Be Patient, Food Activists (But Keep Pushing)

It is the job of activists to never be content, even when things are generally going their way. In that light, Paula Crossfield's critique of the Obama administration's food-policy initiatives seems reasonable enough.

People who were "hoping for deep improvements in our food system can point to only a few successes, while other policies that could lead to food insecurity are brewing in back rooms," she writes on her blog, Civil Eats.

Crossfield figured it was time for a one-year review, though it is a year tomorrow since Obama was elected. He took office only slightly more than nine months ago.

Is that really enough time to expect "deep improvements?" No. In fact, it would take two full Obama terms to even begin to transform the food system from one based on oil, monocultures, and industrial production into one based more on environmentally sound practices, crop diversity, and smaller, more local supply networks.

After ticking off the good and the bad—Obama's choices for various positions in the Agriculture Department and elsewhere that she either lauds or finds appalling (and she's pretty much correct in her assessments)—Crossfield notes all the great stuff Obama said during his campaign about transforming the food system, and how he has fallen short. And she concludes: "Maybe candidate Obama spoke out on food issues with the greatest of intentions, but didn’t realize the scale of the task at hand."

That might be true of many of us.