Peasants, Pitchforks and a Perfect Food Supply

Yesterday, the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association held its third annual Farm Food Voices lobby day on Capitol Hill in Washington,  DC. Farmers and Consumers spent the day lobbying their respective elected officials, the emphasis was anti-NAIS, Pro-Food Freedom, and Pro-Sustainable Agriculture.

Farm Fresh Food Feast Served to Congress

Liz Reitzig and Two Capitol Hill Staffers

At the end of a tiring day of meetings with legislative aids, Congressmen and Senators, the citizen lobbyists invited Congress to a lavish Farm Food Feast, held in the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee Room (at least our U.S. Senate makes the connection between agriculture and nutrition!)

The reception was catered by Jerry Hollinger of Dish Caterers, and he was assisted by Monica Corrado, of Simply Being Well, Eric Johnson, of Krishon Chocolates, Carla Hall of Alchemy Catering, and Camille Dierksheide, of The Beehive catering. All the food at the event was sourced or donated from sustainable, traditional small farms.

Eric Johnson Presents the Roasted Pig

Many of the farmers who supplied the food were in attendance and personally introduced, by Liz Reitzig of the Maryland Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, who coordinated the donations.

Emcee for the event was Joel Salatin, gentleman farmer and self confessed farm food radical. He opened the reception by saying, “Illegal food has descended on Washington!” He went on to talk about how our current industrial agricultural system was falling apart, and that a myriad of large scale food borne illness outbreaks were the strongest indication of that fact. “And now, we are here, the peasants with the pitchforks, to clean up the mess and offer the solution!”

Congressman Ron Paul was unable to attend at the last minute, but he did send his legislative aid, Paul-Martin Foss, who thanked the crowd for making their voices heard on the Hill. He spoke of Ron Paul’s commitment to limited government, personal liberty and freedom to access the food of one’s own choice. He gave as an example, Congressman Paul’s sponsorship of  HR 778, which would allow the interstate sale of raw milk to resume (Interstate sales of raw milk were banned in 1986 by the FDA).

Joel then introduced Congressman Tom Perriello, who told the crowd, “We will never begin to address the American health care crisis, unless we look at what we are putting in our bodies. And, we will never solve our environmental crisis unless we look at the carbon footprint issues. How we produce food and where it comes from are at the core of these bigger issues.”

The next speaker, Sally Fallon Morell, President of the Weston A. Price Foundation, was introduced by Salatin as the person who was doing more to stimulate the re-connections between local farmers and consumers, than anyone else in America.

Sally Fallon Morell and Monica Corrado

Sally’s remarks rebutted the common mis-perception that only industrial agriculture can feed the world. She cited numerous disease outbreaks in confinement farms as proof that large scale farms create large scale disasters. She also brought out the fact that, “the genetic pool of livestock breed for factory farms is very narrow which makes our food supply vulnerable to being wiped out completely by disease, creating an animal “dust bowl.”  She echoed Salatin’s sentiment, that our only hope for restoring a health-giving food supply is the mixed use, small family farm, which would not only feed the nation safely, but bring our U.S. economy back to vibrant health.

Alexis Baden-Mayer, who represented the Organic Consumers Association at the event, said that the Farm Food Voices was the most exciting event she ever attended in Washington. She said the speeches were tremendously inspiring, and she couldn’t wait to tell her colleagues and friends all about it.  OCA has 240,000 people who subscribe to their email list, let’s hope next year OCA joins their many voices with ours for Farm Food Voices 2010.  We could sure raise a ruckus!

Farm Food Feast at NICFA Lobby Day 2009

William Bradford, an activist from Pennsylvania credits his diet of farm fresh foods with helping him turn around  life-threatening digestive issues. He also was very enthusiastic about the event, “I wish we could bring these foods more often to Capitol Hill, to help educate those who are in a position to change our nation’s food policies. I overheard some Congressional staffers say that they had never tasted raw cream before, and that it was amazing!”

To learn more about the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, please visit their website, nicfa.org. Please consider joining NICFA and attending next year’s event. Meanwhile, keep those cards, letters and phone lines buzzing! Congress needs to know that people like you want real food!  Here is a link to my complete set of photos for the event.