We've heard some great conversations today on how to Change the Way We Eat, but I have
to ask a fundamental question of everybody in this room, of everybody watching online
of anybody that really identifies themselves with the Food Movement. And it's a question
that Michael Pollan asked some years ago as well: Is there a Food Movement? Yeah, we have
a Social Movement. It's defined as: "a loosely organized, and sustained campaign in support
of a social goal." We definitely have that. I'll get back to that in a little bit. Now
let me tell you why I felt compelled to come here today and talk about this Food Movement
that I've been a part of for 25 years. The first restaurant that I became a chef in and
I was able to purchase the food-- I was responsible for purchasing the food-- I wanted an advantage
and that advantage was buy food directly from people who produce food, whether they were
farmers or fishermen. I used to pull my truck directly into the GreenMarket in Union Square--
try doing that today and you'll get a lot of bad looks from a lot of New Yorkers and
probably get arrested!-- But I would pull in there and I'd load my truck full of produce,
herbs, vegetables. I would take the time to talk to some of the farmers, find out what
they were doing for next week so I could plan my menu. That was my sort of added, sort of
benefit of living here in New York City, I had this great market that I could access.
But you know I wasn't doing it because I thought that organic or local food was better for
the environment, and I wasn't doing it because I cared about farm workers or I cared about
local sustainable agriculture systems. No, at the time I was doing it because it just
made me a better chef. Also around the same time, I was invited to cook at my first Share
our Strength Taste of the Nation event. And back then it was a tiny, little event. It
was about 20 chefs cooking, but these were the best chefs in New York City. And if you
were asked to cook at that event, that means that you've arrived. And I felt great about
this. In fact, I remember the dish I cooked that night. It was a ragu of sea urchin and
crab, with shallot lemon butter, served over potato puree and I know people lined up for
that and I felt so good about that. But you know, I also kept my ears open that night
and I heard from a few speakers and I learned that we have a hunger crisis in this country.
And I learned there are a lot of people doing some great stuff. And so I decided-- probably
because I grew up with modest means and feel that as a chef I have a lot of people coming
to my restaurant that can afford good meal-- but deep down inside I believed that high
quality food should be accessible and affordable to everybody. So I dedicated myself to doing
these fundraisers, showing up whenever someone asked me to. Also at that same time, I sort
of redoubled my efforts to learn a little bit more about our agricultural system, but
again to take advantage of great products for my restaurant. Also, I wanted to learn
a little bit more about hunger, I attended some boot camps, I also attended some seminars
to sort of teach me how to talk about these things and I thought that was fine. I'm doing
my part; I'm raising some money, doing some work for Food Banks. I thought that was it.
Then about seven or eight years ago, my wife was mentoring a young girl and she had some
learning disabilities and we tried to get her into a school that could take care of
some of those disabilities. We got a phone call from the principal the first week she
was there. He said that she was scrounging in the garbage for food. Although we thought
that we were doing a great job with her education, what we didn't realize is that we were taking
the only meal that she was getting each day out of her mouth. I should've known better!
My mother ran a school lunch program in Elizabeth, NJ were I grew up and she often told me about
the stories of kids coming in who she knew this was the only meal that they were getting
all day long. She wanted to do her best to make sure there was fresh food in that lunchroom.
So I should've known better. So, soon after that my wife came home and said, "I'm making
a film. I want to explore this hunger crisis that we have in this country." And that film
is A place at the table. In making that film, I learned something really really important:
it's something I didn't know because I was so used to just going out there and raising
money and I thought the answer was food banking. And food banking...they do some great work,
but that wasn't the answer. I found after that we can actually end hunger in this country,
we can end it very easily. People are hungry in this country not because we don't have
enough food. We produce more than enough food in this country to feed people. People were
hungry for political reasons. Because we didn't have the political will to end hunger. Not
manage hunger, end hunger! I'll give you an example of just how-- sort of-- the position
that we are in right now. I attended this black-tie dinner about a year ago for NY Food
Bank-- and again they do some great work. We raised $2 million that night. We all felt
really great about ourselves. Last month, we cut $8.9 billion from the Food Stamps program.
We would have to replicate that $2 million every night for the next 12 years to make
up for those cuts. Every night! And so all this great work that some of these charitable
organizations are doing, are being undermined by bad policy. You know, I was at a little
talk about two years ago and there were a few of us talking about things that we were
doing. Michel Nischan was talking about Wholesome Wave and Bill Telepan was talking about Wellness
in the Schools; all great things. And the talk moved to politics and you could see several
people in the room just looking for the door. They just wanted to run, they didn't want
to have this conversation. And thank God, Marion Nestle, she piped up and she was uncharacteristically
being very quiet that day. [Laughter] But she piped up and said, "You know, I got to
tell you a story. I was on the Hill last week and I mentioned the Food Movement. And the
congressman said, "What are you talking about?" Well the Food Movement, you know, people who
care about our organic farming, people who care about sustainability, locavores, you
know, The Food Movement! He said, "No idea what you're taking about! If we don't hear
about it up here, there is no movement!"" Now that is a very myopic view of the world
that usually you see inside the bubble of Washington, D.C. But that's where stuff happens.
It's very easy to say that the government is broken. We don't want to go there. It's
all we have! It's all we have. [Applause] If we want better food policies, we need to
elect better officials who care about these policies. So, I had this great idea: I said,
"Ok! We have 45 million people on SNAP. If you take away the 16 million that are children,
you still have 30 million people who could vote. This is great. Well, I guess I was a
bit naïve to think that people who are struggling to feed their families, people who were looking
for jobs, people who are just day in and day out just trying to cope, that they would actually
mount the political movement. So that wasn't going to work. So, I said well how do I join
my other passion, which is this Food Movement that I've been part of for such a long time.
Surely if we reach out to that group, we can create a bigger constituency. Can we work
together? Without a show of hands, I'm sure if I asked who cares about labeling GMOs in
this room? And who cares about getting rid of antibiotics out of our food system? And
who cares about great food in school lunch? And who cares about local food systems? And
who cares about ending hunger? We'd probably all raise our hands to every single one of
those. But we're not working together. Too often we are off in our own little silos doing
our own thing and looking to get these small little gains. As congresswoman Pingree
just pointed out: we made some modest gains. So food advocates got some modest gains this
last Farm Bill but hunger advocates lost a lot! And we didn't have to do that. If we
stuck together, if we worked together, we didn't have to do that. It didn't have to
happen. We didn't need to make that Faustian bargain between good food policy and hunger.
And so, through several conversations that I had, with Ken Cook --who you just met--
Food Policy Action was born. And for the first time we took leaders of the Food Movement,
people who often never even spoke to each other, people like Wayne Pacelle from the
Humane Society and people like Dave Murphy from Food Politics Now, Gary Hirshberg from
Stonyfield Farms, David Beckmann from Bread for The World. All these people came together
for the first time under one umbrella to start exchanging ideas. We started the Scorecard;
this is a tool that we have, to hold our elected officials responsible. See how they're voting,
it's an easy place to go, check and see how they're voting, see what the bill is about
and see whether or not they share our values, because that's what this is about. This isn't
about some elite Food Movement that is only accessible to people who can afford it. This
is about creating a system that is affordable for all to enjoy. This is about values, and
it's about justice. The byproduct of the political system is justice. That's what this is about.
[Applause]. Food Policy Action also is a C4 so we can get directly involved in races.
We can make sure that we are sealing off the people who are doing the right thing and the
people who are doing the wrong things they need to loose their jobs. [Applause] You know,
gun advocates they have the NRA, and they'll vote that single vote on guns, on 2nd Amendment
and the Pro Life Movement, they'll vote that single issue. We need to start voting that
single issue. Food Advocates need to start to get together and vote that single issue.
This isn't about, you know, great tomatoes, this isn't about, you know, going to a Greenmarket
and having a nice little time. This is about what we feed our children. We need to move
out of our comfort zone. We need to acknowledge that this battle is being waged in a political
sphere. Eleanor Roosevelt said that, "the freedom of man, is the freedom to eat." We
all should feel really good about our commitment, about what we are doing here, about creating
a sustainable food system: one that's healthier, one that's affordable, one that works for
everybody. We got to get involved in races and start calling our elected officials, we
have to work together, we have to create tax incentives to promote good behavior, we have
to continue to bring awareness to Americans so they know how their leaders are voting,
and as soon as one legislator loses their job over the way they vote on hunger issues
and food issues-- when that happens-- we're going to send a clear a clear message to Congress:
That we are organized, we're viable, and we're strong and yes, we have a Food Movement and
it's coming for you! [Applause] If I can leave you, if I can leave everybody with one call
to action, that call to action is #VoteFood. Vote Food. Thank you.