Silver Spoon
August Schumacher Jr.
Judith Weinraub reports.
| More 'Food Faces Change' articles in this issue |
| The Price Is Fright Is America's reliance on cheap food over? Looks that way, as an onrush of complex factors unloose a perfect storm of spiraling costs. Agriculture policy and World Bank veteran August Schumacher Jr., recipient of this month's Silver Spoon Award, scrutinizes the spinning weather vane with an eye to the future. |
| The Price of Purity Convinced that an ever greening public is willing to pay a little more, a young Argentine restaurateur is determined to take his organic concept national. |
| Seed Capital Heirloom tomatoes are much more than a menu item du jour or a glorious still life at the local farmers' market. They are part and parcel of preserving our agricultural heritage. Katy Keiffer reviews the definitive new book on the subject. |
| Awake at the Switch At a conference in Spain assessing the effects of global warming on wine production, Alan Tardi discovers that what's bad news for some is good news for others. |
| In for the Short Haul Careening fuel costs and demand for eco-friendly product are causing sharp swerves on the food distribution highway. Katy Keiffer spots some green lights at the end of long-distance tunnels. |
| Staving Off Extinction Biodiversity is more than a catchword, a liberal conceit, or a sentimental love of nature. It's a matter of life and death. Pulitzer Prize winning science editor Holcomb B. Noble reviews the new definitive work on the subject. |
| Plowing Toward Utopia Christopher Styler reports on the efforts to transform the American farm into a model of environmental enlightenment, community good, impeccable ethics, and, yes, gainful employment. |
| Massing Links Judith Weinraub speaks with environmentalist and social activist Paul Hawken about offtrack food practices and policies and what can be done to reverse them. |
| Weather Watch Agriculture savant Frederick Kirschenmann assesses the potential effects of climate change on farming in the United States and ways to ensure adequate food supplies in the future. |
Food Arts presents the June 2008 Silver Spoon Award for sterling performance to August "Gus" Schumacher Jr., the agricultural savant, farmer, farmers' market enthusiast, farmer-chef connector, and former government official who has brought more élan, intelligence, and political savvy to the American food system than just about anybody else. Both in and out of government, Schumacher has been guided by two passions: his conviction that all Americans deserve affordable healthy food and his unwavering support for local foods, the farmers who grow them, and the farmers' markets that sell them.
Schumacher grew up on a farm in Lexington, Massachusetts, and proudly notes earlier generations of his family who farmed on about five acres at 72nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan, and later on in Queens. As a public school student, he also worked on his father's farm—and so effectively that the gourds he grew as a teenager captured a first prize at a Massachusetts horticulture show even in competition with adults.
That achievement, and his ability to amass a $4,000 bank account by selling gourds, got him into Harvard—the only farmer in his class. What interested him there was the economics of farming, which, when he graduated, took him first to the London School of Economics, then to two stints at the World Bank. His career since then has included both local government service (as Commissioner of Food and Agriculture of Massachusetts) and federal (as Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services during the Clinton administration).
In each of his jobs, and as the consultant he is today, he has found ways to jump-start innovative programs. One with lasting impact provided added value to the existing Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Food Package in the mid-1980s by including vouchers (paid for with private funding he dug up) to be used for fruits and vegetables at four Massachusetts farmers' markets. That pilot, which was soon imitated in other states, has now morphed into a $452 million national program that will be fully operational in 2009.
That kind of out-of-the-box thinking might have had less impact if he hadn't also had a knack for friendships with politicians, scientists, farmers, and—these days—chefs and foundations, as well as the ease with which he's introduced them to one another. One high-impact project he's particularly passionate about is connecting some of America's newest farmers—immigrants from Southeast Asia and Africa—and their native produce to the dining rooms of fine restaurants nationwide.
Schumacher was quick to see that one of the best ways to reach the public and bring about changes in the food system was to educate journalists—and not only agriculture and business writers but also the often overlooked reporters on the food pages of American newspapers and magazines. His knowledge of the culture of farm life also made him recognize the power of the farm radio network, where he regularly could be heard.
