I am not surprised by Jerry Crew’s attack on Frances Moore Lappe’s ideas (“Organic Farming Can’t Feed the Entire World,” Nov. 15 letter). Crew wrote, “Unless we all become farmers, someone has to decide which 2 billion of us die of starvation.”
How did people feed themselves before corporate agribusiness elbowed traditional family farmers aside? I know the slogan, “Feed the world.” Right. After we feed the cars ethanol and fatten the pigs for export to China’s growing middle class.
With 18 honorary doctorates from distinguished universities, Lappe is a “heavy hitter.” I heard her speak at the Iowa Environmental Council’s annual meeting and am now reading her book “EcoMind.”
Lappe is trying to change the culture. She is not saying that we have to do without. She is saying that we must see ourselves as part of the ecosystem. Like Aldo Leopold, she sees the need for a “land ethic.”
Of course, those benefiting from subsidies used to support the current system of fuel and food production will attack her ideas. They may lose some income if changes occur.
However, the rest of us have much to gain by leaving room for healthy, local, diversified, sustainable food production. Give our young farmers a chance to grow nutritious “people food.” Right now the federal food policy system is rigged against them and consumers.
— Mike Delaney, Des Moines