Food Policy Declaration

I’ve so far mostly spared you from my other obsessions, including California politics. (Recall that I started blogging in 2003, when I was running for governor myself.) But when I read this article in the Chron yesterday, my first response was “Gavin is trying to lure me away from Jerry Brown!”

At City Slicker Farms in Oakland (pictured above) Mayor Newsom announced an executive directive that laid out a sweeping new food policy for San Francisco, a result of the urban-rural roundtable he called last year to look at the city’s foodshed. It has several components:

All city departments have six months to conduct an audit of unused land – including empty lots, rooftops, windowsills and median strips – that could be turned into community gardens or farms that could benefit residents, either by working at them or purchasing the fresh produce. Food vendors that contract with the city must offer healthy and sustainable food. All vending machines on city property must also offer healthy options, and farmers’ markets must begin accepting food stamps, although some already do.

Although the first thing that caught my attention was the inventory of land suitable for growing food, I’m trying to write about the whole package without starting to gush. What a beautiful vision it lays out. But the tone of the rest of the article shows how far sustainable food advocates have to go before anyone hears our words about making good food available to everyone. First, Heather Knight ends the piece thus:

Back in San Francisco, it was apparent Newsom’s idea may take some getting used to. Michael Summers, who operates a hot dog stand in Civic Center Plaza that contracts with the city, said the dogs made of tofu don’t sell nearly as well as the old-fashioned meat kind. That was evidenced by the line of people ordering hot dogs just after noon – and not a tofu order among them.

Now, I really try to leave teh snark behind when I’m writing, but what an asinine paragraph. What do tofu dogs have to do with anything? Then the insta-poll in the sidebar asks:

Newsom’s healthy food plan:
Great, get the city off junk food
Bad, expensive nonsense
Can’t wait for the first time they serve arugula at the jail

And the first comment on the article says “Newsom can new[sic] add “food fascist” to his extensive fascist credentials.”

Leaving aside the “extensive fascist credentials” of the Democratic mayor of arguably the most liberal city in the US, it’s so sad that food that is fresh, local, sustainably produced, better for the people who eat it and the land where it is grown is so automatically seen as a wodge of medicine that the elite want to shove down the people’s throats while making them pay for the privilege.

Anyway, knee-jerk reactions aside, I’m entranced by this vision, and I want to make it happen down here in San José. I may even think about voting for him next June.