Interview with Patty Lovera, Assistant Director Food and Water Watch
by ENewton on 11/26/09 at 10:13 am
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Making it easier for you to make the right choices
As much as we are in love with food, we have come to recognize that in today’s world, food is not only a source of pleasure, but an incredibly complicated issue. How are foodies to enjoy a gorgeous piece of sushi when worried if it will ever be on the menu again? Foodies are faced with issues such as genetically modified foods, sustainable agriculture, humane raising methods, organic, all natural…Figuring it out is a daunting task that can seriously put a damper on that gorgeous burger sitting on your plate. To get you some answers, we spoke to Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food and Water Watch. Their mission is to protect “our essential resources by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink and by helping people to take action to make a difference” will help us to enjoy the food on our plate.
FriendsEAT: A lot of people are drawn to social causes but for a variety of reasons don’t make such causes their profession. What was the turning point for you that made you professionally commit yourself to the issues Food & Water Watch embraces?
Patty Lovera: I have been working for nonprofit groups since I finished school, first on environmental issues and eventually food issues. I think food and water issues are incredibly compelling because everybody depends on these vital resources. And also, by talking about food and water you end up getting into so many other important issues, like environmental and economic policy.
FE: What areas of food safety has Food & Water Watch made the most traction on since it launched?
PL: I think we have made good progress on convincing the dairy industry to get rid of rBGH (an artificial hormone given to cows to make them produce more milk.) And I think public awareness of the impacts industrialized food production has on the quality and safety of our food has just exploded in the last couple years.
FE: What areas have proved to be more challenging than expected?
PL: Big ag gives up nothing without a fight. So we kind of expect things, even things that seem completely logical like telling consumers where their food comes from with country of origin labeling, to face opposition. And unfortunately, we’re usually right ….
FE: What, if any, changes in your personal eating/cooking/food shopping have you made since you joined Food and Water Watch? Were they difficult?
PL: I think the thing I have had to change the most since we started FWW is how I shop for seafood. Our fish team has educated me on lots of things to think about before picking seafood – there are lots of tips on this front on our website.
FE: Preventative health care could become a more common prescription if federal health care reforms are passed. Healthy eating is a key part of that. What role do you see Food and Water Watch taking if more focus is put on preventative health care?
PL: I hope we can help people figure out what good food choices are, and how we all need to be involved in changing our food policies so that everybody has access to healthy food.
Do your research to find out where they come from
FE: Words like “hormone-free,” “organic,” and “free-range” are showing up on more and more store shelves. How do you help consumers know that what they’re buying is really what it claims to be?
PL: This is a really important question because consumers are being bombarded with claims when they go to the store. The best advice is to get as close to the producer of the food as you can, so you can ask lots of questions. If you can’t (and most of us are in this position for at least part of the year), that’s when you need to figure out which labels are meaningful. A couple rules of thumb:
o USDA Organic is a label that has standards set by the government and is backed by an inspection system. We think it is a meaningful standard that gives you assurance that the product was made with specific standards being followed, including no synthetic pesticides, no GMOs, no irradiation, no artificial hormones or antibiotics given to animals.
o “Natural” really doesn’t mean anything.
o Third party claims can be really meaningful or really weak. You have to do some homework to figure out which ones are worth it. We have some advice on navigating labels on our website at http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/take-action/consumer-tools/decoding-food-labels/decoding-labels/how-much-do-labels-really-tell-you
o After a lot of years of fighting for it, now meat, fish and produce needs to be labeled with its country of origin. That is important information to know. And fish also has to tell you if it is farm-raised or wild caught – for most fish, wild caught is the way to go.
FE: There’s a huge economic factor involved in consumers choosing safer, locally-produced foods. How do you help people measure the value of food in healthfulness and not in dollars?
PL: I think this starts with education and helping people become aware of all of the costs of food production we don’t really see at cash register. For example, when animals are raised on factory farms the environment and the health of the surrounding community suffer, and even public health is impacted by things like antibiotic resistance. And on water issues, lots of folks never do the math on spending their money on bottled water, which actually turns out to be thousands of times more expensive than tap water, not to mention all those plastic bottles that pile up. So some of it is just helping people think through what the real costs of food are. And some of it is helping people think of different ways to shop – like spending less on processed food so you can use more of your budget on food that was produced in a way you support.
FE: Most foodies agree that besides being healthier, free-range, hormone-free animals simply taste better. What issues of food safety/sourcing are tougher to convince foodies of through taste alone?
PL: I find myself frequently saying that shopping well isn’t enough. And what I mean by that is that it is really important to vote with your dollars and support the kind of agriculture you believe in. But we also need to deal with some of the really fundamental policy problems that have led to the problems we have today in food – and we need to fix those by being involved as citizens as well as consumers. So things like pushing for antitrust enforcement in agriculture so that the big agribusiness players don’t get to run everything is something we can’t do at the store – we have to make our elected officials take this on.
FE: Foodies are info-hounds about their food — where it comes from, what’s in it, who made it. How do you help less-fanatical consumers get more interested in what they’re eating?
PL: I think the great thing about working on food issues is that it has a naturally huge constituency because everybody eats. So there is some self-interest for everyone, not just foodies, in making sure that food is safe and healthy. We all just need to find ways to get the word out and show people what they can do to get involved.
FE: As obsessed with food as foodies are, there are certainly things they’d be surprised to learn. Tell our readers a few things they should know about the meat and vegetables in their refrigerators and on their plates.
PL: I think a lot of people would be surprised by how far some of their food has traveled – even in the summer when we could be growing it here. We have a tool on our website called the Global Grocer that lets people guess what the odds are that really common foods are imported.
I think another thing a lot of folks don’t realize is how little of the money you spend on food actually makes it back to the farmer. The National Farmers Union calculates the “farmer share” of the food dollar and it is shockingly low, especially for food that is processed. For example, for a $3 bag of potato chips, only about 10 cents goes to the farmer who raised the potatoes.
FE: Food Inc has brought many of the food issues to the forefront. What have been the reactions of the companies mentioned in the film?
PL: Normally when they are criticized, agribusiness usually tries to claim that they are misunderstood, and that the methods they use are necessary to feed the world. There is some of that going on right now as lots of companies try to green up their image and promote GMOs and other technologies as being a way to address drought and other challenges.
FE: What would you recommend for busy people who want to take action?
PL: Pick a group (like Food and Water Watch!) and sign up for email alerts or other updates so they can let you know when there is an opportunity to take action. It doesn’t take very long and you can help let our elected officials know you want change in our food system.
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