Today was chock full of politics, and this will be a long entry.  If you need to, take a break, go to the bathroom, walk your children–do what you need to do to get through my thoughts.

We continued the debate over food policy and public health by reading the next chapter in the Paarlberg book about the politics of obesity, specifically the role of food.  The biggest reason that obesity is a policy issue is that it will add $48-66 billion in medical costs treating obesity-related diseases by 2030 to the already $147 billion spent between 1998 and 2008, and this problem carries over to other sectors, such as defense, because many potential recruits are too fat to join the military.  Essentially, the most simplified explanation is that we are consuming more and exercising less.  The government definitely cannot force diets or exercise regimens on people, so what can it do?  Who should be held responsible for this problem?

There are many subtopics on this issue that are each worthy of a fully essay.  For example, food stamps are associated with poverty, as they are part of the welfare system.  We also associate poverty with malnutrition.  However, there exists a paradox of people on food stamps actually being overweight, if not obese.  A second subtopic is childhood obesity.  Perhaps the most direct method of combatting childhood obesity is modifying the food given in public school lunches.  However, according to Paarlberg, only 25 percent of calories consumed by children are in school, so how effective would a lunch-centered solution be?

At the highest levels of the food regulation fight, opponents to regulation, such as restaurant, business, and consumer groups, oppose any regulation that they say takes away from the amount of choices Americans should be allowed when choosing their food. I read this as, “If you want to get fat, then you should be allowed to get fat.”  However, we have been affected by both our own desires and natural reactions to stimuli.  Although Paarlberg is skeptical of claims that produce prices have risen, while un-nutritious foods have fallen  (he says they have both fallen and at the same rate) and the lack of access to nutritious foods, he is supportive of other causal claims that the prevalence of and easy access unhealthy foods is one of the top factors of the rise in obesity.  Additionally, hi-tech food processors are capable of chemically altering the levels of salt, sugar, fats, et cetera to make the food more pleasurable and addicting, all the while keeping the calorie counts the same.  Given the restraints of the Constitution and our aptitude for liberty, the most realistic solution is for the government to try to change the eating behavior of Americans and their approach to food and nutrition.

We then moved on to a very hot topic in agricultural politics: environmental health.  As mentioned in previous blog posts about our previous exposure to environmental problems, the most common agricultural issues are soil health, water health, and sustaining wildlife populations.  We watched two documentaries, Symphony of the Soil and Ocean Frontiers, the latter of which featured Brent Friest’s father, Denny Friest.  Symphony of the Soil centered on soil health.  The makers of this documentary definitely took the agroecological, cultural approach to farming, expressing a desire for the inclusion of more organic matter in all farms.  The latter documentary told four different vignettes about how stakeholders in different sectors came together to solve environmental problems that they contribute to and are affected by.  One such vignette was of Iowa farmers and their efforts to lower chemical and nutrient pollutants that contribute to the growing dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.  Some highlighted conservation measures included installing wetlands and prairie strips that naturally filter the water flowing through of any pollutants before heading to larger waterways.

In the end, Denny Friest brought up the fact that most farmers, especially conventional farmers, take a feed the world approach.  Therefore, he said there needs to be a compromise and moderation between achieving the highest yield while also looking out for the environment.  He admitted that there is still a long ways to go, and farmers are doing their best to stay environmentally friendly.  I did notice a subtle and passive anti-government tendency in the last documentary, implying that the best solutions may not and sometimes should not involve government regulation.  All of the vignettes seemed to have minimum mention of a role of government regulators, and each problem was solved by stakeholders getting together and solving the issue.  Nonetheless, despite being largely anti-government, farmers will gladly take any government help they can get.  In the Iowa conservation story, installing the conservation practices in the fields are extremely expensive, so much that they require taxpayer money.  At the time of the filming, so many farmers had jumped on getting state help that there was a two year waiting list for one particular conservation program.

The “filler events” for the day included going to the town of Radcliffe’s Memorial Day service and gardening out back with Dalona.  We went to the memorial service because it would be a good way to observe a part of small town society.  Held in the Radcliffe cemetery, the ceremony consisted of two songs, a short “sermon,” the reading of all deceased military members in the cemetery and those connected to the town of Radcliffe, a 21-gun salute, and processions in and out.  All in all, I didn’t think there was too much to observe because of a lack of dialogue.  However, I think the ceremony was a good indicator of the use of the flag as a symbol.

We also did a little bit of gardening in our own personal plot in the backyard.  Due to the fact that today was the first we’ve even seen the garden, it was of course overrun by weeds.  I wouldn’t haven even known the garden was there had the little orange flags not been visible.  Dalona said that is what happens when you don’t weed, but I think there was a slight smug undertone of, “Welp…that’s what you get.”  Despite this gardening faux pas, we still were able to uncover all of the lettuce, radishes, and peas and give them the appropriate room to prosper.  It did make a nice contrast between how effective the herbicide was on the corn that was growing not even ten feet from the garden.

Unfortunately, the only pictures I took today were of Shadow, the farm puppy, playing with her new toy, but other people have posted photos!  So, here ya go.