시급한 농업 현안 10가지

If we want a better food system there are plenty of things that would make a bigger difference than GMO labeling. The other day I argued that labeling probably wouldn’t have an effect on the big picture issues that people attach to GMOs. Here are the top 10 political initiatives that I’d rather be debating and voting on:

10. Ban the advertising of unhealthy foods to kids, or at least stop giving companies a tax break for these ads.

Slack Barshinger

9. Protect the most fertile lands from being covered in concrete.

Julep67

8. Eliminate subsidies for agriculture.

Shutterstock

7. Institute measures to improve farm animal welfare.

S-F/Shutterstock

6. Pay farmers for ecological services — like sheltering wildlife, sequestering carbon, and protecting watersheds.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

5. Tax sugar.

Dundanim/Shutterstock

4. Eliminate use of medically important antibiotics in agriculture.

CDC

Decline in FDA antibiotic approvals, data from FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

3. Guarantee the right to good food (perhaps through programs like this), and spend a little money up front so that we don’t have to spend so much later on diet-related disease.

G. Smith/Detroit Lions

Fair Food Network partnered with the Detroit Lions to work with kids from Detroit Public School.

2. Guarantee farmworkers’ right to make a decent wage without beingsexually abused or exposed to unsafe chemicals.

Jacob Anikulapo

And the piece of policy I’d most like to be voting on this coming election day:

1. Tax — or cap-and-trade — greenhouse gases, which could turn agriculture into a climate solution, rather than a big part of the problem.