WANDA co-hosts Food Not Feed Summit

February 7, 2023 (Washington, DC)---WANDA (Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics and Agriculture) is proud to co-host the upcoming Food, Not Feed Summit held on February 7 and 8, 2023, on Capitol Hill and Hotel Kimpton Monaco. This summit will bring together a broad coalition of stakeholders, including farmers, workers, rural communities, animal advocates, environmentalists, faith organizations, and public health advocates.

Kicking off the Summit, U.S. Senator Cory Booker will provide remarks on realigning the farm program for a healthy food system. The Summit's goal is to advocate for a shift in government subsidies from feed grains in industrial livestock production to subsidies for vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, mushrooms, and cereal grains.

In holding its commitment, WANDA continues to advocate for Black women and their families since submitting recommendations to the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.

“For Black women and our communities, the Food, Not Feed Summit brings us together to create a more just and equitable food system. Currently, our food system doesn’t bring agriculture and nutrition working on a common agenda to feed the people, sustain the planet but instead prioritizes profit leading to poor health outcomes for our community and environment,” says Tambra Raye Stevenson, founder/CEO of WANDA. “That’s why we will continue to champion a Food Bill of Rights, especially in the upcoming Farm Bill to lay a roadmap for future food, nutrition, and agricultural policies that sustain us.”

Focusing on food security and resilience, the Food, Not Feed Summit offers a chance to create a more equitable food system that benefits all communities.

For instance, federal nutrition programs like USDA’s SNAP, MyPlate, and Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend a balanced diet that centers fruit and vegetables with healthy amounts of meat, grain, and dairy for all Americans. Yet the subsidized agriculture production of corn, soy, and wheat does the opposite, prioritizing animal feed, grains, and meat while leaving specialty crops to be imported from other countries at a high cost to Americans. The unfortunate consequence is an imbalanced food system that prices out fresh produce from Americans that our government recommends and instead makes ultra-refined produce more affordable, which makes it challenging for Americans to meet the government’s dietary guidelines.

To take action there are many ways for you to engage on this vital issue. The Summit offers an online event as a great starting point to learn about the current state of the food system and what can be done to create positive change. Additionally, you can follow WANDA and our 37 partner organizations, including Farm Action, for advocacy updates and opportunities. Finally, you can take action by speaking to your elected representatives and demanding that they prioritize food security and resilience in the 2023 Farm Bill discussions. You can learn more at farmaction.us/fair-farm-bill.

Follow the hashtags: #FoodNotFeed and #FarmBill. This is a critical moment to help shape the future of our food system, and we cannot do it without your support!

The 2023 Summit co-host organizations include:

Academia: Farm Bill Law Enterprise; Harvard Law School, Food Law, and Policy Clinic; Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future

Agriculture: American Grassfed Association; Farm Action; Farm Action Fund; Indiana Farmers Union; Kansas Black Farmers Association; Northeast Organic Farming Association of New Hampshire; Operation Spring Plant; Organic Seed Alliance; Ranch Foods Direct; Rural Coalition; Socially Responsible Agriculture Project

Animal Welfare: American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA); Farm Forward; The Transformation Project

Environment: Earthjustice; Environmental Working Group; Friends of the Earth; Re:wild; Sierra Club; Union of Concerned Scientists

Faith: American Friends Service Committee; Aytzim: Ecological Judaism; Hazon; Interfaith Power & Light; Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice

Food: Plant Based Foods Institute; Slow Food USA; Unified Fields

Health and Nutrition: Health Care Without Harm; Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine; Rural Empowerment Association for Community Health

Social Justice: American Sustainable Business Network; Food Integrity Campaign; Hand, Heart, and Soul Project; Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics and Agriculture (WANDA)

Workers: Alianza Nacional de Campesinas