Food fight! A teach-in about the 2007 Farm Bill moderated by Michael Pollan

Think the Farm Bill doesn't concern you? Think again.

Later this year, the President will sign an obscure piece of legislation that will determine what happens on a couple of hundred million acres of private land in America, what sort of food Americans eat (and how much it costs) and, ultimately, the health of the U.S. population. That piece of legislation is the farm bill, which, every five years, determines the rules by which the American food system operates, rules that end up affecting not only all of the people who eat in the U.S., but people all over the developing world. Typically, the farm bill is written with virtually no input from anyone beyond a handful of farm-state legislators. But this year, a coalition of public health, environmental, family farmer, community food security, development and immigration groups is weighing in.

Michael Pollan will moderate a panel discussion of the 2007 farm bill, now being debated in Congress, with guests Ken Cook, director, Environmental Working Group; Ann Cooper, Director of Nutrition Services for the Berkeley school system; Dan Imhoff, the author of Food Fight: The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill; Carlos Marentes, Director of Sin Fronteras Organizing Project; and George Naylor, Iowa corn farmer and president of the National Family Farms Coalition.

In addition to the panel, a wide variety of food-related groups will be on hand to pass out pamphlets, answer questions, and provide ways for citizens to take direct action on this year's farm bill.

The event will be webcast and archived here: http://webcast.berkeley.edu/events.php
Sponsored by the Knight Program in Science and Environmental Journalism