It’s time to revolt. Why? Against whom? Against the hijackers of the very food that was meant to keep our nation healthy and thriving.
The problem: Money rules. Lobbyist influence over the makers of policies affecting our food systems has placed corporations in positions to control aspect of our nation’s food consumption. We, as citizens, have no hand in the type of manner in which food is grown, manufactured, marketed, or sold. We suffer a food policy which subsidizes, facilitates the growth of centralized seed production, mono-crops and industrial practices. Unlike 50 other nations with better food regulation, the United States shamelessly markets unrestricted, sugary, low-quality junk food to children and get away with unclear food labeling. Human health and natural resources are being systematically diminished and destroyed.
The family farm has been crippled and agricultural lands, soils and irrigation systems are depleted through federally subsidized, oil-dependent industrial farms. Money rules. Even, the US Department of Agriculture, responsible for setting forth national dietary guidelines, provides billions in profits to soda companies, allowing 10 billion servings of soft drinks annually to be purchased via food stamps!
Answer: Congressman Tim Ryan clearly lays out a plan in his book, The Real Food Revolution. Stage a revolution. Advocate and implement key policy changes that will decentralize of seed production, call for food labeling transparency, and reduce antibiotic and hormone use. There can no longer be government subsidies that grow agribusiness and undermine smaller farms that produce real food.
Why: If we revolt against agribusiness in favor of a return to real, healthy foods, the chronic disease epidemic will abate. The national health crisis and correlated environmental, climate, and economic challenges, are all connected to the lack of proper nutrition. Obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, dementia, autoimmune and allergic disorders are all related to the junk we’ve been fed.
The science is clear. Real food is medicine and our best chance at survival. We must return to a food system reliant on local growers, nutritional literacy, and the abandonment of nutrient poor, calorie dense, high sugar refined “food.”
Read the full article here: The Real Food Revolution: A Manifesto for a New Food System! – Dr. Mark Hyman
