Food gets its own day
Organizers of Food Day are trying to create an Earth Day-like yearly event to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way.
Wed, Sep 28 2011 at 4:52 PM EST
Oct. 24, 2011 is the date for the first Food Day, a national day meant to spread the word that “It’s time to eat real, America!” The event has honorary co-chairs in U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin and U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro. The advisory board list is long and impressive. It includes food advocates such as Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle and Alice Waters, as well as several senators and congressmen, chefs, health advocates, business people and more.
There are six defined Food Day principles.
- Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy foods
- Support sustainable farms and limit subsidies to big agribusiness
- Expand access to food and alleviate hunger
- Protect the environment and animals by reforming factory farms
- Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids
- Support fair conditions for food and farm workers
Food Day is organized similarly to Earth Day. There will be scheduled events all across the country. To find an event near you, you can search by ZIP code on Food Day’s Find an Event page. Or, you can organize your own event and invite others. The website has many resources to help people plan their own Food Day local events.
In fact, the website has many resources including curriculum for schools, videos, promotional materials and more.
Mark Bittman mentioned Food Day yesterday in his Opinionator column, and he said that Slow Food is hoping to replicate the success they had with their $5 Challenge earlier this month once again on Food Day.
It looks as if there will be lots of options for participating in Food Day from creating a Slow Food meal that costs less than $5 to a huge Food Day Festival in Savannah, Ga., to a Progressive Bike Dinner in Tucson, Ariz., where bikers will stop at various places where the six principles will be discussed.
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