10 Ways to Support a Sustainable Urban Food System through Politics and Participation in the Food Economy

1. Start small and simple. Make things from scratch. Pick 3 things to do like stop eating packaged foods, prepare your own food and cut out meat eating once a week. Compost. Plant and grow your own herbs. Or, get clear on the origins of your favorite food (Do you eat burritos more than once a week? Or coffee? Sugar? Rice?) – where do the ingredients come from? How was it made? Harvested? Who harvests the ingredients and how is it processed? What’s the impact of your choice?

2. Share your passions with others. What about this opportunity for change do you love? Get curious about others and what they’re doing. Ask farmers how they prepare foods, talk to your friends about their favorite foods. Do you have a cultural tradition to share and keep alive?

3. Unite and create coalitions. Gather at tables. Start conversations about food, taste, traditions, people who grow food, what we eat and how it reflects who we are.

4. Vote with your fork. You have a responsibility as an eater to know what you’re eating, for your health and the health of the environment. You also have consumer choice and this is a powerful force. Money talks and you have an opportunity to have your voice heard every time you eat. Look in your refrigerator. Throw out everything that has more than five ingredients. And, anything with the #1 ingredient as high fructose corn syrup should be the first to go. Stop drinking soda and that would be huge. While you’re at it, do the same with your cleaning products.

5. Buy fresh. Buy local. Get a local food guide. In San Francisco you can buy these at BiRite, Rainbow and Whole Foods. Only buy produce and meats from California, if you can. Join as CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). Shop at the farmers market. As for local products at your favorite restaurants, at your school, your company and everywhere you eat.

6. Be grateful for what you have. Recognize that it’s a right for everyone to eat good, clean and fair food. Food that tastes good, is free of toxins and harmful additives and is produced to everyone’s mutual benefit. And, notice that not all people have access to this food. Share your bounty with your friends, family and strangers. Have Sunday suppers. Make it a regular thing. Just enjoy it. Be in the moment. And, volunteer your free food at the food bank, a rooftop or community garden, a school, or in local politics. Work to bring access and education to communities in need.

7. Get involved. Go to community meetings about food, food security, food in schools, whatever interests you. It and we are all connected so you might as well get known and get to work.

8. Remember the true costs. It may seem expensive to buy local or organic or seasonal or whatever the latest important buzz words tell you to do. But that off-season tomato on your burger was probably harvested by slave labor so you can enjoy it in winter. There’s a cost to humanity to have tomatoes all season. People are hurt and we lack an appreciation for the true tomato season and the anticipation for foods only available in certain seasons. That small farmer charging you fifty cents or a dollar for a seasonal tomato has bills to pay, gas to buy and small yields. And, there are costs to our health and the environment for the luxury of food when you want it as well.

9. Recognize school food as vitally important. It’s a shame that we teach kids about the importance of vegetables but our public school system feeds them packaged foods shipped in from all over the country. So many kids get the majority of their calories through school lunch programs and we are ripping them off by allowing food giants to make money off their needs. There are movements afoot to restore scratch cooking to schools across the country and an opportunity now to get involved in transforming the Child Nutrition Act that comes up for renewal this fall. Look for information regarding a national Eat-In on Labor Day to take a stand for good healthy food for all kids.

10. Start today. No time like the present. President Obama wants to know there’s a food movement out there. Let’s show him!

Food and food activism is an incredibly complex issue that involves so much more than the simple ways I’ve expressed it here. If you have any questions or want any information, please email me!