THE WAY FORWARD - Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America - page 177

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THE WAY FORWARD
To embrace the worldview of the commons and act upon it with integrity is a pathway to generous sanity, which
is the antithesis of the horizon toward which we're going .
—Harriet Barlow, co-founder of On the Commons,
Wisdom Voices, January 16, 2012
Breaking the foodopoly and fixing the dysfunctional food system require farreaching legislative and regu-
latory changes that are part of a larger strategy for restoring our democracy. Food activists must engage with
other progressives in building the political power to reform and restructure public policy to serve the in-
terests of all Americans. To do so means overcoming the deep disenchantment with civic affairs that plagues
our nation. Too many well-intentioned people have come to believe that the political system is intractable
and that political engagement is hopeless.
The real beneficiaries of this apathy and cynicism are the economic interests perverting our political sys-
tem. We cannot afford to be discouraged from challenging the corporate control of our food system, our
genetic commons, our shared resources, or our democracy. The history of social change in our nation shows
that the political system can be reformed, even if the road is long and zigzag. It requires political engage-
ment, a commitment to organizing, and the patience for taking the long view. It demands a clear vision of
what we are fighting to achieve.
Creating a just society where everyone can enjoy healthy food produced by thriving family farmers using
organic practices can only be realized by making fundamental structural changes to society and to farm and
food policy. A robust regional food system that benefits eaters and farmers cannot be achieved in a market-
place that is controlled, top to bottom, by a few firms and that rewards only scale, not innovation, quality,
or sustainability. Re-creating the food system means taking back the control from the tiny cabal of agribusi-
nesses, food manufacturing conglomerates, and bankers that has a stranglehold on every link of the food
chain.
Rejecting the status quo—the domination of the food industry by a handful of giant companies, the off-
shoring of food production, the reliance on chemical agriculture, and dangerous technologies—is key in the
long term to creating a new food system. We must challenge the dominant paradigm: the idea that the exist-
ing, noncompetitive market dominated by a few players can fix the problem. It is fairly easy to have access
to the media or to be funded for a project if you say that Walmart can re-regionalize food production or
that the market alone will eventually dictate a better food system if people just vote with their dollars. False
promises will not create a better food system.