People are working to make the region's agricultural system healthy...
...and resilient enough to produce quality food without expensive or toxic inputs.
This statement was based on a passage from "Opportunities for Leadership, Learning, and Impact."
Approximately 1.7 million pounds of atrazine and 3 million pounds of acetochlor were spread on Minnesota fields in 2005. Both are linked to birth defects and cancer in animals and humans and have been banned in the European Union. Farmers, their families, and the community are exposed to these pesticides through the application process and beyond. Families are at-risk from pesticide residues, for example, from an act as benign as washing a farmer’s clothes in the family laundry. Similarly, the community can be exposed to application drift and groundwater contamination. One of every five wells tested in southeast Minnesota by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency contains nitrate levels higher than the state health standard.It is also reflected in statements from the Minnesota Corn Grower's Association (on a previous version of their webpage)...
Farmers live where they work, so they drink the water, breathe the air and eat the food raised there. They have a very personal stake in keeping our environment healthy... Farmers strive to achieve what is know as a sustainable circle of agriculture. This is an interdependent system of crops, livestock and people that provides items essential to society while maintaining the health of our environment....the Land Stewardship Project...
The Land Stewardship Project believes a community based food system is a just food system: one in which food is produced with a high level of stewardship for our soil and water, and with justice for all people. A just food system honors the flavor, texture and aroma of food produced at a community scale, and celebrates the place and the people who produce it....the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy...
We are working to stop the overuse of antibiotics in agriculture and aquaculture, while limiting the release of mercury and other toxic pollutants that fall onto farmland and enter the food supply. IATP is also monitoring the impact of genetically engineered crops on the environment, human health and farmer income....and Slow Food.
Our food should nourish a healthful lifestyle and be produced in ways
that preserve biodiversity, sustain the environment and ensure animal
welfare – without harming human health... Our food should be affordable by all, while respecting the dignity of labor from field to fork.
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