This week at Vegan Mainstream, we’re shining the spotlight on people who are making changes in legislation. Right away I knew I was going to zero in on changes diet and health related. At the forefront of such changes is PCRM, the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine.
- Noah Gittell, PCRM
Last week I caught up with Noah Gittell, PCRM Government Affairs Manager, to ask him what’s on the PCRM food legislative plate. Because the world of legislation affecting our daily food choices can sometimes seem mystifying and elusive, I have laid this article out a little differently.
First I give you relevant parts of my conversation with Noah on the Farm Bill, SNAP, the Food Stamp and National School Lunch Programs, and the Healthy Basics Plan. Along with that I suggest actions you can take today to make a difference. These actions include links and image captures to show you exactly where you can go to easily send a message to your representatives to show your support for healthy change. The letters are written for you – all you need to do is click and send.
Lani Muelrath (LM): Hi Noah, thanks so much for meeting with me today. Are there any issues that are coming out in legislation with PCRM that are pressing and pertinent, related to nutrition, and personal and public health? Issues that can not only be easily explained, but that people can take action upon. Is there something that comes to the forefront in your mind?
Noah Gittell (NG): If we’re talking about the health and nutrition, the biggest thing coming out there is the Farm Bill. The Farm Bill is a multi-year piece of legislation that gets pre-authorized every 4 to 5 years. It really should be called the Fruit Bill because by far the bulk of the funding that gets authorized in it is for federal nutrition programs such as the National School Lunch Program and Food Stamps. [Besides the Farm Bill] there is also the issue of subsidies. We’re definitely doing a lot of work on that and I think it’s something that people don’t know a lot about. Frankly, I didn’t know much about it before I started working on it…we want people to call their member of Congress and tell them to make plant-based choices more available on their own nutrition programs.
LM: Is that an easy thing to give people as a call to action?
NG: What people can do is go to our webpage, prcm.org, and on the main page there is a link to our plan to reform the food stamp program, which is now called SNAP [Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program]. If you enter your zip code on that page, it will send it directly to your member’s accounts, showing you know who they are.
LM: I would like for people to see an action plan that will help all of us, and this subsidy issue is huge. It has the effect of making bad food cheap and better food more expensive and I think we’re all ripped off by that.
NG: That’s exactly right. We did a lot of research on the subsidy issue and the numbers that we came up with are pretty staggering. For several subsidies, they go to domestic food production, and 63% of those subsidies go either directly or indirectly towards meat and dairy. When I say indirectly, I mean towards seed, towards crops or specifically designated for livestock feed. Only 1% goes to fruits and vegetables.
LM: Where is the other 30-whatever per cent going?
NG: It’s going to grains that are not used for livestock. It’s going to sugars, starch, oil, alcohol, nuts and legumes, a very small piece, but it is nonetheless.
LM: So that’s a major chunk.
NG: It’s a huge chunk and it’s completely out of whack with what the USDA is telling people to eat because their latest dietary guidelines tell people that half of their plate should be fruit and vegetables and only 1% of these subsidies actually support those foods.
LM: You said the Farm Bill is up for pre-authorization every 4 years? That is like every other minute! I can’t imagine how you…
NG: Yeah, and they are working on the next one actually pretty much as soon as they finish the last one. Because it’s such a big and complex bill, and there are so many people, so many special interest groups that have so many lobbyists who have an interest in this bill because it’s so far reaching.
What we’re trying to do is move the discussion to be a nutrition-based discussion instead of a farm-based discussion. It’s a challenging thing to do because many of the people on the authorizing committees, the House and on agriculture committees are from rural states, from rural congressional districts, and their number one priority in these difficult economic times is to make sure that the farmers in those states are well taken care of and a lot of that happens through the subsidy system. The dirty little secret is that farmers are by and large wealthier than people in most professions in America and these subsidies are actually not needed in most cases.
LM: That’s interesting. Are they open about that information or is it kind of hidden?
NG: They don’t talk about it much but it’s a verifiable fact. And when we’re talking about subsidies, there are actually a lot of different kinds of subsidies. What we’re focusing on right now is something called direct payments, which are the most inefficient form of subsidy – they pay people based on what has historically been grown on a particular piece of land, going back decades – many of the sites are not even been farmed anymore, but the people are still being paid.
LM: So in fact, the direct payments are out of date in many of the circumstances?
NG: [This type of subsidy is] completely out of date…
LM: So, when the bill comes up then, are they trying to take a fresh look to see what’s still relevant and equitable?
NG: Yes, with the issue of direct payment there is consensus among people who know of that policy. The direct payments really need to be eliminated completely. It would save taxpayers 5 billion dollars a year. It’s not doing any good and it’s actually preventing people from growing it because if you grow something other than the crops that are designated…
LM: You’re out?
NG: You don’t get the direct payment anymore. So, it’s really doing the opposite of what it should be doing and there is consensus that they should go. But there are people on those committees who are still fighting to keep them, or if not to keep them exactly as they are, to transfer that money so that farmers get it in a different way.
LM: So, is it a matter of who has the best lobbyist?
NG: Well, that definitely is a big part of it, unfortunately. There are a lot of groups like PCRM who are fighting for the good things in this bill and we work with a number of organizations who have similar interests and they’re really trying to form a coalition to get the message out.
LM: And what are the good things about it: shifting it to be nutrition focused?
NG: One of the good things is eliminating these direct payments. Sometimes we just have to eliminate the bad things, but [it gets complicated because] there is the agriculture title of the bill, which includes the subsidies and things like crop insurance. It’s ridiculous for the US Government, who subsidizes 85% of farmer’s crop insurance. [On another level], there is also the nutrition title which covers programs such as SNAP, the Food Stamp Program and the National School Lunch Program. We’re doing a lot of work on the Food Stamp Program right now because it’s by far the largest funding chunk in the Farm Bill. This program is something that will almost certainly be cut because, due to the economic situation [we're currently facing in the US}, more people are on it than ever before, and it's something that is going to be on the chopping block because it's more expensive.
LM: You mean food stamps will be cut altogether?
NG: [Not altogether], but what we’ve been hearing is that they’re going to limit eligibility. You’ll have to have even lower income to qualify for them, but also there will potentially be a limit on how many food stamps you can get.
LM: So what changes are you, as PCRM seeking to implement with the Food Stamp program?
NG: We’re promoting something called the Healthy Basics Plan. Right now, you can buy pretty much any kind of food with food stamps…we’re very concerned about that. So, we are proposing to cut out what we call luxury foods – foods that are not high in nutritional value, but are high in calories. We want to only allow food stamps to be used on the healthy basics – fruits, vegetables, legumes and whole grains.
LM: How do you get an agreement on that?
NG: From Congress?
LM: From anybody who is interested in promoting anything outside that realm.
NG: Well, here is the message that we’re taking to people. Right now, when people are talking about food stamps, they’re talking about hunger. Hunger is an important issue. But part of that discussion should be whether people are actually getting the nutrients they need. When people eat calorie-rich, processed foods, sometimes the thought is they’re getting as many calories as they need to live…
But they’re not living healthfully and that’s why we see high levels of diabetes, obesity, and cancer in low-income populations. What we’ve actually shown with the Healthy Basics Plan is, not only can you be healthier eating these foods (which is what we base all that work at PCRM on), but also, you can do it less expensively. So they do end up cutting benefits. We’d like [government] to adopt the Healthy Basics Plan and we can show that on $4 a day, you can actually get all the nutrients you need from fruits and vegetables.
LM: Has PCRM then put together a lesson plan for how this could happen? To be able to bring this in as possible legislation?
NG: We are talking to the folks on Capitol Hill about it, and what we have is a report on the issue and our perspective on the Healthy Basics Plan. We have a recipe list and we have a pattern list of what the healthy basics would be. Right now, we’re looking for a member of Congress to introduce the bill and we plan on doing a briefing on Capitol Hill and showing people that you can eat healthily and inexpensively with these foods.
LM: Is it not hard to convince people these days that healthy basics are actually fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans?
NG: It’s not as hard as it used to be, but it’s still very challenging. There are certainly powerful lobbyists on the other side of this issue, pushing meat, pushing dairy, and the government supports that. But in addition to these lobbyists, we also need to get past people’s own personal inclinations. There are very few vegetarian [or vegan] members of Congress…many of them are meat and dairy eaters and they come from districts where meat and dairy is a huge part of the economic environment.
So, we have to get past 2 levels: the political block, and then the personal block - and that’s what we’re doing. It’s challenging, but there are members of congress who are receptive to the issue and we’re trying to find those members and work with them.
LM: When is this next vote?
NG: This is where it gets tricky. The Farm Bill is supposed to be authorized in 2012 – that’s when it’s due to be authorized next. Of course 2012 is a legal action year, and you may have noticed that it’s hard to get things done in Congress.
So there has been some speculation that it may get pushed on to 2013. They’re trying to move the bill forward. It’s a long, complicated process because it has to go to the House committee before coming to a vote on the House floor and then the Senate committee vote and on the senate floor, and then they have to reconcile the Senate version and the House version of the bill. It could take a long time but we’re moving forward, assuming that the bill is going to be considered and passed in 2012.
LM: So, the main focus on this bill with PCRM is focusing on the nutrition with the HealthyBasics Plan approach?
NG: Absolutely. And the short term goal is to change the discussion, because right now when people are talking about food stamps, they don’t need to talk about nutrition. They talk about hunger.
And the real key here, that I think a lot of people are not considering, is that if we do get the Healthy Basics Plan implemented…if we give low-income people better options for eating healthy foods – which they don’t have right now - not only can we cut costs in the short term and make people healthier, but we can actually cut long-term costs. Because the numbers associated with diet-related diseases (although that is a long-term issue) are absolutely staggering, and they are crippling to our national deficit. If we can get those under control with good diet – which we believe we can - the effects of this plan, long term, could get our country out of the mess that we’re in right now.
LM: How do you answer when people say fruits and vegetables take too many of their food stamps and other foods don’t? Does that mean costs are going to be adjusted because people, the hungry people, aren’t thinking nutrition? How do you do that, other than with education?
NG: Well, education should be a part of it, and there already is nutrition education in the Farm Bill, and it should be dealt with more. But we want to make sure that nutrition education is the right kind of education because that’s the goal. Very recently the USDA was giving some pretty bad nutrition advice. But, they are heading in the right direction and we do think there should be more of it.
LM: Thank you very much for your time on this. Anything else that you want to add or want to make sure that is addressed here?
NG: We’ll put up a national alert for the SNAP issue and food stamp issue. Do you want me to send you a link to that alert?
LM: Yes! I want to be able to link readers to something that they can actually do…
How To Take Action Today
To convey to your legislators your support for change in the Farm Bill and SNAP Program: http://support.pcrm.org/snap
Be sure to send the link to this page to your friends and colleagues, share via twitter and facebook, and take the action you can today – we’ve made it easy for you!
Thanks for reading this post. Please join me on my facebook page here, too: http://www.facebook.com/lanimuelrath. See you there!
Lani Muelrath, M.A. is Vegan Mainstream’s Health & Fitness Expert. Watch for regular articles from Lani on how to be a strong, healthy, fit vegan. Articles, videos, and more from Lani at www.lanimuelrath.com.
Lani is also “The Plant-Strong Fitness Expert” of www.lanimuelrath.com and creator of Fit Quickies™. She has a Master’s Degree in Physical Education and over 30 years of experience as a teacher, coach, and trainer. She has received awards for her instruction, created and starred in her own CBS TV Show, and her expertise in the area of health and fitness is called upon by examiner.com, Dr. John McDougall’s Health and Medical Center, Dr. Neal Barnard’s 21-Day Vegan Kickstart program, the CHIP Program, and Engine 2 Diet.com. She is Certified in Plant-Based Nutrition Certification through Cornell University.
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