While the dialog felt like another cut-and-paste debate between me and previously published Monsanto paraphernalia, it offered just enough information about how Monsanto defends against mandatory GMO labeling. Clearly, anyone informed about consumer sentiments regarding GMO food knows that such labeling would devastate Monsanto and other GM seed companies’ bottom line. Which explains the vigorous, even suffocating effort by Monsanto to control the conversation.

The specific question I asked on Twitter was:  Dear Monsanto, What would be the harm in labeling GMO foods, regardless of whether same as non-GMO food?

I didn’t send the tweet to a specific person, so anyone was welcome to jump in. Thankfully, @Mica_MonsantoCo (Twitter name of Mica Veihman, Monsanto Public Affairs) decided to take a crack at answering my question. Some of her responses included:

• “U.S. labeling laws are based on health & safety, not choice.”
• “Harm is having mandated labeling of something that doesn’t have a scientific reason for it.”
• “I don’t want food companies passing along cost of labeling to me for something they say has no bearing on my health or safety.”
• “No it [organic] doesn’t have a scientific reason, that’s why organic is a marketing program.”
• “Harm is making people think there is health or safety problem with their food.”
• “We do not support a government-mandated label which is reserved for health or safety issues.”

Do you see a pattern? Visit the Monsanto link Mica provided during our chat and you will see the theme continued:

Some might ask what the harm would be in requiring the labeling of products. U.S. labeling laws are based on health and safety. Requiring labeling for ingredients that don’t pose a health issue would undermine both our labeling laws and consumer confidence. Ensuring that such labeling is accurate would also put a huge burden on regulatory agencies.

Again and again, Monsanto stresses that mandatory labeling for foods containing GMOs would undermine the U.S. labeling system. At first, it seemed like Monsanto might have a point. After all, “Certified Organic” is not mandatory, nor is “Non-GMO,” since neither relates to health or safety,  at least not from the industrial food system’s perspective.

Then I remembered the recently launched USDA Country of Origin Label (COOL) program, mandated by Congress through the 2002 and 2008 Farm Bills.

The 2002 and 2008 Farm Bills amended the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946 to require retailers to notify their customers of the country of origin of muscle cut and ground meats including beef, veal, lamb, pork, chicken, and goat meat; wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish; perishable agricultural commodities (fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables); peanut, pecans, and macadamia nuts; and ginseng.

Did Congress implement this law because of health and safety concerns? No. It did so to assist U.S. food producers in establishing competitive advantage based on the assumption that U.S. consumers, if given country of origin information, would buy U.S. products over imported ones. No mention of health. No mention of safety. Nor have I read anywhere how COOL has undermined our country’s labeling laws or consumer confidence.

Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, summed COOL up nicely: “I strongly support Country of Origin Labeling—it’s a critical step toward providing consumers with additional information about the origin of their food.“

Did you catch that? The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture highlighted consumer choice as the reason for a mandatory food labeling program. Given that 95 percent of U.S. consumers surveyed want GMO labeling, incidentally the same percentage that favor country of origin labeling, doesn’t it seem like leaders in Washington should step up for consumer choice again?

A less important, but still interesting question is how Monsanto can make supposedly definitive statements over and over again that  are factually incorrect and misleading?

That’s the Monsanto way.

The 1 1/2 hour discussion will begin this Sunday June 7th at 8pm ET. We hope you can come out! All are welcome to join the chat, just please announce yourself at the beginning by telling everyone your name and affiliations, and use the #sustagchat tag on your tweets in order to create a searchable dialog. A helpful program to use is Tweetchat — enter the room “sustagchat” and #sustagchat will show up on all your posts automatically. You are welcome to send questions and comments to our moderator, @sustagchat.

Moderating this week will be me (@civileater), mostly via the @sustagchat moniker. You can read more about me down below this post in my bio. I do hope you will join us in the chat this week!

Please feel free to send some ideas our way, but here’s some food for thought to get the chat rolling –

Q1. What are the models where you see urban ag working? Is there a possibility for feeding cities with urban agriculture? Can urban ag address the disparities of urban food deserts?

Q2. Are you growing more of your own food this year? Were you inspired by the White House garden, or was the movement already afoot?

Q3. What are the barriers to entry around urban ag? What would you like to see happen in order for more people to get growing and more cities gaining access to this resource?

We can swap stories, discuss how-tos, and the creative ways you are implementing urban agriculture in your communities. Looking forward!

The 1 1/2 hour discussion will begin this Sunday June 7th at 8pm ET. We hope you can come out! All are welcome to join the chat, just please announce yourself at the beginning by telling everyone your name and affiliations, and use the #sustagchat tag on your tweets in order to create a searchable dialog. A helpful program to use is Tweetchat — enter the room “sustagchat” and #sustagchat will show up on all your posts automatically. You are welcome to send questions and comments to our moderator, @sustagchat.

Moderating this week will be me (@civileater), mostly via the @sustagchat moniker.  You can read more about me down below this post in my bio. I do hope you will join us in the chat this week. Last week was so positive and productive!

Please feel free to send some ideas our way, but here’s some food for thought to get the chat rolling –

Q1. What do you do in your community to engage people on food issues? Are you a CSA member, chef, writer, community gardener, advocate, farmer’s market patron, or do you participate in some other community food affairs?

Q2.  Are you a farmer/value added producer? How are you connecting with you buyers? Has this changed in the last few years?

Q3. Do you have idea for your community that you would like to implement? What is standing in your way?

Q4. Has connecting with your community through food changed it?

We can swap stories, discuss how-tos, and the creative ways you are connecting through food. Looking forward!

Moderating this week will be Meredith Modzelewski (@meredithmo). Here is some more info about her:

Meredith Modzelewski, a former corporate healthcare & pharmaceutical public relations professional, said “no thanks” to all that a year ago. Now, a self-styled gastronome, she communicates and advocates toward a safe, healthy, and sustainable food system. Modzelewski is into sustainable agriculture, local food, permaculture, and slow you-name-it: she currently helps organize a CSA and is working to get a new food co-op off the ground in her neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY.

Here’s some food for thought for the chat –

Q1. Food is a very important part of popular culture. Are the ways food is discussed, presented and used in popular culture changing? Or, how would you like to see it change?

Q2. Did you watch The Goode Family last week? Was it funny or did you find it more of a mockery? How do we feel about the way food issues are being covered in popular media? Are there important issues that you think are not getting covered?

Q3. Food, Inc. begins with a ride through a grocery store, and explores the kinds of imagery on the various products there. How do images of nostalgia help or hurt the sustainable movement?

Of course, these are just to get you started! See you Sunday.

INTROS

Q1. What are some of the things we do to feed people in this country that are “unacceptable but accepted”? This in relation to Michael Glantz talking about feeding starving kids in Haiti salted clay. He also said we don’t need technology to fix things. We need “a social invention.” An example: organic. or “looking at nature as a bank.” What ideas can we generate from this notion?

Q2. Why is aquaculture not a regular part of the public discussion of agriculture? Can aquaculture and agriculture co-exist in our minds under the sustainable agriculture heading? How can sustag and sustaqua work together to help each other succeed?

Q3. How can sustainable agriculture address access and social equity? At the Sustainable Seas Institute conference this week in Monterey, Thomas Keller said Americans “tend to want the very best, and spend the very least for it.” Does this hurt those who have the very least but also want the very best?

FREE FOR ALL: Q’s on your mind, requests, helpful links, people2follow

1. Many people talk about sustainability, but it is a word with many definitions. What is your definition of sustainability? How do you then define sustainability in the context of agriculture systems? What key elements must be in place in order for a system to be sustainable in your opinion?

2. Where are there examples of systems you would consider sustainable? Are the people and places successfully pursuing your definition of sustainability?

3. What is currently standing in the way of a more sustainable agriculture system? How do we go about changing this? Is the answer at the grassroots level, or at the governmental level, or both?

A few things got me thinking about this topic. One of course was the wide differences in comments on my last post. But another bit of food for thought was this piece by Natasha Chart, which discusses how our current system of agriculture will never be sustainable because of its dependence on fossil fuels. But she doesn’t propose a resurrection of the Luddite movement. It’s great reading if you have a chance to take a look before tonight’s chat.

I’m looking forward to a lively discussion. See everyone on Twitter at 8/5PT. I will be leading the chat from @sustagchat, so follow me if you haven’t yet!

Here is a quote from her blog, in a recent post discussing the “frenzy” being furthered by the media over the swine flu:

If people were a bit more connected to knowing where their food comes from, our society might not believe all of the hyperbole associated with these types of outbreaks.

Ok, I’m all for people knowing where their food comes from. Pull back the veil, let us see what really goes on at CAFOs in the U.S. Oh, but wait there’s more:

Hogs of today are kept in a closed environment with strict biosecurity standards, which requires showering in and out of facilities… Of course, some are trying to point fingers at the larger farms, know [sic] as CAFOs (an example of terminology that ag should have never agreed to!). Look no further than http://www.grist.org/article/2009-04-25-swine-flu-smithfield/ for an example of finger pointing. Can we again emphasize that humans can’t get this from hogs? And I’m not here to promote one side of ag over the other, but the reality is that larger operations typically have to to adhere to stricter regulations. You can read Smithfield’s response to the accusations here; their people are healthy, the hogs vaccinated and the proper protocol followed. What more can we ask for?

Well, let’s start by asking for an unbiased source testing those pigs. Second, honestly, could she be “not trying to promote one side of ag over the other?” It doesn’t seem possible. Look, some of us may be city slickers, but we know our ag policy, and we recognize the names on her client list. She is just spinning the stories she is paid to spin. (Check out some of the great sustainable advocates on her blog, under the header “Anti-Agriculture Groups,” like Consumers Union, Food & Water Watch, and “King Corn Movie“)

But I didn’t just want to write about Ms. Payn-Knoper in this post. I’d rather focus on the agchat itself. You see, I found the format quite interesting, a public conversation on Twitter, between people with similar interests located anywhere. This ‘conventional agchat’ got started with the following questions, written, I assume, by Ms. Payn-Knoper:

Q1: What are differences between the 2 main types of ag production – local & nat./int?. Advantages & disadvantages?
Q2: Family farmers vs. ind. ag, how can you distinguish between 2 approaches (family vs. big) & validate need for both?
Q3: How can we share positive msg about all ag practices, incl organic, even as some claim one is better than another?
Q4: NYC held a food conf. Disagreements aside, they’re interestd [sic] in farming. How do we engage & find common ground?
Q5: What other groups can we collaborate with outside of agriculture strengthen our voice & overcome adversaries messages?

I thought I’d print these, not only because I do agree that in an ideal world, I’d love to openly discuss issues of farming with all “farm advocates,” but also because you finally get the kernel of truth in that last question: how to “overcome adversaries messages?” In other words, we are all inclusive here, as long as you are riding on the Big Ag train.

This talk involved mostly people trying to protect their interests, like Monsanto representatives, PR reps and lobbyists, and only a handful of producers. They were so surprised to be joined by my Twitter friend and sustainable food advocate @meredithmo, that they took to tossing her questions, mostly with that old tattered staple, “How can sustainable ag feed the world?”

I initially got involved when I saw this question posed to @meredithmo (Sorry if the Twitter-ology is not your thing, look here for a video tutorial):

@mpaynknoper: @meredithmo Could you please tell us more about how sustainable food production that doesn’t involve technology can feed world?

I immediately thought, ok, here was an opportunity to share some ideas.  To “engage” and see what happens. This was before I checked on any of the attendees affiliations. Admittedly, I did jump on board late and didn’t at first announce myself. Eventually I did so, and I made some observations:

@civileater: @mpaynknoper Small ag can feed everyone, its community building. people cannot rely on only one crop, or bags from the sky.

@civileater: @mpaynknoper Not using pesticides and building diverse systems means healthier soil and nutrient filled food…

@civileater: @mpaynknoper growing one crop to trade or sell means you have to buy all your other food, along with pesticide and annual seed.

This was really hard to do in 140 characters. Even harder when I later got heckled for saying there are farmers within cities — Imagine what Will Allen would say to that! — and was called a “spammer” in a blog I will not deign to link.

What irked me most about this chat was their misconceptions of our movement. The fact is that sustainable ag-tivists are fundamentally most interested in what is best for farmers. We are not just “foodies,” as I was referred to in the chat. We have a vested interest in making sure America has better food to eat, that farmer’s work is valued, and that they have land and health insurance, that kids know where there food comes from, that everyone has access to healthy food, and that our food system is safe and our land and our environment are taken care of. The supporters of conventional agriculture, unfortunately, have shareholders interests at heart first and foremost, and cajole farmers into thinking they are doing what is best for them by hiring chipper PR hacks from their endless pockets of cash who spin a shitstorm of mis-information and distribute it via Twitter and the Internet.

So, as I will never be allowed in another ag chat again, I am hereby consecrating #sustagchat… a sustainable ag chat beginning this Sunday, details to be announced via Twitter (If you aren’t following me, you can here). The hope is to have a regular hour-long chat, which I’ll be happily moderating for now. I hope you will join us and discuss the issues facing our food system. I will post more information, and a question or two for the Sunday’s chat on Civil Eats tomorrow.

Follow @sustagchat for more information on topics and the #sustagchat!