It is undeniable that the progressive food movement has found its footing lately, and momentum is starting to build. It’s been a long time coming, but things are starting to coalesce. Here are some of the way’s I’ve identified as proof that the movement is getting close to reaching a critical level. The point of no return may still be quite far off, and yet I cannot quite shake the feeling that something big is about to happen.

Perhaps I am just too close to the situation, and perhaps I’ve lost what little objectivity I had left, but I do sense a giant wave building just beneath the surface. I think slowly but surely, Americans are waking up to the fact that our food system, our food culture, and our eating habits are completely unsustainable.

Is it due to the fact that we are in a prolonged recession? That our pride has been humbled? That we’re turning inwards to investigate the sources of our troubles? Are American’s capable of making the jump from our economic recession and our health recession?

I think they are. I have faith in America as an ideal, and I have faith in the American people. So where is this momentum coming from?

• Media: With the release of not one but two recent movies, Fresh and Food Inc., there is a whole other front in the campaign to attract eyes and ears of the American audience. Fresh and Food Inc. are huge achievements, different in style and tone, but with plenty of overlap in terms of narratives, profiles and intent. Film is the American medium is it not? The fact that there are now feature films devoted to sustainable agriculture and the negative effects of our current food infrastructure says a lot about how far the American audience has come. These are perfect addendums to the best selling books by authors like Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman, Nina Plank, Alice Waters and the many other journalists, critics and activists who have been manning the barricades for quite some time now. Nick Kristof in the Times recently wrote a fantastic op-ed in which he said.

American agribusiness truly is wondrous. When I moved back to the United States after years of living in China, I remember visiting a supermarket and feeling a near-religious awe. Yet one consequence of this wondrous system is that unhealthy calories are cheaper than nutritious ones: think of the relative prices of Twinkies and broccoli. We even inflict unhealthy food on children in the school lunch program, and one in three Americans born after 2000 is expected to develop diabetes.

• Health and Safety Issues: The Swine Flu Pandemic, E. Coli in cookie dough for christ sake. I mean, the food industry is literally serving up softballs to us in the progressive food movements. And instead of being patient at the plate like we have in the past, journalists, bloggers, activists, busy moms (WHOEVER) are starting to smack these softballs all over the ball field. Industrialized agriculture and its defenders are on the run, and they can barely catch their breath. No matter how much money they spend, how much lobbying prowess they have, they are doomed. They know it, but they aren’t going down without a fight. I almost feel bad for them, because it is just an essential part of their business model that our food will be continue to be unsafe and unhealthy. And these outbreaks, food recalls will continue until the industry is dismantled and transitioned to a healthy, organic and sustainable process.
• Buzzwords: Buzzwords are important indicators of what’s going on just beneath the surface of any given society. The buzzwords I am picking up on these days are really good signs. I wrote a whole blog post about Kohlrabi because I kept hearing and seeing the word all over the place. But the fact that words like locavore, organic, sustainable, green, renewable, bio-dynamic are so popular these days is a great sign. I’ve even detected some pushback from people who are sick and tired of being bombarded with green programs, sustainability jabberwocky and other ephemera of the movement. This is a good thing. If one of our buzzwords gets pushed back on, its just a sign of the ubuiqty and penetration of that term. There will always be contrarian and player haters. But they aren’t our problem. If someone is smart enough to push back against this or that, they won’t get in the way when real change begins to manifest. Which of course is happening.
• Twitter, Facebook, iPhone Applications: The knowledge machine created by social media, instant communication and real time conversations is impressive. I learn so much more, and in a much more focused way now that I have learned to leverage the power of social networking. I’ve joined facebook groups and connected with users who dig my content, and share with their friends. I’ve engaged both advocates of sustainable food systems and our well-armed, but ultimately limited opponents on twitter. I’ve had some drag out fights on twitter with industry defenders, shills, hacks and even the honest soul on the wrong side of history twitter that have actually made me sick to my stomach. I’ve also had beautiful and polite disagreements with family farmers who simply feel threatened by a movement that could potentially change the way they’ve done business for generations. But through it all, I have kept learning, refining my own arguments and principles, finding endless sources of stimulation on which to feed my creative pursuits and truly getting the most of these wonderful technologies. One of the most popular iPhone applications is one that helps a user locate local foods! Now that is cool.
• Big Agriculture = Big Tobacco: At the end of the day, Big Agriculture occupies an indefensible position. They are the problem standing between America today and America with a clean, healthy and sustainable food system.
  • They say they feed us cheaply. We say they poison us cheaply, and pass the costs onto health care.
  • They say they are just giving the American people what they want. We say that if you spend $30 billion a year on advertising and marketing, you can dictate what the American people WILL want.
  • They say they are feeding the world, we say your are just exporting cheap pointless calories. We say you are exporting the western diseases of chronic heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. We don’t need to export that.
  • They say they are feeding the world, we say they are feeding animals, not humans.

The back and forth will continue, but this much is clear. Big Ag and everything they represent: giant monocultures, seas of corn and soy, feedlots, CAFO’s, using 70% of our antibiotics to keep sick animals alive instead of raising them naturally, GMO’s, seed patents, processed food, marketing slogans, lobbying, lawsuits.

They are what is wrong. And they are literally killing people. The game is over, its only a matter of time before they realize it. The movement is coming together that will hammer this point home, with our words and our wallets. We are storming the barricades, and finally, we are not breaking ranks.