Adam Romero on "The Road to Hell? The 'Food Movement' and the Unequal Bifurcation of the US Food System."

Friday, February 5th, was the first Log Lunch of the spring semester! While visitors ate a delicious, locally sourced and vegetarian lunch, Adam Romero, CES Visiting Post-Doctoral Fellow, spoke about the problems associated with the current food movement, which is a topic many log lunch goers grapple with on a daily basis. During his talk, Adam shared his knowledge, passion, and criticism of the modern food movement. An avid gardener and scholar of US agriculture, Adam provided a unique and valuable perspective that challenged the commonly accepted teachings of food movement advocates such as Michael Pollan.

Adam Log Lunch

Adam’s talk was insightful and refreshing and led to a robust question and answer session. In summary, his talk focused on how the modern food movement has created a bifurcation between wealthy consumers buying high quality foods at premium prices and the poor who are left with low-quality products. As the title of his talk suggests, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” While the food movement is presumably well intentioned, the actions of these wealthy consumers’ have had many negatives effects on laborers, migrant works, and the poor (to name a few groups).

 

Although, Adam is still looking for answers to the problems of industrialized agriculture, he did stress that a food movement should not focus solely on food. While “voting with your fork”, a phrase Michael Pollan has trademarked, can ensure personal health it does little to combat the larger institutional problems of industrialized agriculture. Changing the system requires a shifting of focus. Adam’s concern revolves around laborers and migrant workers within the agricultural system, but there are many avenues that need to be considered when thinking about instituting radical change. Adam’s talk highlighted many of the problems with the modern food movement, but he also realizes that no one person can have all the answers. Therefore, this is a challenge that all members of the CES community should be interested in addressing.