Oct 24, 2011

Food Day 2011: Facts to Share and Remember

Every day is food day. We should each be free to buy the food that best fits our values.

Access to abundant and affordable food, which comes from many different production methods, is necessary to ensure that millions of American families do not go to bed hungry.

Today’s food system works to address hunger and food insecurity, and to meet the challenge of feeding a growing global population.

Whether we choose food that is organic or vegan, prepackaged or fresh, locally grown or conventionally raised, from the supermarket or from the farmer’s market, we all want food that is safe, wholesome, raised in a responsible way, and meets our family's needs.

The best food choices for one family may not be right for another. We should support the right to choose the food that fits our lifestyle and our family budget.

Supporting a diverse food supply, raised using a variety of farming methods, is vital to ensuring that we all have access to affordable food. If we limit our ability to produce the food we need, we will increase hunger and food insecurity.

We cannot save family farms or feed a rapidly expanding global population by limiting farming methods or returning to outdated technology.

Placing restrictions on the U.S. food system that limit the ability to produce the food we need will increase the cost of food and limit healthy, affordable food choices for all of us, including those who can least afford it.

Supporting today’s food system in order to produce the food we need using fewer resources is the ethical choice for people, animals and the planet.

Today, one farmer produces enough food in one year to feed 156 people.

If we relied on the food production systems of 1950, as some are suggesting, approximately 150 million people living in the U.S. today would be without food. That’s everyone in the 13 largest U.S. states, hungry.

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