COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS AND FEDERAL AGRICULTURAL POLICY

1

• COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS AND FEDERAL AGRICULTURAL
  POLICY
• David B. Schweikhardt
• Michigan State University

2

• COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS AND FEDERAL AGRICULTURAL
  POLICY
• OR

3

• OUR FIRST POSTMODERN FARM BILL
• THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS (AND JUST
  ABOUT EVERY OTHER KIND)
• OR

4

• THE CULTURE WARS SCIENCE WARS COME TO THE FARM
  BILL DEBATE
• (AND CONGRESS DECLARES PEACE AND WITHDRAWS)

5
JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS

• The role of community food systems in federal
  agricultural policy is quite limited at this
  time. But the next farm bill will be the most
  open in history, leaving much greater room for
  participation by every kind of food system
  (community and otherwise) as Congress refuses to
  resolve the growing debate about the science and
  culture of food. Thus, the next farm bill will
  begin an era of postmodern farm and food politics
  and policy.

6
COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS AND FEDERAL AGRICULTURAL
POLICY

• The place of Community Food Systems (CFS) in the
  2002 farm bill
• The changing politics of food and the farm bill
• A coincidence of external political factors
• Food politics by other means
• Postmodern politics and the farm bill
• The food system, public policy, and public policy
  education beyond a postmodern farm bill

7
THE PLACE OF COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS IN THE 2002
FARM BILL

• CFS are included in
• Marketing programs
• Nutrition programs
• CFS are excluded from
• Commodity programs
• Conservation programs

8
THE PLACE OF COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS IN THE 2002
FARM BILL
9
THE PLACE OF COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS IN THE 2002
FARM BILL
10
THE CHANGING POLITICS OF FOOD THE FARM BILL
POLITICS BY OTHER MEANS

• The rising demand for specific food attributes by
  consumers
• The rising level of transaction costs in the
  legislative process
• The rising level of market concentration in
• many food markets
• More voters/consumers expressing
• political preferences through market
• transactions

11
THE CHANGING POLITICS OF FOOD THE FARM BILL
EXTERNAL FACTORS

• The changing role of fruits and vegetables in
  U.S. commodity programs

12
THE CHANGING ROLE OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES IN
COMMODITY PROGRAMS
13
THE CHANGING POLITICS OF FOOD THE FARM BILL
EXTERNAL FACTORS

• The changing role of fruits and vegetables in
  U.S. commodity programs
• Meet CFS new best friend the WTO

14
CFS NEW BEST FRIEND THE WTO AND THE BRAZIL-U.S.
COTTON CASE
15
CFS NEW BEST FRIEND THE WTO AND THE BRAZIL-U.S.
COTTON CASE
16
THE CHANGING POLITICS OF FOOD THE FARM BILL
EXTERNAL FACTORS

• The changing role of fruits and vegetables in
  U.S. commodity programs
• Meet CFS new best friend the WTO
• The obesity crisis and the future of commodity
  programs

17
THE OBESITY CRISIS AND THE FUTURE OF COMMODITY
PROGRAMS
18
THE CHANGING POLITICS OF FOOD THE FARM BILL
POSTMODERN POLITICS

• Postmodernism a simple definition
• The philosophical viewpoint in which All
  pretense to objectivity is abandoned in favor of
  the position that there are many different
  individual standpoints, each telling a
  different story about how the world is, and no
  one of these stories is better than any other.
  Science, values, and any form of policy analysis
  are just one possible story. (Curd and Cover)

19
THE CHANGING POLITICS OF FOOD THE FARM BILL
POSTMODERN POLITICS

• Implications of postmodernism for U.S politics
• Objectivity of value knowledge and scientific
  knowledge are impossible and can even be
  undesirable.
• All knowledge regarding policy alternatives and
  consequences is subject to encyclopedic
  skepticism.
• The postmodern political culture, like the
  new popular culture, is skeptical of certainties
  and fixities and welcoming of novelties so long
  as they provide the audience with the
  satisfactions it seeks at the moment. (Schier)

20
THE CHANGING POLITICS OF FOOD THE FARM BILL
POSTMODERN POLITICS
21
THE CHANGING POLITICS OF FOOD THE FARM BILL
POSTMODERN POLITICS
22
THE CHANGING POLITICS OF FOOD THE FARM BILL
POSTMODERN POLITICS

• Implications for the first postmodern farm bill
• Many issues regarding the science and values of
  food and agriculture are becoming plagued by
  encyclopedic skepticism.
• No evidence is accepted as objective in the
  culture wars and science wars and increasingly,
  none is accepted in the food and agricultural
  policy debates.
• Congress will settle the culture/science wars
  in the next farm bill by declaring victory and
  withdrawing, i.e., making every type of food
  system eligible for a wider range of programs and
  letting the markets sort it out.

23
POLITICS AND PUBLIC POLICY EDUCATION IN THE
POSTMODERN ERA

• A fundamental question Without some shared
  knowledge, how can any political system operate?

24
POLITICS AND PUBLIC POLICY EDUCATION IN A
POSTMODERN ERA
25
POLITICS AND PUBLIC POLICY EDUCATION IN A
POSTMODERN ERA
26
POLITICS AND PUBLIC POLICY EDUCATION IN A
POSTMODERN ERA

• A fundamental question Without some shared
  knowledge, how can any political system operate?
• Either it is possible for man to live
  indefinitely with his world out of focus and
  unknowable or it is not. I suspect that it is
  not, that a will-to-order and orientation is
  fundamental in the human makeup. If so, the
  Postmodern period, like all intellectual epochs
  that preceded it, will turn out to be a
  transition to a still different perspective.
  (Smith)

27
RESTATING SOME CONCLUSIONS

• The role of community food systems in federal
  agricultural policy is quite limited at this
  time. But the next farm bill will be the most
  open in history, leaving much greater room for
  participation by every kind of food system
  (community and otherwise) as Congress refuses to
  resolve the growing debate about the science and
  culture of food. Thus, the next farm bill will
  begin an era of postmodern farm and food politics
  and policy.

28
BEYOND THE POSTMODERN FARM BILL

• What will extension be when it grows up?
• The answer to that question depends on
  genetics, childhood experiences and learning,
  further learning, opportunities, and luck.
• Jim Hildreth, NPPEC, 1989

29
BEYOND THE POSTMODERN FARM BILL

• What will the food system (with its increasing
  variations, community or otherwise) be as it
  grows up in the postmodern era and beyond?
• What will public policy education be as it grows
  up in the postmodern era and beyond?

30
REFERENCES

• K. Schillo and P. Thompson, Postmodernism for
  animal scientists. Journal of Animal Science,
  81 2989-94 (2003).
• V. Bufacchi. Skeptical Democracy. Politics,
  21 23-30 (2001).
• M. Curd and J. Cover. Philosophy of Science The
  Central Issues. W.W. Norton Company, 1998.
• H. Smith. Beyond the Postmodern Mind The Place
  of Meaning in a Global Civilization. Quest Books,
  2003.
• D. Schweikhardt and W. Browne. Politics By
  Other Means The Emergence of a New Politics of
  Food in the United States. Review of
  Agricultural Economics, 23 302-18 (2001).
• S. Fish, et. al. Can Postmodernism Condemn
  Terrorism? Dont Blame Relativism. The
  Responsive Community, 12(1) 27-66 (2002).