From Nathan on Thu, January 20, 2011

I want real food!  From real people!

From Dori on Thu, January 20, 2011

Changes in our food system:  I would like to taste our food with the flavor God gave it! Half the time the food has no flavor and believe it or not, it refuses to perish in our fridge after weeks of sitting there uncooked!  Get rid of the chemicals, the corn syrup, the hybridization!  Let the animals graze as they should on pesticide free grass! Free the chickens, cattle, hogs, sheep into the pastures!  Give them humane treatment and slaughter them with respect of life.

From Ken Greene on Thu, January 20, 2011

Regional seed saving and seed breeding. Local Seed Libraries! Decentralize the consolidation of seed resources and get seed sources out of the hands of biotech corps and into the hands of caring farmers and gardeners. Stop GMO seeds.

From Saidah on Thu, January 20, 2011

I would like to see inner city access to farmer’s markets.  The Northern Farmer’s Union has added EBT use for farmer’s market, but not enough people know about it.
And I am all for no junk food with food stamps.  And I’m not ashamed to say I use ebt myself, and I am still all for it.

From Shakirah on Thu, January 20, 2011

Just a few thoughts:

-Fair wages and benefits for farmworkers and educational equity for their children

-Fair distribution of government resources for small farmers, as well as female farmers and farmers of color

-Fixing our flawed federal nutrition programs and offering quality meals and options to the millions of children and families that rely on these programs every day.

-Greater support for social enterprises set on making sustainability and access a part of their bottomlines

-Stronger regulation on food marketing to children as well as regulation on additives, dyes, known toxins, food safety and nutrition standards.

From Chiot's Run on Thu, January 20, 2011

Have everyone grow some of their own food, even if it’s just a potted tomato on the balcony.  Once you grow some of your own, you appreciate fresh and you realize what goes into growing food (you also start to realize what real food should taste like).  More than likely you’ll start to wonder how a store can sell a tomato for $1 and realize that farm subsidies to big ag are not a good thing and are actually making your food indirectly more expensive than it should be. 

Chances are, you’ll start growing more and more of your own food, which in turn gives you a sense of accomplishment and it makes you want to eat more healthfully and be more aware of what you’re eating.  Then you’ll move on to being more away of GMO’s and the danger they pose to those who want to grow their own organic heirloom veggies. Pretty soon you’ll move on to learning to eat what’s in season and locally for best quality and taste.  Then you’ll be baking your own bread and trying to figure out how to hide chickens in your tiny yard where they’re illegal. 

Next thing you know, you’re a full blown grow-you-own, organic, local-eating, nutball and loving every delicious minute of it.

From April on Thu, January 20, 2011

Shift some of the subsidies from junk-food additives to real food. Ban reclaiming scraps of meat by treating it with ammonia. Reform the way our meat is raised, so that the animals are pastured, raised and slaughtered in humane conditions, and hormone and antibiotic-free, and subsidize meat that’s raised this way so it’s affordable. Ban the pesticide that’s been implicated in killing bees.

From Lisa Davies on Fri, January 21, 2011

Stop food manufacturers from adding extra beneficial things to their food such as healthy omegas added to junk cereal. Let’s just make the food healthy and REAL in the first place.

Bring back cooking classes in school - every child should leave school able to cook a decent meal.

From Juliann Johnson on Fri, January 21, 2011

I love my the food I get from my yard and the joy of grinding fresh grain for bread.  There is so much pleasure in discovering for youself how awesome creation is.  Less regulation, less food stamps, less subsidies.  More neighbor inspiring neighbor, more relationships, and less faceless impersonal relationships that don’t address the individuality of people.

From Jeni Tidbitz on Fri, January 21, 2011

Food reform would start with very truthful food labeling.  But more than that, just stop the BS health benefit from a junk cereal, or can of fake spaghetti, etc. The food pyramid most Americans believe is true, would be changed to reflect a more healthy plant based diet, not excluding meat/fish/chicken…but making it a lot less important.  And it would be posted in every school cafeteria, and another part of the reform would include non packaged foods in schools.  No soda, no Hostess.  No packaged anything.  School cafeteria’s would plan their menus based on parental advisement, with no pre-packaged food in mind.  You would get what the majority of the parents want, and a portion of every lunch would be free to all the children, like a banana, pickle,  or a slice of whole grain bread. Schools would have a mandatory nutrition class starting in the 3rd grade through 8th grade, every year all year, after a daily required PE class. Then they would go to their lunch room hungry and ready to eat good foods.  People would get tax breaks for gardening fruits and veggies in their backyard or local garden plots, and they could itemize heirloom seeds and organic soil, some tools, etc. for their home gardens.  I’d like to see WIC programs that give new moms cheese, milk, eggs, peanut butter…changed to giving them free fruits and veggies, and eggs. Lastly, get rid of corn fed animals for food.  Get rid of all drugs and feed unnatural to the animal in its nature intended state of being, if they die, they die, then we will stop eating it, it wont be there.  Stop milking so many cows and mistreating animals for the sake of food.  Just stop the abuse and force people to amek healthier decisions on their food choices and slowly change their diets by eliminating the enormous amounts of excess animals born and killed for consumption.

From Amina Seymour on Sun, January 23, 2011

Certain foods should be sold when they are in season.  For example, when you purchase corn in season it is plentiful and sweet.  Out of season, they taste bitter, so the producers add sugar to there canned corn products as if you can not taste the difference.  The frozen kind is just plain bitter when you cook it out of season.  This also applies to green vegetables.  That is why people do not always enjoy them.  People are purchasing and eating them out season and they taste poorly.  Also reduce sodium in processed food products.  They use to much salt. You can use less and other seasonings, the food will still taste good. Change the way they treat and handle livestock. For example, cows were not ment to be milked constantly on a dairy farm. No more farmed salmon and other fish.  Fish are not suppose to eat corn and be dyed to a certain color.  That is wrong. No cloning of anything.  Animals, vegetables etc. period.  Any changes made regarding or food system should be made known to the public, no hidden rules and regulations.  Encourage organic farming. No patents on seeds, fruits, vegetables etc.  No false or deceptive advertisement. Reduce the sugar in products.  Food standards need to improve.  I have purchased a bag of potatoes in the past in which almost all the potates had some bruise on them.  I ended up cutting parts of the potato away. This use to not be. Those that are bruise they could sell at a lower price or give away to the needy.  But they need to specify. These were not organic.

From Christina on Mon, January 24, 2011

End farm subsidies.  Promote real food production with tax breaks and grants for investments.

From Josh on Mon, January 24, 2011

I certainly think changes need to be made so that we all have better access to natural products being produced all around us before they’re transformed into processed foods.

From cconner on Tue, January 25, 2011

We should begin by returning to a culture of cooking. Let’s start teaching children everywhere how to cook, as a part of the education system. Let’s ensure that everyone in this country has access to fruits and vegetables through both local initiative and government backed subsidies that encourage grocery stores so that food deserts no longer exist. If we, as a country, are given access to fresh and nutritious ingredients and are given an understanding of how to combine these ingredients in a palatable and affordable manner than we can move beyond the obesity epidemic and care for our bodies and our society.

From Emily Mendoza on Wed, January 26, 2011

Let’s start with the basics: farms and farmer’s markets need to be protected. Let’s stop selling out to big industries and food companies that take a hold of our land and then use it to fell our stores with genetically altered tomatoes and enhanced chicken and beef. Food is already good the way it is; food needs no enhancements or alterations.
Now let’s talk education. Face it -the future of food and the world in general is resting inside a generation that watches cartoons like Adventure Time and reality TV shows where 16 year old girls get pregnant to be on screen. How about some education? And not the b.s. kind where new and modern literature is from the feudal era of Japan, or from Cold War Russia. We are moving into a future where these things are becoming less and less predominant in society and so should their influences. Children should be reading things like Fast Food Nation, watching things like Food Inc and studying the effects of the term “sustainability” on cultures and societies all around the world.
How about in our new Food and Farm Bill, farms are given bail outs for being farmers and supplying us with food. Children are asked to talk about important and relevant topics in school, and even kids in cities take trips to the country to see how the food they eat is made and prepared for them.

From Ann on Thu, January 27, 2011

Shift subsidies to focus on making fresh unprocessed foods affordable to people receiving food stamps. Remove junk food’s food stamp eligibility. Support and provide more educational opportunities around urban gardening. I’m tired of seeing food stamps getting used to buy highly processed, petroleum processed, unhealthy foods. Tax dollars should be used in a productive manner, not a counter productive one!

From victor on Thu, January 27, 2011

I want a good honest and transparent food supply chain. Stop subsidizing big Agriculture. Switch subsidies to sustainably grown crops. Create a food standards agency that unites disparate agencies and puts consumer health and safety first. Stop FDA and USDA being a ‘jobs for former big ag executives’ agency. Accelerate and improve funding for farm to school initiative. Create multi-stakeholder conversation and conference around improving the health and vitality of our food supply. Improve transparency in livestock agriculture. Cease use of non ruminant waste in ruminant feed. Ban rBST in milk instead of making it a ‘consumer choice’. Ban use of growth hormones in beef cattle. Provide tax breaks for food retailers, restaurants to donate unwanted, safe food to local food banks and shelters. Re-introduce importance of food to schools and children. Initiate conversation around health of the nation and the link to education and food empowerment. Provide tax breaks and subsidies to farmers markets who actively work to supply food to low income households.  Promote understanding of ‘life cycle analysis’ and link to food system to fuel debate about benefits of local versus global food sourcing.

From Lindy Barnes on Thu, January 27, 2011

Begin by outlawing Monsanto and their kind. Put them completely out of business and do not allow any of their people to develop any new businesses - ever!

From Doug Page on Thu, January 27, 2011

Inform the public what foods are in season in their area so they can choose to eat fresh food when it is at its best. Something like the “food pyramid” published and available nationally by the USDA. Farming interests would not oppose this, and we could promote buying local food in season.

From amanda on Thu, January 27, 2011

Mandatory nutrition classes in school.  Mandatory gym class every day, preferrably before lunch as another reader stated.  Foods should be cooked from scratch using real food, set an example!  Shift subsidies from corn to pasture.  If we paid farmers to grow perrenial grasses instead of corn, you can guarantee it would suddenly be cheaper to feed the cows their natural diet.  Encourage properly managed diversified farm and discourage monocropping.  Encourage multithousand acre farms to be split up and sold affordably to the next generation of ecologically responsible farmers.  Rebuild our soil.  Encourage wildlife.

From Bettina on Thu, January 27, 2011

Rise fuel cost! Fossil fuels are too cheap! Only because they are so cheap a enormous and insane system of trucks and air plains can carry our foods around the whole world and make it cheaper then locally grown vegetable and fruit. Only because fossil oil is so cheap, farming industries carry on to treat their fields with tons of chemical fertilizer exploiting the soil and poisoning the groundwater.

From Karen O'Mara on Fri, January 28, 2011

I was introduced to the concept of Slow Food a few years ago, while vacationing in Cortona, Italy and listening to a local wine shop owner speak about the Italian movement. What entices me is the concept of food united with culture and science—showing that food is more than mere sustenance. It has the power to unite and reaffirm values in a society, and sadly, can also be used to manipulate its population. I am pleased to join the US branch of the international movement and look forward to seeing how the philosophy is expressed here.

From Scott Schroeder on Fri, January 28, 2011

I want the Farm Bill to decrease support to industrial farming and channel more funding to community food enterprises that have charters to support local food and preferably organic food.  Increase support to land grant universities to strengthen programs for artisan food enterprises such as cheese making, preserves, beekeeping and community gardens.