On Monday the Daily News YO! Features cover story is about "Food, Inc.", the movie by Robert Kenner that attempts to "pull back the curtain" from modern-day industrial agriculture and show Americans where their food comes from.
The article chronicles some of the brick walls and smokescreens Kenner encountered in trying to get and share basic info about the sources of our food, something more people are paying attention to - or trying to, anyway - all the time. "The system is broken" is Kenner's pithy summary of the situation, and he goes so far as to compare our food production system to our failed credit system, calling both fundamentally unsustainable.
The sometimes disturbing truth about what goes on in the production of especially animal-based foods "violated this myth that's being propagated: that our food comes from a small farm," Kenner says. And while it's true that myth is being pushed, there's a corrolary: That if we just got rid of "factory farming," the system would be fine, wholesome and healthful.
However, as former farmer/ranchers such as Howard Lyman (who, along with Oprah Winfrey, was sued by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association for suggesting on her show that Mad Cow would be discovered in US herds) and Harold Brown have made clear from their own testimony, having small, family farms handle and process animals is hardly a viable solution: For one thing, the sheer volume of meat and dairy now consumed by Americans is impossible to generate by those methods, and even if it were, most of us would refuse to pay what it would cost. Additionally, organizations such as Humane Myth are pulling the proverbial curtain even further back, showing that many of the abuses, cruelties and injustices consumers find so distasteful in "factory farming" are actually rooted in the fundamental process of breeding, feeding and killing animals.
Even from an ecological standpoint there's cognitive dissonance: While concentration of food animals produces a more concentrated waste that can do serious harm to the environment more quickly, the scientists who authored the 2006 report Livestock's Long Shadow (the one that showed animal foods to be responsible for more greenhouse gases than cars) actually suggested more, not less, concentration of animals purely as a measure to reduce overall greenhouse gases.
So it looks like consumers who care about the wider world their are caught between a rock and a hard place. Is there any way that we can, you know, work it out? Maybe we should ask Paul McCartney.
The experts at Philadelphia's Energy Coordinating Agency answer your energy questions in our regular feature Stay Warm, Stay Green. Send in your question or questions to energy@phillynews.com.
Look for Jenice Armstrong to supply tips on green living as well as occasional columns on the subject of Green. She also blogs at Hey Jen.
Becky Batcha stays tuned for the here-and-now practical side of conservation, alternative energy, organic foods, etc. - stuff you can do at home now. Plus odds and ends.
Flavia Colgan has been telling Citizen Hunters how to "go green" since back before everyone got tired of that phrase. She brings her knowledge of the worlds of politics and of entertainment to the table and point you to the most useful ideas she finds on the Web.
Laurie Conrad recycles from her ever-growing e-mailbag to pass along the latest travel deals, fashion statements, household strategies, gadgets, cool local events and other nuggets of interest to those who appreciate a clean, green world.
Vance Lehmkuhl looks at topics like eco-conscious eating, public transportation and fuel-efficient driving from his perspective as a vegetarian, a daily SEPTA bus rider and a hybrid driver, as well as noting the occasional wacky trend or product.
Ronnie Polaneczky sees the green movement through the eyes of her 12-year-old daughter, who calls her on every scrap of paper or glass bottle that Ronnie neglects to toss into the house recycling bins. Ronnie will blog about new or unexpected ways to go green. She also blogs at So, What Happened Was...
Sandra Shea and the DN editorial board opine on any green-related legislation or policy. And we'll pass along some of the opeds on the subject that people send us.
Jonathan Takiff will be blogging mainly about consumer electronics - those things that we love to use and that suck too much energy. He'll spotlight green-conscious gizmos made in a responsible fashion, both in terms of materials used and the energy it takes to run them.
Signe Wilkinson draws the comic strip Family Tree, which follows the Tree family as they try to live green in the face of nattering neighbors, plastic-wrapped consumer products, and the primal teenage urge to spend vast quantities of money on hair care products of dubious organic quality.
In addition to these updates from our newsroom bloggers, watch for an occasional feature, Dumpster Diver Dispatches, from Philadelphia's original "green" community of artists, the Dumpster Divers. You'll learn about creative ways to reuse and recycle while you reduce, and about the artists who are making little masterpieces from what others throw out.
Sept. 17: A head start on cold season
Oct. 8: Help with fuel bills
Oct. 29: Last-minute ways to winterize
Nov. 19: Budgeting for the big bite
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