Tonight I had the wonderful pleasure to hear Navina Khanna (Director, HEAL Food Alliance; Plate of the Union), Nina F. Ichikawa (Policy Director, Berkeley Food Institute),
Michael Dimock (President, Roots of Change), and Anna Lappé (author and founder of Real Food Media) on an incredible panel discussing the future of food and food policy under the new administration.
In general all expressed concern about the significant cutbacks on the farm bill (under which the SNAP Program gets funded – SNAP offers nutrition assistance to millions of eligible, low-income individuals and families and provides economic benefits to communities), public school lunch programs, the future of farm workers, in edition to a litany of other causes and legislations. Although the systematic reversal of progress made under the Obama administration would take years to undo the situation is dire.
-Divya Pahwa