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Mr. Corneilus Williams farms five acres of vegetables for market. Here he cultivates his beans.
Photo by Bill Tarpenning/USDA

by Ethan Klein
Living Well Session
Fred Kirshenmann, Guillermo Payet

“Just Eat It” is how Fred Kirshenmann summed up the marketing strategy of the industrial food system. “They don’t want you to know where it’s from, how it’s grown, or what’s been added, only that you should eat it.”

Kirshenmann, a scientist/author/activist/ farmer from North Dakota, spoke about the past and future of the agricultural system. He briefly walked through the explosion of industrial agriculture in the 50’s and 60’s, explaining how specialization, simplification, and concentration (industries of scale) were enabled by a dependence on cheap fossil fuels. Inexpensive gasoline and fertilizers allowed large corporate farms to gain a huge competitive advantage over smaller family farms. But Kirshenmann sees a shift on the horizon in the way we farm and get our food.

“We will undergo major change in the food system whether you and I create it or not.”

Kirshenmann explained that the increasing costs of oil and the growing market demand for sustainable, healthy food are already having an effect on the food industry. Because of the groundswell of demand for organic/local/non-processed foods, the big industrial companies see a business incentive to change their practices.

Following Kirshenmann’s talk, Internet pioneer and sustainable food activist Guillermo Payet introduced his Web site, localharvest.org, which helps “find farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area, where you can buy produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.”

For more information connecting the dots between environmental changes and the private sector, Kirshenmann recommended reading the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) report.

-- 09/10/2005 Sat
5pm