Organization,
http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story028/en/
(accessed November 8, 2011).

7.
“Food Security in the United States: Key Statistics and Graphics,” Economic Research Service/USDA's Briefing Room,
http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing/foodsecurity/stats_graphs.htm
(accessed August 22, 2011).

8.
 Ibid.

9.
Mark Nord et al., “Household Food Security in the United States, 2009,” ERS/USDA, November 2010, p. 1. Available for download at
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FoodSecurity/stats_graphs.htm
.

10.
Ibid., p. 2.

11.
Erik Millstone and Tim Lang,
The Atlas of Food: Who Eats What, Where, and Why
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), p. 54.

12.
Ibid.

C
HAPTER
1. T
HE
F
ACADE OF THE
M
ODERN
G
ROCERY
S
TORE

1.
“Supermarket Facts, Industry Overview 2010,” Food Marketing Institute,
http://www.fmi.org/facts_figs/?fuseaction=superfact
(accessed August 22,2011).

2.
Raj Patel,
Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World's Food System
(Toronto, ON: Harper Perennial, 2009), p. 90.

3.
World Retail Hall of Fame: Clarence Saunders,
http://www.worldretailcongress.com/hall-of-fame-member-detail.cfm?id=180
(accessed May 24, 2011).

4.
Ibid.

5.
Bryan Walsh, “Getting Real about the High Price of Cheap Food,”
Time
, August 21, 2009,
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1917458,00.html
(accessed May 24, 2011).

6.
“Supermarket Facts, Industry Overview 2010,” Food Marketing Institute,
http://www.fmi.org/facts_figs/?fuseaction=superfact
(accessed August 22, 2011). It is worth noting that this number is significantly lower than the average number of items carried in a grocery store for 2009, which was 48,750.

7.
USDA ERS Food CPI and Expenditures, Table 7,
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/CPIFoodAndExpenditures/Data/Expenditures_tables/table7.htm
(accessed July 18, 2011).

8.
Erik Millstone and Tim Lang,
The Atlas of Food: Who Eats What, Where, and Why
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), p. 58.

9.
Ibid.

10.
“Who Will Feed Us? Questions for the Food and Climate Crises,” ETC Group Communiqué, issue 102 (November 2010), p. 12. This report is also found online at
http://www.etcgroup.org
.

11.
Ibid., p. 10.

12.
Ibid., p. 12.

13.
For a current, in-depth look into modern industrial agriculture, I recommend reading Barry Estabrook's
Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit
(Kansas City: Andrews McMeel, 2011).

14.
This statistic comes from the “Fact Sheet,” p. 8, which can be downloaded at
http://www.foodincmovie.com/
, the online tie-in site for producer/director Robert Kenner's
Food, Inc.
(New York: Magnolia Pictures, 2009).

15.
Rosie Boycott, “Nine Meals from Anarchy—How Britain Is Facing a Very Real Food Crisis,”
Daily Mail
, June 7, 2008,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1024833/Nine-meals-anarchy—Britain-facing-real-food-crisis.html
(accessed May 24, 2011).

16.
“Supermarket Facts, Industry Overview 2010,” Food Marketing Institute,
http://www.fmi.org/facts_figs/?fuseaction=superfact
(accessed August 22,2011).

17.
Michael Pollan,
The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
(Toronto, ON: Penguin, 2007), p. 11.

C
HAPTER
2. I
NDUSTRIAL
F
OOD

1.
Food, Inc.
, produced and directed by Robert Kenner (New York: Magnolia Pictures, 2009).

2.
Charles Lathrop Pack,
The War Garden Victorious: Its Wartime Need and Its Economic Value in Peace
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1919), p. 15.

3.
Victory Gardens, Prelinger Archives, Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division,
http://www.archive.org/details/victory_garden
(accessed November 8, 2001).

4.
T. H. Everett and Edgar J. Clissold,
Victory Backyard Gardens: Simple Rules for Growing Your Own Vegetables
(Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Company, 1942), p. 5.

5.
Michael Pollan, “Farmer in Chief,”
New York Times Magazine
, October 12, 2008,
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html
(accessed April 13, 2009).

6.
Quote reproduced in Carol Ferguson and Margaret Fraser's
A Century of Canadian Home Cooking: 1900 through the ‘90s
(Winnipeg, MB: Prentice Hall Canada, 1992), p. 118.

7.
Pollan, “Farmer in Chief.”

8.
Joseph Chamie, “World Population in the 21st Century,” paper presented at the Twenty-Fourth IUSSP General Population Conference in Salvador, Brazil, August 18-24, 2001, p. 4. Chamie was director of the United Nations Population Division.

9.
Ibid.

10.
“The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1918: Fritz Haber,” NobelPrize.org,
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1918/haber-bio.html
(accessed August 22, 2011).

11.
Wayne Roberts,
The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food
(Oxford, UK: New Internationalist Publications, 2008), p. 31.

12.
“Population 7 Billion,”
National Geographic
, January 2011, p. 50.

13.
“Poverty, Population and Development,” United Nations Population Fund 2008 Annual Report, UNFPA.org,
http://www.unfpa.org/about/report/2008/en/ch4.html
(accessed August 22, 2011).

14.
“Population 7 Billion,” p. 35 (flap).

15.
Parag Khanna, “Beyond City Limits,”
Foreign Policy
(September/ October 2010),
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/08/16/beyond_city_limits?page=full
(accessed August 22, 2011).

16.
“Population 7 Billion,” p. 68.

17.
Erik Millstone and Tim Lang,
The Atlas of Food: Who Eats What, Where, and Why
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), p. 44.

18.
Food, Inc
.

19.
ISAAA Brief 42-2010: Highlights of “Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2010,” International Service for the Acquisition of Agribiotech Applications,
http://www.isaaa.org/resources/publications/briefs/42/highlights/
(accessed November 8, 2011).

20.
Ibid.

21.
William Neuman and Andrew Pollack, “Farmers Cope with Roundup-Resistant Weeds,”
New York Times
, May 3,2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/business/energy-environment/04weed.html
(accessed August 22, 2011).

22.
“Tracking the Trend toward Market Concentration: The Case of the Agricultural Input Industry,” United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), April 20, 2006, p. 8. This document can be read online at
http://www.unctad.org/en/docs/ditccom200516_en.pdf
.

23.
Ibid., p. 1.

24.
Eric Holt-Giménez, “Policy Brief No. 16, The World Food Crisis—What's Behind It and What We Can Do about It,” Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy, October 2008, p. 6.

25.
Jonathan Watts, “Field of Tears,”
Guardian
, September 16, 2003,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/sep/16/northkorea.wto
(accessed August 22,2011).

26.
George Lerner, “Activist: Farmer Suicides in India Linked to Debt, Globalization,” CNN World, January 5, 2010,
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-01-05/world/india.farmer.suicides_1_farmer-suicides-andhra-pradesh-vandana-shiva?_s=PMWORLD
(accessed August 22, 2011).

27.
“Percy Schmeiser's Battle,” CBC News Online, May 21, 2004,
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/genetics_modification/percyschmeiser.html
(accessed August 22, 2011).

28.
For more information on Monsanto's history of corporate bully tactics against small farmers and agricultural producers, I recommend Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele's “Monsanto's Harvest of Fear,” published in
Vanity Fair
magazine, May 2008. The article is available online as well at
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/05/monsanto200805
.

C
HAPTER
3. I
NDUSTRIAL
E
ATERS

1.
Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio,
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats
(Napa, CA: Material World Press; Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 2005), pp. 270-71.

2.
Ibid., pp. 266-67.

3.
Ibid., pp. 260-61.

4.
Christopher Cook, “The New Farm Crisis,”
Baltimore Chronicle
, December 1, 1999,
http://baltimorechronicle.com/farms_dec99.html
(accessed May 24, 2011).

5.
Rich Pirog et al., “Food, Fuel, and Freeways: An Iowa Perspective on How Far Food Travels, Fuel Usage, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Iowa State University, 2001, p. 1.

6.
Ibid.

7.
Ibid., p. 6.

8.
The figures from this paragraph are sourced from ibid., pp. 6-7.

9.
Ibid., p. 7

10.
Ibid., p. 1.

11.
Ibid., p. 11

12.
Food, Inc.
, produced and directed by Robert Kenner (New York: Magnolia Pictures, 2009), press kit, p. 8. The press kit is available for download at
http://www.foodincmovie.com/about-the-film.php
.

13.
“2009 Summary Report on Antimicrobials Sold or Distributed for Use in Food-Producing Animals,” US Food and Drug Administration, December 9, 2010,
http://www.fda.gov/ForIndustry/UserFees/AnimalDrugUserFeeActADUFA/ucm236149.htm
(accessed May 24, 2011).

14.
Bryan Walsh, “Getting Real about the High Price of Cheap Food,”
Time
, August 21, 2009,
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1917458,00.html
(accessed January 12, 2010).

15.
Erik Millstone and Tim Lang,
The Atlas of Food: Who Eats What, Where, and Why
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), p. 38.

16.
Ibid., p. 113.

17.
Ibid., p. 119.

18.
The figures in this sentence and the remaining paragraph are sourced from ibid., p. 38.

19.
This figure of the one and a half acres of rain forest destruction per second comes from the Rainforest Foundation's website at
http://www.rainforestfoundation.org
.

20.
Lester Brown, “Corn for Cars: Will Biofuels Starve the Developing World?”
Der Spiegel
online, April 27, 2007,
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,479940,00.html
(accessed May 23, 2010).

21.
Ibid.

22.
Eric Holt-Giménez, “Policy Brief No. 16: The World Food Crisis—What's behind It and What We Can Do about It,” Food First Institute for Food and Development Policy, October 2008, p. 3. Holt-Giménez refers to a leaked World Bank Report that pegged the biofuel industry as causing a 75 percent rise in world grain prices.