Will the US Government Have the Courage to Make a Common Sense Budget Change and Transform Health in America?

In the movie Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution, the Mayor saw an increase in the local children getting cancer, noticed the spraying of chemicals on local farms, and put two and two together. Backed with science and parental support, he decided to take action.

He transitioned the subsidy funding from the pesticide spraying farms to the schools and earmarked the money for organic, local food. The farmers saw that to remain viable and continue supplying the schools with produce, they had to switch to organic. So they did. They successfully and profitably switched to organic practices, and the students got their safer, organic, non-toxic food.  Ultimately, the health of children and farm laborers was better protected.

This is a solution that we can and must implement across the USA.

About 31 million meals, predominantly GMO with multiple toxic chemical residues, are being served in public schools every day to our children. Commodity crops such as corn, soy, wheat, potatoes, dairy, and sugar, 85-100% are GMO and chemically sprayed (or the animals are fed GMO grains sprayed), make up most of the school lunches.

If the US government dared to make this common-sense change, we would see unprecedented transformation in the food supply and health across the USA and beyond.

We know it is not likely to happen quickly, but this change would prevent our children's daily neurotoxic and harmful chemical exposures. New papers show this is imperative. 

A new report by the Rockefeller Foundation called the True Cost of Food: Measuring What Matters to Transform the U.S. Food System shows that we are paying, through health care costs and environmental damages, 3 X more than the current price of food. The transformation of our food supply is imperative to protect our human population, wildlife, and environment; it is essential to prevent financial disaster. We cannot keep printing money to pay for health care costs and bailouts without severe economic impacts.

Another report by ZOE out of Harvard and the King’s College of London shows that at least 25% of the people could have been prevented from getting COVID and possibly death if they had access to healthier food. We all know what that means: nontoxic, whole, organically grown foods - not cheap, toxic, GMO, pesticide-contaminated, packaged, and processed sugary foods. But these foods are precisely what is being served in our schools. Donuts are even being promoted across the nation to get immunizations. Cheap processed foods are served to our vulnerable elderly. Fast food and soda are even advertised during the Olympics, whose athletes are the least likely to be eating such unhealthy, sugary products.

The Heartland Health Research Alliance study shows that 98% of the pesticide exposure to the public through dietary consumption could be eliminated if farmers transitioned to organic practices and just the 1.2% of farmland that grows vegetables and fruits. This is doable! It also shows us the importance of having our fruit and vegetables be organic- they are the primary source of our pesticide ingestion, and eating “healthy” MUST mean eating organic. Otherwise, we are consuming more neurotoxic, carcinogenic, endocrine-disrupting chemicals!

Not only is our health and economy impacted by toxic industrial farming, but increases in climate change, drought, flooding, the migration of millions, wars over lack of resources, and global security is at risk. New research confirms that predictions of societal collapse by 2040 are on target to proceed if we do not radically change course now. 

The solution is clear.

We must transition the American food supply to organic practices. Regeneratively grown organic practices are better, sequestering carbon and nitrogen and restoring nutrients in better soil quality. 

This is no longer a call for action from the “wealthy, worried” women as they have been referred to, but from American people who are experiencing the impact of our sick nation on their businesses, schools, weddings, funerals, and way of life. 

This is a call for the transformation of the food supply from international export/import partners who see the fall of American health and the rise of cancer, heart disease, COVID, and shutdowns. It is a matter of national security to transition the food supply to healthy and regenerative.

And it makes sense to start with schools, the population that is developing and is most vulnerable to neurotoxic, endocrine-disrupting toxins. The people upon which our future depends as a human race. The people that we should and must do everything we can to protect.

Therefore, we propose that the US government shifts funding (22 billion in 2019) from the GMO agrichemical farmers to our public school meal budgets with the requirement that that money is spent on organic food, with a priority to source locally. This amount would double the federal reimbursements (currently 18.8 billion)  for school meals, allowing ample resources for higher prices for organic food. The farmers would still receive the income they are accustomed to; they need to provide organic food to schools. In doing so, the farmers would reduce their exposure to cancer-causing chemicals, reduce chemical inputs and costs, improve the quality of their soil, reduce erosion, pollutants, and increase the chance of future generations being content to farm their soil land.  We request that the government shift funding from GMO chemical and synthetic fertilizer company research and development funding to hospitals, senior centers, and Veterans centers for organic food.

By doing so, the government will not be removing job security from farmers; it will be ensuring SAFER job security, as organic farming practices use exponentially fewer chemicals. GMO and conventional industrial farming agrochemicals are neurotoxic, cause infertility, contribute to depression and suicide, and cause numerous cancers. The government would also be ensuring MORE job security, as organic food is more profitable, uses fewer inputs ( $$$), and improves the soil quality, leaving a legacy for the next generation. Our government has an opportunity to protect our children from toxic chemicals and life-long struggles, and our farm laborer families as well.

It is time to ensure the safety and security of farmers’ jobs, students’ food, and the future of America.