How to Fix the Food System

When you look at the widespread use of antibiotics, inhumane treatment of animals and misleading meat labels it's clear that we're in a modern day food catastrophe.

In my opinion, it could take as little as a year for our county’s food system to really change, but that would take support on three levels: farmers, consumers, and government.

Farmers

We’re still experiencing a mass exodus of young talent out of agriculture. And when you look at conventional systems, it’s easy to see why. Who would want to work 70 hours making $25k a year working a factory farm? We need to see more examples of financially successful ecological farmers who can motivate more young people to start farms. Right now it’s a poor man’s sport.

Consumers

The trend of consumers demanding higher quality food is amazing, but it needs to be 1,000 times greater than what it is now. In So Cal, we’re blessed with a lot of educated and informed folks but the demand needs to sweep across the country. People need to understand what good quality really is instead of falling into the traps of meaningless labels like cage free, free range, etc.

Government

It’s going to be difficult for our country to see large gains without the support of public policy. Right now, it’s heavily in support of the pharmaceutical industry and large scale CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) farms. These policies drive up prices and make it artificially cheaper to buy poor quality food.

If these three things could change overnight, there will be widespread food healing for our country within a year. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by things out of our control, but each of us needs to focus on our own choices and what we can do to help.

What can you do today to help change the food system?