Dive Brief:
- Food Day celebrations are being held across the country today, as activists and others look to foster better food choices among Americans and to influence public policy.
- Food Day activities are designed to promote the consumption of fruits, veggies, whole grains and other healthy foods, while casting aspersions on sugary drinks, salty snacks, conventional meat production, etc.
- Food Day was started by the Center for Science in the Public Interest and does not accept financial support from industry. Food Day's "partner organizations" include nearly every food activist group in the country. The advisory board consists of a slew of politicians, nonprofit executives and a number of celebrity chefs. Only a handful of food executives participate.
Dive Insight:
Food Day's marketing material says the holiday is meant to promote a world with "shorter lines at fast-food drive-throughs and bigger crowds at farmers markets." We are 100 percent behind that. Few things trouble as much as the childhood obesity and the general ill health that plague this country.
Still, there's something about Food Day that rubs us the wrong way. And it is this: just a few days ago, on Oct. 16, was another "celebration." That one is called World Food Day, and it too calls for a more sustainable food system. But World Food Day focuses on ending global hunger. And the organization's vision is tied closely to that of Dr. Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Prize winner called "the man who saved a billion lives" and noted advocate for GMO crops.
And until we somehow manage to bridge the chasm between those who wish to feed healthier food to Americans and those who wish simply to feed the starving, Food Day doesn't seem like much of a holiday.