REGISTER EDITORIAL

Editorial: Why don't candidates talk about food?

The Register's editorial

The first-in-the nation caucuses are held in one of the world’s great agricultural centers, yet presidential candidates almost never discuss issues around food.

The closest we’ve come this cycle is a question raised by a Nebraska fifth-grader who blamed “lunch lady” Michelle Obama for taking his crispitos. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took a bold stand against that.

What we eat and how it’s produced are not jokes. These questions involve many of the nation’s major issues — including health care costs and quality, the federal debt, pollution, jobs and immigration — and they require leadership on the presidential level.

Americans want to change the food system. That’s the conclusion of research by Lake Research Partners and Bellwether Research and Consulting, which conducted focus groups last year in Des Moines; Raleigh, N.C.; and Denver, Colo.. The group also did nationwide polling and found:

  • 45 percent say their top priority is changing the food system to make healthy foods more affordable.
  • 81 percent are very concerned that one-third of children today will develop type-2 diabetes.
  • 75 percent are very or somewhat concerned that five of the eight worst-paying jobs in America are in the food system.
  • 75 percent favor government incentives to encourage sustainable farming practices that protect the environment.
  • 50 percent want to limit government subsidies to the largest farm businesses.

These views were expressed across party lines, and they should be heeded by candidates. So why aren’t they talking about it?

Steve Anderson started farming in the 80's amid the farm crisis that forced many farmers to look elsewhere for income. Anderson's trucking company provided a steady income as he grew his farm in and around Beaman, Iowa which now encompasses over 3,000 acres. Here he harvests commercial corn from land his family owns in Beaman on Thursday, September 24, 2015.

Perhaps candidates are afraid they would be seen as criticizing farmers. Yet many farmers recognize they’ve been the victims of an industrialized farming system, said Ricardo J. Salvador, a former Iowa State University agronomy professor who is director and senior scientist of the Food & Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

These farmers have watched their risks grow and their independence erode, forced to raise pigs or other livestock under contract to big companies. They’ve seen consolidation contribute to closed schools, shuttered stores and hollowed-out communities.

Another wave of consolidation is sweeping through agriculture, and it will have ramifications throughout the food chain. It’s creating tremors through the top levels of Iowa’s government. One proposed merger, between giants Dow and DuPont, is causing thousands of job cuts and is pitting Des Moines against other cities to become the combined companies’ ag headquarters.

Change requires taking on corporate lobbyists. Salvador’s group has launched a Plate of the Union initiative to get the issue of healthful, sustainable food in front of voters and candidates.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders takes questions from the students on Thursday, January 28, 2016, during a visit to Des Moines Roosevelt High School.

While no candidate has taken on these issues in a comprehensive way, one gets credit for tackling a piece of the problem. Sen. Bernie Sanders often discusses how he helped improve conditions for farm workers in Immokalee, Fla. Migrants were kept in slave-like conditions to assure that we all could afford to eat tomatoes in January.

What will it take to get politicians to talk about butter as much as about guns?

It will depend on voters. We’ll have to ask more hard questions about how we get our food, and we must demand more than bite-size answers.