Food Matters Discussion - Cat Boyce

I attended the Food Matters, The True Cost of Industrializing our Food Supply panel discussion last Tuesday, March 10^th at the William Benton Museum.  I found myself sitting next to a prior student of Anne D’Alleva, as well as one of the panelists, Phoebe Godfrey. She raved about both D’Alleva and Godfrey, and after sitting through the panel, I could certainly see why. (If I had another semester, I would have loved the opportunity to take one of Professor Godfrey’s classes because it was so evident that she not only taught hands on but also really cared about her students and the issues).  The discussion featured moderator Shoshana Levinson, a dietitian, nutritionist and wellness coach, and panelists, Phoebe Godfrey, a Uconn Professor of Sociology, Fadi A. Al Khayer, who received his M.D. in endocrinology, specializing in research about diabetes and metabolism, and Renee Gross, Coordinator of Legal Initiatives at Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

Gross spoke first about her initiatives with food policy and obesity. What caught my interest about what she discussed was the conversation about taxing sugary drinks.  One town in California recently just passed the tax and Connecticut is watching closely how it plays out. According to Gross, Connecticut may be the first state to employ this tax if it seems as if it can work on a state level. The tax would only be applicable on regular soda (not diet) and any other sugary drinks such as lemonade. Gross also believes that companies should not be able to market sugary drinks or foods to vulnerable children. She shared surprising statistics that the average child sees 13 food commercials per day and teens more than 16 food commercials.  Out of that 13 food commercials, only 1 promotes healthy food, communities, schools, and family programs. Schools systems have been implementing new ideas for breakfast and lunch standards to fight childhood obesity. However, Industries complained that a lot more food would go to waste because the students would not want to eat their veggies. There was a study of 2 groups of children, one who wanted veggies without being told, and ones who didn’t ask for veggies. When the total volume of veggies handed out to students was the exact same, they didn’t see any increase in plate waste.  In addition, Gross reiterated the importance of supporting and having relationships with local farmers. She shared that local farmers in New York were willing to cut their prices down 40% to those individuals who use snap, food stamps to allow them access to local farmers markets and healthier food.

After Gross, Godfrey began illustrating the costs from our “food” today. These costs included farmers committing suicide as a result of being unable to support their families, industrialization of life, climate change refugees (over 300 million soon), food deserts, environment (pollution, climate change), animals (majority of people believe food comes from packages, animals have lost their sacredness), obesity vs. starvation, child slave labor, dairy cows, food culture, global inequalities, and more.  Godfrey had students from her sociology in food course dress up in a shirt stating the cost of their choice and then explaining its influence. One that caught my attention was the child slave labor cost. Apparently, some chocolate companies trick children into becoming slave labors. I’m appalled that that isn’t something I had known about until then. Additionally, one of the students wrote a poem about his friend who committed suicide attributed to food problems he was dealing with. As a result, a grad student in the audience shared that she was studying the relationship between obesity and suicide/mental health. I think this is really interesting topic because a lot of the statistics I have heard or learned about pertain strictly to the physical health, whether it be diabetes, stroke, high blood pressure etc. However, the two are definitely linked. Our society is so consumed with the commodity and culture of food, that it influences eating disorders, obesity, mental health and more. I was just having a conversation with someone the other day, about how all the businesses that prosper in my town are chains like McDonalds, and big businesses like WalMart. It is sad to see small local businesses go because of the competition.

Lastly, Khayer, emphasized how the US will become bankrupt from diabetes if something doesn’t change. 1 in 3 children born in 2000 will develop diabetes and according to him, diabetes is the most expensive illness.  It is currently a dilemma in China with over 100 million people suffering. However, he explained that in China, McDonalds is almost seen as a fancy restaurant to Americans. Khayer explained that if you have 3/5 symptoms of diabetes, you have metabolic syndrome. Some doctors don’t even tell their patients about this. It should be required because knowledge is power. They include blood pressure, sugar, waist circumference etc. Type 2 diabetes is now happening in children at age 5. It used to be known as not occurring in young people but that is rapidly changing. Our society has grown to be addicted to sugar and it is a huge problem. The mediator pointed out that when her mother died her son only remembered grandma as the “candy giver.” That story resonates with me because my mother’s mom died when I was really young, and all I remember was she would give me candy every time I came over. It’s unfortunate that kids are driven by candy and sugar now a days and that food has become so far removed from "food." I am glad I went to this panel discussion because it not only was interesting, but I learned a lot and it opened my eyes more about the problems and what is being done to fix them.