Guy Writes: Are we headed for a food crisis?

I just finished listening to a great podcast by the Planet Money team at NPR.  They've been following a particular toxic asset that they purchased six months ago.  Check out the story for all the details.  The piece left me thinking about the word 'relationship'.  Certainly the lack of direct relationship between borrower and lender played a big role in the financial crisis.  Lenders didn't do due diligence on the borrowers.  Borrowers walked away from their loans after things went upside down, in part because the lenders seemed like faceless and lifeless entities. 

It makes me think about our food system.  Like the financial system, it has lost the connection that comes through relationship.  And like the financial system, this facelessness has led to industries that don't necessarily add to the well being of society.  Think of beef and poultry confinement operations (CAFOs).  These produce a cheap product and create wealth for the concentrated few who orchestrate the operations.  However they also cast a long environmental shadow, result in meat that tastes quite bland, and further dumb-down the rural populations that make CAFO's run.

The good news (as you probably know if you are reading this blog) is that relationship marketing is on the rise.  Across the nation there are farmers and customers connecting in growing webs of regional economic activity.   We come together for taste, for diversity, for conscience, for connection.  We eat the food, but we leave the transaction with something else.  It is a new thing for us -- given that we are sixty years into this faceless food system -- and it feels good. 

My question is one of simple scale.  Right now us food folk--both producers and buyers--make up a paltry (very paltry) sliver of the entire food economy.  Will this sliver grow?  Will the hunger for flavor, health, and relationship continue to deepen our position as an economic force?  Or will it just be a novelty on the sidelines that economists talk about in passing.  We shall see.

The important thing to note is the presence of instability in our food system.  It doesn't seem too far of a stretch to suggest that anything devoid of relationship is inherently unstable.  Perhaps common sense or basic decency goes along with relationship and when a system becomes faceless, it also becomes dumb and cruel and wobbly.  The financial system has gone down that road.  And it doesn't seem to far of a stretch to suggest that our food system has as well.

Now don't get depressed.  I'm farming because a regionally produced product flies in the face of this reality.  Just go scout out a farmer.  Get to know her.  Strike up a conversation.  It could be the  beginning of a great relationship.

PS:  On a practical note, consider giving up meat when you go out to eat--I just did this recently.  Enjoy big burgers and steaks from happy-grass beef at home, but just say no to CAFOs!