Why Americans Are Voting with their Forks, Knives, & Pocketbooks

September 2000

Getting Political--Why Americans Are Voting with Their Forks and Wallets
by Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association September 2000

In this article:
Concern over toxic pesticide residues
Concern over antibiotic drug residues
Concern over food poisoning
Concern over food irradiation
Concern over the environment
Concern for animals and biodiversity

Cutting through the rhetoric and slick PR of yet another electoral season,
it's obvious that most politicians are still in denial about America's food
and farm crisis. When was the last time we heard a politician in
Washington or in our state capitol talk about the fact that we have 76
million cases of food poisoning a year; that 16% of all males and 13% of
all women can look forward to getting a food-related case of cancer; that
8% of our children have food allergies; that 16% of our children are
diagnosed with behavioral or learning disabilities; that food-related
antibiotic-resistant diseases are a growing public health problem; that the
majority of the population are overweight or obese; and that we have a
literal epidemic of diet-related heart disease? Not to mention that 30% of
our topsoil is gone; that conventional farmers spray a billion pounds of
toxic pesticides and apply 12 billion pounds of chemical fertilizers every
year; that industrial agriculture is our greatest source of water pollution
and greenhouse gas emissions; that toxic sewage sludge is routinely spread
on non-organic farms; that thousands of species are going extinct; family
farmers are going bankrupt; dead and diseased animal parts are being fed
back to animals on a massive scale; and that the nation's slaughterhouses
are filthy, disease-ridden, and inhumane.

It's clear that most politicians are more interested in listening to
agribusiness and biotech special interests than what consumers and small
farmers have to say. The title of Texas populist Jim Hightower's latest
book says it all: If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote, They Would Have Given
Us Candidates.

America's organic consumers, animal protectionists, and environmentalists
have a long way to go in terms of getting organized and making our presence
felt in Washington, the state capitals, and on Main Street. But in the
meantime, even though we're short on political candidates, millions of us
have started voting everyday, with our forks and knives, with our
pocketbooks and food dollars, and our grassroots public education and
mobilization efforts. And with this new type of food politics, we're having
a major impact, if not yet in Washington, at least in the marketplace and
in the court of public opinion.

Organic foods are the fastest growing and most profitable segment of
American agriculture, according to USDA statistics. A February 1997 poll by
the biotech giant Novartis found that 54% of US consumers would prefer to
see organic agriculture become the predominant form of food and fiber
production--as opposed to conventional, chemical-intensive farming or
agricultural biotechnology. A June 2000 survey carried out by the National
Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank, indicated that 69% of
the American public believe that the organic label on food products means
that they are safer and better for the environment. This is the main reason
why 10 million organic consumers will buy eight billion dollars worth of
organic food this year in the US. By 2010, at the current rate of growth,
organic will constitute 10% of US agriculture. But of course this is not
enough. In Europe trends indicate that 30-50% of all farming may be organic
by the year 2010.

More and more health and environmentally conscious Americans are turning to
organic food. And for good reason:

* Concern over toxic pesticide residues. A March 1999 study by
Consumer Reports found that organic foods had little or no pesticide residues
compared to conventional produce. A 1999 study by the Environmental Working
Group found that millions of US children eating non-organic fruits and
vegetables were ingesting dangerous amounts of a variety of pesticide
neurotoxins and carcinogens.

* Concern over antibiotic drug residues. Organic farming prohibits
the use of antibiotics in animal feed. Recent scientific research has confirmed
the fact that antibiotics, routinely fed to factory farm animals to make them
grow faster, are creating dangerous antibiotic-resistant pathogens which
are infecting Americans who eat these animal products.

* Concern over food poisoning. Deadly e-Coli 0157:H7, campylobacter,
salmonella, listeria, and other food borne diseases. The Centers for
Disease Control admit that there are at least 76 million cases of food
poisoning every year in the US. While there are no documented cases of
organic meat or poultry setting off food poisoning epidemics, filthy
slaughterhouses, contaminated feed, and diseased animals are commonplace in
industrial agriculture. According to government statistics, most
non-organic beef cattle are contaminated with e-Coli 0157:H7; over 90% of
chickens are tainted with campylobacter, and 30% of poultry are infected
with salmonella.

* Concern over food irradiation. Use of toxic sewage sludge spread on
farmland, and genetic engineering. Organic certification prohibits
irradiation, sewage sludge, and genetic engineering. A 1997 poll by CBS
found 77% of Americans opposed to food irradiation, while a recent survey
by the Angus Reid polling group found the majority of US consumers opposed
to genetically engineered foods. Consumers are especially incensed that
industry and the FDA refuse to require labeling of genetically engineered
food. Numerous polls over the past 15 years have found that 80-95% of
Americans want labels on gene-altered foods, mainly so that they can avoid
buying them.

* Concern over the environment. Studies indicate that the industrialization
and globalization of agriculture are a leading contributor to greenhouse gases
and climate destabilization. Other research shows an increasing percentage
of municipal water supplies are contaminated by pesticide residues, chemical
fertilizers, and sewage runoff from factory farms and feedlots.

* Concern for animals and biodiversity. Factory farms and genetic
engineering are nothing less than institutionalized forms of cruelty for farm animals.
Industrial agriculture poses a mortal threat to wildlife and the entire web of biodiversity.
Only a sustainable, decentralized, humane, and organic form of agriculture is
defensible in moral and ethical terms. The patenting of living organisms is
inherently immoral.

It's no wonder consumers are turning to organic foods while biotechnology
and agri-chemical special interests are starting to panic.

So keep in mind this election season that those of us who care about food,
family farms, animals, and sustainability have to start getting more
political. We've got to organize ourselves into a powerful nationwide
consumers network, which is what my organization, the Organic Consumers
Association, is trying to do, so that we can make our voices heard, and
turn this country in the right direction. But in the meantime we need to
keep on voting every day--with our forks and our pocketbooks. And finally,
there's is at a least one politician running for national office this fall
who has spoken out against genetic engineering, factory farming, and
corporate control and who has spoken out for an organic system of family
farm based agriculture. Of course we're not talking about Bush or Gore, but
rather Ralph Nader, the first Presidential candidate in modern history to
make the politics of food a cornerstone of his platform. Ralph may not win
this year, but his candidacy heralds a promise of things to come. As Bob
Dylan predicted many years ago. The times they are a changing.

Ronnie Cummins, National Director, Organic Consumers Association
<www.purefood.org>

Author of the new book, Genetically Engineered Food: A Self-Defense Guide
for Consumers (Marlowe & Company)

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