The Politics of Food

When one hears the Farm Bill mentioned, what comes to mind? What comes to my mind is legislation that helps keep our agricultural heritage alive as well as the flow of natural products that feed and nourish us. We do after all depend on farmers to supply us with not only fresh produce but also the products such as wheat, corn, and soybeans that go into other food items.

This is all true. But what if we were to dissect the Bill a little further? Could it be true that the Farm Bill is a contributing factor in the national epidemic of obesity and diabetes? Are we as taxpayers subsidizing the fast food industry? Michael Pollan, author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” maintains that now is the time to reexamine the Farm Bill and expose its inadequacies. Pollan looks at the bill in terms of its trickledown effect regarding its impact on public health, the environment, and global poverty.

Check out Pollan’s interview, The Politics of Food, with Robin Young on WBUR’s Here and Now. The Farm Bill is up for reexamination in September. Now is the time to become fully educated on its impact and consider what we can do to move it in the right direction.

Early Intervention and Behavioral Health

How important is early intervention? Ask a caregive of a child with mental illness and they will tell you that it is never too early. According to a 2001 report from the US Surgeon General, one in ten children and adolescents suffer from mental illness but fewer than one in five of these children are treated.

This week in Massachusetts a hearing was held on an act Improving and Expanding Behavioral Health Services for Children in the Commomwealth. The goal of this act is to reach children wherever they are and give them uniformly excellent care.

This bill would call for more early intervention, helping families quickly identify and treat a child’s mental illness. The bill asks pediatricians to screen for behavioral health problems and would require Medicaid to pay for these screenings. In addition, it would require that behavioral health consultants be provided for preschools and child-care programs.

We have already witnessed the success of early intervention through programs such as Head Start. Early detection of behavioral health issues would give these children a head start treating an illness that could possibly be with them for their whole lives.

UU Youth and Adults Lobby Massachusetts State House, at 4th Annual Legislative Action Day

Promise the Children hosted our fourth annual Legislative Action Day (LAD) on Tuesday, April 17th. It was a wonderful experience with a terrific group of youth and adults. Unitarian Universalist teens came from around Massachusetts to lobby their state legislators on two issues: protecting marriage equality, and reforming high school graduation requirements. In all, twenty-five Unitarian Universalists took part in the Legislative Action Day.

Our day began with morning workshops at the First Church in Boston, Unitarian Universalist. We analyzed the two pieces of legislation on which we would lobby.

First, we discussed the proposed constitutional amendment to reverse marriage equality. Unitarian Universalists throughout the state are firmly committed to protecting equal marriage, and we role-played how we would talk with our legislators about the danger of the amendment.

Second, we discussed a piece of legislation that would change high school graduation requirements to de-emphasize the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests. (This bill is H.561). To help us understand this legislation, we had a special presentation from Lisa Guisbond of FairTest. Several of the youth in attendance spoke passionately about why standardized testing is a flawed assessment of a student’s academic abilities and progress.

In the afternoon, our group walked from First Church, across Boston Common, to the Massachusetts State House. The group then split up by district and met with legislators. Youth and adults reported that the meetings were worthwhile and productive.

To celebrate, we finished the day with ice cream sundaes at First Church (yummy!) and writing thank-you notes to the legislators and their staff. I left feeling proud of our group for lobbying on these important policies, and for the cooperation and enthusiasm that every one of the participants brought to this day.