A real-life food revolution
Edit, 1:30 p.m.: Of all the posts to write the day Food, Inc. opens in Boston….
I’m trying to tread carefully here, because I am committed unto death to my farm share. I realized this for sure Wednesday—eighth year of CSA membership—when I bullied a friend into not buying potatoes or cucumbers because when you have a farm share you cook from the farm share and you do not buy other vegetables, excepting onions, garlic, and herbs. God am I a pain.
Also, professionally, I have several pitches out at the moment for local food stories, though it’s worth noting that my definition of traditional food includes the Dairy Queen by the Ipswich Clam Box.
That all said, I glanced at the top headline in my beloved NYT food section this week—“Urban Farming, a Bit Closer to the Sun”—and immediately my stomach revolted at reading a SINGLE NOTHER LOCAL FOOD/FARMING STORY. (I skimmed it anyway, just in case it covered something up here.)
All these stories in the Times, the Globe, the Atlantic, the Washington Post, etc. suddenly seemed like a dozen people trapped in a sealed room talking at each other. The NYT food-section reader doesn’t need another article on this topic. I quit after the first chapter of The Omnivore’s Dilemma because I’d already read Pollan’s argument in magazine excerpts, op-eds, and interviews. It’s become a rote chant of organic local small artisanal flavorful local sustainable. KRISTINA, I’M CALLING ON YOU HERE.
Yesterday, a Boston Localvores post made me think that maybe the snake’s eating its own tail. Evidence: last Sunday’s NYT magazine “Cooking with Dexter.”
Note that I find this entire column impossibly twee. This week, the author discloses that he can no longer afford to buy $35 chickens. The story revolves around a bizarre set of assumptions:
- If you support local/organic food, you should eat that and nothing but.
- You can’t buy this stuff without it costing an arm and a leg.
- You, reader, share this problem.
Until recently, whenever we went to the farmers’ market, we would lug home $50 pork roasts and $14 gallons of milk.
I’ll pause until you’re done giggling and/or gagging. Post-recession,
it’s supermarket milk for us, but so far we’re holding the line and sticking with organic.
Wells labels his new part-this-part-that shopping “schizophrenic” (a term, incidentally, neither polite nor accurate). Does he think that’s unusual, or wrong? No one follows Alice Waters-style scowling admonitions. Who doesn’t buy ordinary conventional items at an ordinary store? News at 11!
Not only is an all-or-nothing attitude obnoxious, out of touch, and off-putting, but it doesn’t spread the gospel healthier food. The goal, I thought, was to put EBT card-readers in farmers’ markets and supermarkets into lower-income areas. To get fresh food to people who barely eat it, not give the 95th percentile that last little boost. (Hey Bostonians, did you know isolated Eastie has only one supermarket? News to me.)
Finally, articles like this obscure the fact that you can find some inexpensive local, organic food. One Salon writer, as a Localvore commenter posted, even did it on the food-stamp minimum. Duh-huh, meatballs cost less than big hunks of pork. Yo, did I buy the Stillman’s leaf lard in part because it cost a whole lot less than the roasts? Of course I did.
Similarly, farm shares are way cheaper than buying produce at a farmers’ market. Red Fire costs $26/week for more vegetables than three adults can eat.
Two summers ago, I sat in my sweltering kitchen in a damp tank top eating lunch and listening to NPR. The commentator said, “… and then I drizzle the nuts with a really good honey.” I immediately imagined myself saying, in those same soothing tones, “… and then I drizzle the nuts with the honey from the plastic bear I got at Market Basket.” Ever since then I have joked that someone should give me a food column based on that philosophy—call it “Farm Share + Market Basket.” (If you agree and have a column to give, uh, y’know, don’t keep it to yourself.)
Red Fire opened the Boston shares back up, by the way. If you want to join the farm share + Market Basket revolution.
xx
djd
p.s. To non-locals (ha), Market Basket is famous for being wicked inexpensive.
p.p.s. Details from that NYT Alice Waters interview. Still rankles two years after I read it.
Most recipes seem to be built on salt, black pepper, olive oil, fresh herbs and garlic. But they have to be specific kinds, like chunky gray sea salt for boiling water…. [Waters says] it’s useless to coat frozen chicken nuggets with whole-wheat bread crumbs.
Funny, Somerville schools are doing pretty much that and are quite excited about it to boot.
Filed under: it's what's for dinner, media | 2 Comments
You got me thinking, and here is my response, of sorts: http://noglutenrequired.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-should-we-eat.html
I don’t see local, organic, sustainable as all or nothing scenarios. In fact, I probably exemplify Danielle’s farmshare + Market Basket pseudo philosophy on eating. When you can, eat locally/organically/sustainably, but those words, rules and guidelines cannot be fixed. I think that might be my biggest problem with Michael Pollan is that he [attempts to] offer(s) universal rules that people in America should follow. But for ever rule that he, Alice Waters, or [insert food critic/chef/nutritionist/food movement/diet trend or fad HERE] offer up, the food industry can quickly subvert and/or capitalize on.
Remember when the word natural meant something?
Then came ads like the 7-up bunny burp and the Now 100% Natural commercials, which now have been replaced with Snapple’s better stuff commercials that imply they have found new and better ingredients, sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. (Pepsi throwback is following suit.)
So natural is out.
Organic has been co-opted by the USDA to mean something, but not really in the true spirit of the word – not to mention the fact that most small farms cannot afford the fees required to obtain that green circle of approval.
As much as I can disagree with Mr. Pollan on many things, his “everything is local somewhere” comment rings true with the confusing and manipulating usage of the word. (Is something really local if the feed/soil, pesticides and insecticides used to create it were created elsewhere and shipped across the state, or the country?)
Is sustainable just the latest fad word or marketing gimmick that is going to battle it out with “bio dynamic” or “minimally processed” for some sort of food authenticity?
QUESTION: What should we believe and eat?
ANSWER: I don’t know.
Ok, that is really unfair. I eat, you can tell because I need those calories to blog. I have the free time to blog, so you know that I am able to collect enough food to not be spending this typing and thinking time working or procuring food. Yet I have to think about food and what I eat 3+ times a day because eating cannot be a mindless act when there are foods and food additives that can make me very sick.
Do I think about food more than most people? Probably.
Can I afford to eat the way I feel I should? No.
Does this mean I throw up my hands when I cannot afford a $35 chicken? No.
So, how do I eat?
Before moving to Chicago for the summer I had a diet is not easy to categorize, but here goes:
-greens, I try to eat these at least three times a week
-cheap, I shop at 4-6 different grocery stores and co-ops
-June-October/November I visit 3 different weekly farmers markets – my egg consumption rises during these months
-fish, I try to eat it once every week or two
-meat – I eat it about 2+ times a week. The Austin Farm family bring their meat to the Central Square Farmer’s Market in Cambridge, MA and its the best beef I have ever tasted. I probably eat more meat in the summer for this very reason.
-dairy – I don’t eat a ton of this, but Kate’s butter is my favorite and worth the price
-processed foods – if its a new gluten-free product AND its on sale I have a tough time not buying it and trying it out. I probably eat more processed foods now than before I had to go gluten-free
-organic, I buy it when I can (availability and price); but this goes out the window when the farmer’s markets come into town
-coffee – I love it. I drink it daily and it is not grown in New England, nor are most of the spices or gluten-free flours I use.
Are my dietary habits local or sustainable?
Sorda.
Local/Sustainable:
+I buy from a co-op & farmers markets
-Most gf products are not made in New England
+Buying more gf products might make their cost go down and make them more of an option for those that need them, thus more sustainable for the gf community
See how it gets into that tricky “sorda” area real fast?!
While it is endlessly complicated and perhaps there are no simple answers, I love talking about these problems. It is probably the biggest thing I miss about not being in school, but I am glad for it to be happening if only in cyberspace.
I really enjoyed this post a lot.
I have a lot more I’d like to say right now, but I’ve got other more pressing tasks, sadly. So I’m just going to say, right on.