The purpose of this panel is to enlighten and empower our fellow progressives with the information they need to start making a difference now. It will be a sobering but ultimately uplifting session on sustainability. The panel will provide an overview of how industrial agriculture has turned food into a "cheap" commodity with a very high hidden price tag. Genetically modified crops and other "better living through chemistry" boondoggles are being foisted on us despite growing evidence that these "innovations" have serious downsides. Our current system of food production is, in fact, an environmental catastrophe which makes it harder, not easier, for farmers, ranchers and fishermen to produce the foods we need to be well-nourished. After bumming everyone out by exposing the corrosion and corruption in our current food chain, we'll highlight the "agrivists," the social movements on the frontlines of the real food revolution and the blogosphere's critical role in harnessing people power to make a true difference in America?s diet.

This panel is truly the culmination of years of work by the netroots community. For this reason, I am going to introduce you to our panelists in a bit of an unconventional way - by telling a story. Hopefully it will convey how many people contributed to the panel in many different and unique ways.

And now... drumroll... meet your panelists!

Tom Philpott
Tom Philpott is the food editor at Grist - but he doesn't just talk the talk; he also walks the walk as a full-time farmer at Maverick Farms. Rather than paraphrasing, I'll let Maverick Farms speak for itself:

Maverick Farms formed in spring 2004 to preserve a small farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, an area under intense pressure from development. It operates as an open laboratory, experimenting with human-scale farming techniques and traditional food preparation.

Maverick Farms works to reclaim the pleasures of eating and sharing meals in a culture overrun by industrial agriculture and flavorless food. The project arose out of Springhouse Farm, which for 30 years sold hand-picked vegetables to local restaurants. Maverick Farms is continuing with that tradition while embarking on new education and outreach projects to connect local food producers and consumers.

In addition to being thrilled to have a panelist of Tom's fantastic credentials, I am also excited to finally hear him speak in person for a more personal reason. Around February 2006, a blogger on DailyKos encouraged me to start writing a series about food and politics. I shrugged off the suggestion because I didn't think that food had very much to do with politics.

Around that time, Tom contributed an article called "I'm Hatin' It" to a series Grist was doing about poverty and the environment. The article described how America's agricultural policy leads to a glut of cheap corn, and how that cheap corn turns into cheap empty calories that we Americans consume. It's not just the poor that love Coca-Cola, McDonald's, and Krispy Kreme, but it's the poor who very often don't have any other choices.

That article, along with a few others I found, fascinated me. Those articles became the topic of my very first "Vegetables of Mass Destruction" diary and it struck a chord with our community because it addressed a social issue many of us care about that people (like I did) don't often think to connect to politics. In that way, Tom's article gave birth to a movement among Kossacks that snowballed into this panel, and it seems only right that he will be our guest in Chicago.

Dr. Marion Nestle
If you've been reading my diaries over the past year and a half, there's a good chance you've read quotes by Dr. Nestle. Way back when I first got interested in food, Chapel Hill Guy confessed that his wife writes a food blog called On The Table. Mrs. Chapel Hill Guy agreed to chat with me on the phone, and upon hearing of my interest in food and politics, she told me a book existed called Food Politics. The author, of course, is Marion Nestle. It seems so long ago and yet I still remember sitting there, asking how to spell "Marion" so I could go find the book.

Sure enough, Dr. Nestle wrote not only Food Politics, but also Safe Food and her latest, What To Eat. Together, those three books form a veritable food bible, with oodles of details covering practically every topic faced by those hoping to reform our food system (as well as those simply trying to figure out what to eat). I might add that she can also boast a cameo in the movie Supersize Me.

Dr. Nestle earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition both from UC-Berkeley. In the past, Dr. Nestle worked as a nutrition policy adviser at the Department of Human and Health Services. From 1988 to 2003, she chaired the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU. Today she remains in that department as the Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health.

Way back when the someone suggested a food panel for YKC07, Marion was on the top of my wishlist for potential panelists, but I had no idea how a lowly blogger might go about approaching one of the top names in food policy. Easy, as it turns out. Last September, one of her colleagues at NYU emailed me and introduced herself as a fellow Kossack who thought we might be able to get Dr. Nestle involved. THAT was when I fell out of my chair.

I might be Dr. Nestle's #1 adoring fan at the convention (yes, I keep my copy of Food Politics next to my bed), but I hope you join me in giving her a fabulous welcome in Chicago.

Kerry Trueman
Kerry Trueman is not only a passionate sustainable food advocate, she is also one of us in the netroots! She co-founded Eating Liberally (sister organization to Drinking Liberally), a netroots website and organization that advocates sustainable agriculture, progressive politics, and a less consumption driven way of life.

Since making her acquaintance, I call her an angel, but perhaps Reverand Billy of the Church of Stop Shopping (and star of Morgan Spurlock's upcoming documentary "What Would Jesus Buy?") was more correct when he annointed her a saint. I shower her with this accolade because I've watched her work diligently to set up this panel over the past year; Reverend Billy does so for her famous impromptu, unsolicited sermons on sustainability.

Kerry also wrote about gardening and environmental issues for a little newspaper you may have heard of called Financial Times and blogged about food and gardening for Lime.com. She is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and Eating Liberally and she is also a member of NYC's Food Systems Network, a coalition working for sustainable agriculture and a fair, healthy food system for everyone.

Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey:
I am proud to announce that Rep. Woolsey, the co-chair of the Congressional Progressiv Caucus, will join us as our fourth panelist. Visit her website and you'll see in the first line of her bio that she is "the first former welfare mother to serve in Congress." That experience, as explained in the paragraph below, shaped her understanding of the need for prioritizing issues related to children and families in Congress.

Congresswoman Woolsey?s dedication to family issues and her belief in a strong social safety net are rooted in her personal history.  As a young single mother struggling to raise three children by herself, she needed public assistance just to make ends meet, even though she was employed.  The experience of needing a helping hand from her government has shaped her commitment to family-friendly policies.

Wow! After six years of living with the Republican definition of "family-friendly," isn't it refreshing to meet someone who empathizes with the working poor and their families. How does this relate to food? Well, in addition to the problems faced by folks like Tom Philpott who grow our food, there are also numerous issues for Americans who eat our food. In her 8 terms representing Marin and Sonoma counties, Rep. Woolsey has been a champion for universal school breakfast and other solutions to help ensure that we can all put food on our families.

Last but not least:
I'll be serving as your moderator during this panel. Here's a brief history on my own involvement in food issues:

For me, a love of cooking and eating food merged with a passion for protecting the environment and championing other progressive issues a few years ago. At first, I merely went vegetarian, hoping to decrease my impact on global warming and to offset my guilt for hating public transportation. Over the next year, I read books like Fast Food Nation, and ultimately the straw that broke the camel's back was a trip I took to Hawaii where I spent a week working in a Honolulu cardiac ICU.

I'd seen CDC data tracing the rise of obesity from 1985 to present, and after seeing the luxury vacations so many Hawaiian tourists enjoyed in the ICU, I began to wonder how in the world our health as a nation had declined so rapidly. Surely neither human genes nor human nature had changed in the span of a few decades - so what was it? That question got me going and I was soon joined by dozens of others in the netroots community who were wondering the same thing. Over the past year, we've come together to create the platform expressed on Recipe For America. Together, we've reached this point on our journey, and I look forward to working with all of you at YearlyKos and beyond.

Beyond the Panel: Other Food-Related Fun in Chicago
There are a few other ways you can experience sustainable food in Chicago this August - including eating it! Our agenda kicks off with a pre-YearlyKos meetup. More details are here but, in short, the details are:

Green City Market
Where: Lincoln Park (directions)
What: Chicago's sustainable Green City Market
When: Wed, Aug 1, from 12pm-1:30pm
Who: Whoever wants to come! So far my mom's RSVP'd :)

Shedd Aquarium
This has nothing to do with food (OK, no jokes about eating the fish) but I grew up in Chicago and I'm dying to return to an old favorite of mine. It's a nice way to spend the afternoon on Wed, Aug 1 between checking out the market and having dinner. Most likely we'll get there around 2pm or just after, and we'll probably stay until about 5pm or so (maybe a bit later if it's really captivating).

Dinner at Green Zebra
Green Zebra is sustainable, delicious, and both omnivore- and vegetarian-friendly. We should make it there from the aquarium around 6 or 7ish, and since it's a Wednesday, hopefully it won't be crazy crowded. I just checked the menu and I had to stop looking before my drooling made a mess, but here's a short selection of what you can expect:

Sweet Parsnip Soup, with vanilla parsnip panna cotta $8
Creamy Sunchoke Raviolis, melted goat cheese, hazelnuts and fresh dates $13
Slow Roasted Shittake Mushrooms, in crispy potato with savoy cabbage $13

1460 W. Chicago Ave
312-243-7100
Gourmet, Veg-friendly
Bus: 66 to Bishop
Driving: Starting at the Hyatt, take I-55 S to I-90/I-94 towards Wisconsin. Then take I-90 to exit 49B (Milwaukee Ave/Augusta Blvd/1000 N) and get on W Augusta Blvd. Turn left on N Noble St and right on W Chicago Ave.

If you'd like to join up at some point during the day, please email me for my cell phone number. To make myself easy to recognize, I'll be wearing a Vegetables of Mass Destruction shirt (pictured at the bottom of this diary).

If you miss the outing before the convention, don't despair. I've put together a list of liberal restaurants that you might want to check out. The link here gives you my rough draft - I integrated all of the comments from the diary and turned it into a 1-page handout that I will have about 300 copies of at YearlyKos (not one for everyone, but I didn't want to kill a whole rainforest over it). If you'd like the final copy, email me.

<u>T-Shirts</u>
The Gryffin (a brilliant artist!), created a Vegetables of Mass Destruction T-shirt design, spoofing Dr. Strangelove. You may have seen it before, since we announced it back in March, but now we've added a back to the shirt that says "Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Industrialized Agriculture." I'll have a small supply to sell at the convention, or you can get 'em here.

We've also added a new shirt this week that says "Every Time You Shop at Wal-Mart, God Kills a Kitten." Let me know if you want me to hold a shirt for you - email me and please tell me your size. I'll have 3 different designs - the two mentioned here and a commemorative Chicago 2007 shirt with a subliminable message to impeach Bush and Cheney.

The Recipe for America Site

Back last fall, several of us started working together in preparation for YearlyKos, and among the fruits of our labor is the website RecipeForAmerica.org (created by the very talented Marrael). It's meant to be the Energize America of food. Along with a few others, I've been adding content to the site as I have been able throughout the year. Now it's fairly fleshed out and with YearlyKos coming up soon as well as the Farm Bill debate going on, I've been adding News updates to the front page of the site and new links on the individual issue pages a few times a week. I'd love to see more people get involved - you can log in to obtain the ability to comment and add links to the site.

That's about it from me, for now. I hope everyone else is as excited as I am for our convention and for our panel! See you in Chicago!!