Book Review: Food Fight by Daniel Imhoff
Book: Food Fight: The Citizen’s Guide to the Next Food and Farm Bill by Daniel Imhoff
Genre: Food politics
Publisher: Watershed Media
Publication date: 2012
Pages: 215
Source: Library (and, thanks! I asked them to order it for me — they ordered 4 copies for the system and at least 3 have been checked out every time I looked.)
Summary: Food Fight by Daniel Imhoff is about what we colloquially call the Farm Bill with a special emphasis on being a guide to the 2012 version. In order to do that, though, a lot of background and history is required to understand how we got to the complicated and confusing state of affairs.
On page 20, Daniel Imhoff tells us why you should care:
If you eat, pay taxes, care about biodiversity, worry about the quality of school lunches, or notice the loss of farmland and woodlands, you have a personal stake in the Farm Bill. If you’re concerned about escalating federal budget deficits, the fate of family farms, working conditions for immigrant farm laborers, the persistence of hunger and poverty, or how we value local and organic food, you should pay attention to the Farm Bill.
He goes on. The Farm Bill effects everything from climate change to the change in the weight of the average American. There are an astounding number of ways that the Farm Bill impacts energy policy. The conditions of American soil, water, and air are either improved or disastrously harmed by the Farm Bill.
Thoughts: I was trying to detect bias in the book and I found it, but it was toward my opinion, so it didn’t effect my purpose in reading it. I’m not sure I would recommend it to your friendly neighborhood Tea Party member. Your friendly neighborhood Wall Street Occupier, on the other hand, would be happy to have this.
There are potentials for alliance. I imagine that both sides could agree that giving tax dollars to highly profitable agricultural companies is just stupid. However, the largest portion of money in the Farm Bill goes to food stamps (currently called SNAP, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). So, the coalition would be short-lived assuming that the Occupier would want to continue to use federal dollars to fight hunger and the Tea Party member might start to argue to eliminate the Farm Bill entirely.
My frustration with the book is really a frustration with the Farm Bill itself. I read the whole book and I still don’t feel like I have a good handle on the issues. Perhaps I should have bought a copy. It’s best use might be to read it through once for an overview and then keep it handy as a reference to different aspects of the Farm Bill when they are discussed.
Appeal: This will be most useful to someone ready to be an activist for the cause. There’s even an “Activist Tool Kit” section at the end. I’ve started following the blog at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition for news on the Farm Bill.
Challenges: This is my 10th of 19 books for the Foodies Read 2 Challenge.
Check Beth Fish Reads for this week’s Weekend Cooking.
Have you read this book? What did you think?
Great review, Joy! I think the Farm Bill is something that’s not discussed enough on media outlets. I knew about it but didn’t know much until another blogger wrote about the current version of the bill. I think I’m going to ask my library to order this.
I agree — great review. I wish I understood the Farm Bill better. It’s a complicated matter.
Great review! I’m pretty clueless about the Farm Bill so this is a good starting point maybe.
no friendly neighborhood Tea Party members…oh well, off I go then..lol
I congratulate you for taking the time to get informed on the Farm Bill. I always focus on what I can do personally for the environment, but it would be worth pushing for those with real influence — like the Congress — to do the right thing as well. Thanks for your review.
I know just a little about this subject, I need to learn more.
Here’s Mine
Interesting
Have a good week.
I really should pick up my reading for the foodies reading challenge as well.
We each spend huge amounts of money on food, that it is wise to understand where it comes from and the many issues affecting it.
As with all sectors of our lives, what lies beneath the surface is often very complicated and at times in constrast with our perception of things. The more we know about the background of where our “daily bread” comes, the more conscious decisions we’ll make.
Sounds fascinating–I love a book that is not only informative but also pushes the reader to take action.
This is a topic we should all try to understand better as it affects us all, thanks for bringing this book to our attention.
Unfortunately I don’t know very much about the Farm Bill–Natasha’s right that it doesn’t seem to get very much press. I’m not part of the tea party but from your review I’m guessing I’m a bit more conservative than you–would be interesting reading this book!
I read your review at 6:30 this morning then I turned on my local public radio station to listen to NPR’s ‘On Being’ and Krista Tippett was interviewing chef Dan Barber on the topic of food, the environment and how the flavor of food is affected so drastically by how it is grown. I only caught a bit of the show but I have a feeling you might enjoy it. The podcasts of this show are available free on i-tunes if you don’t get the broadcast in your area. I’m going to try to listen to the rest of it later. He talks about Barbara Kingsolver and Michael Pollan. Thanks for the review of this book, I’m definitely going to add it to my list.
Thanks! I just loaded this onto my tablet so I can listen while I’m gardening this week.
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Joy,
Thanks for mentioning our blog in your post! We’re big fans of Dan Imhoff’s book here, too – and we work hard to keep our blog up-to-date with the latest on the farm bill process. Now’s the time to speak out for a better farm bill – and we encourage everyone with an interest in sustainable agriculture and better food and farm policy to sign up for action alerts and stay in the loop! You can find info on our website: http://sustainableagriculture.net
Best,
Sarah