FW: A Modest Proposal for Sustainable Eating

[Guest guest]

 

 

 

A Modest Proposal for Sustainable Eating

by Katrina Heron

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SAN FRANCISCO

- No one knows less about food than us. We, the American people, having

inherited an extraordinary and unprecedented wealth of native and immigrant

culinary traditions and knowledge - a kind of Alexandrian library of edible

wisdom - no longer know how to feed ourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We love fast food, whether it’s from a drive-through

or a grocery aisle, and it’s really bad for us. It’s bad for our health, our

culture, the environment. In short, it’s unsustainable.

 

 

But our once-diverse food lore and skills have been

scattered to the four winds. Our taste buds have been jammed on salt, sugar

and every conceivable molecular permutation of corn. We literally eat

petroleum-derived substances, and ask for more.

 

 

 

 

 

This is how we got here: Over the past couple of

decades, processed food became more affordable, thanks to economies of scale,

logistics and transportation developments, cheap oil and government crop

subsidies, especially for corn, which quickly became the staple of our new

national diet. This, in turn, further centralized farm operations,

threatening the markets for small farmers and the preservation of a diverse

food supply.

 

 

 

 

 

Essentially, the food economy was turned upside

down, so that now, a cheeseburger and fries at a fast-food chain can cost

less than a pound of sustainably and locally grown tomatoes.

 

 

How do we kick our fast-food addiction and

re-establish a relationship with what’s good for us and good for the planet?

 

 

Most of us are stuck somewhere in the grief cycle.

Find your spot:

 

 

 

 

 

Denial: “There’s nothing

wrong with the food system.”

 

 

Anger: “I don’t have time

for this.”

 

 

Depression: “I can’t do

anything about it.”

 

 

Bargaining: “What am I

supposed to do?”

 

 

Acceptance: “We have to

fix this.”

 

 

 

 

 

More and more, people seem to be grouping at the

last stage. That’s good news - but where do we go from here?

 

 

It’s actually easier than it looks to start making a

difference now. This was the impetus for Slow Food Nation, an expo and

conference that we’re modestly billing as the largest celebration of food in

history. We home in on celebration, because the pleasures of real food are

the ultimate seduction, and because there’s a little word in protective

custody in California

- fun.

 

 

 

 

 

Staged over Labor Day weekend at Fort Mason and

on Civic

Center

Plaza

in San Francisco

- where the Slow

Food

Nation

Victory

Garden

is already flourishing - the event is part detox program and part renewal

agenda. Citizens, who are the heart of the event, will come away with a new

awareness about food, ready to follow a 10-point checklist, shown on the

preceding page, that makes the user-friendly South

Beach

diet look complicated.

 

 

 

 

 

The 10-point checklist goes on, of course, and

people can and should make priorities according to their personal means and

interests.

 

 

 

 

 

For example, a precious item on my list is: Teach

children what you know. In 2001, I started working with the restaurateur and

food activist Alice Waters on her campaign to feed American kids healthy and

delicious meals and reinvent the public-school lunch program.

 

 

 

 

 

The Edible Schoolyard is a hands-on gardening and

cooking program integrated into the public-school curriculum, teaching kids

the principles of ecology, the origins of food and the cycles of all living

things. It also shows that we care to nurture our children and respect their

future.

 

 

 

 

 

Once you’ve reconnected with the basics of real

food, the larger and much more complicated problems surrounding our

industrial food system begin to come into focus. I think it’s here that most

people throw up their hands - and relapse in the grief cycle, looping back

into citizen paralysis.

 

 

 

 

 

The large-scale problems are indeed daunting: Type 2

diabetes in the wrong age bracket, diet-induced obesity, death lurking in a

bag of spinach, feedlot and slaughterhouse cruelty, famine, food scarcity and

cost, the loss of biodiversity, the environmental and human-health impact of

industrial farming’s fatal chemical dependence. But if we learn about the

benefits - cultural and biological - of a diverse food supply, if we empower

ourselves, through our own actions, to consider real food a right and not a

privilege, then we can demand action from our political leaders.

 

 

 

 

 

At Slow Food Nation, we’ll unveil a Healthy Food and

Agriculture Declaration, orchestrated by Roots of Change as a response to the

farm bill, which will be posted on August 28 at www.fooddeclaration.org for

public comment. We chose Labor Day weekend in homage to the harvest season

and because farmers, who are the soul of the event, told us this was one of

the few times of the year they could spare. But if citizens are the heart and

farmers the soul of Slow Food Nation, political leaders are the target.

 

 

 

 

 

We also chose Labor Day weekend because, on the eve

of the presidential election, we intend to send a strong message that food

policy reform is a critical priority for the next administration, paramount

in the creation of a just and sustainable food system.

 

 

 

 

 

The most important goal of this event is to restore

the personal, visceral connection each of us has to real food, the hunger for

it, the taste and the joy of it. But what really matters is what happens when

we all go home. Our shared goals need to be taken up in the legislatures, the

halls of Congress and the Oval Office. We know it, and they know it. It’s

time for a New Meal.

 

 

Here are some of the upcoming highlights of The

Chronicle’s coverage of the gathering Aug. 29-Sept.1. Note- books and blogs

are also planned in The Chronicle and on SFGate.com for the week of Aug. 24:

 

 

 

 

 

Preview: The first ever U.S.

event on the viability of sustainability, the benefits of eco-friendly

farming, and the flavors of artisan foods.

 

 

The event: The Food

section’s “The Fast Track Guide to Slow Food,” featuring what to see, what’s

for free and who the players are.

 

 

Food summit: Some of the

brightest food minds gather for wide-ranging dialog on nutrition, poverty,

the Farm Bill, even the salmon crisis.

 

 

Programs: Fifty thousand

descend on S.F. to sample the Slow Food farmers’ market, specialty food

pavilions, workshops and talks by renowned authors, nutritionists and

activists.

 

 

 

 

 

Ten points to better health

 

 

1. Know what you’re eating.

Find out where it comes from and what’s in it. Think about what’s in season

now - what’s ripe, not just fresh. A lot of these foods will turn out to be

local.

 

 

2. Get cooking. And try

making things from scratch. You’ll save money and rediscover skills you

forgot you had.

 

 

3. Plant something. It

could be an herb pot on your kitchen counter or, if you have space at home, a

small kitchen garden, or a communal plot in your neighborhood that you tend

with family and friends. (The Victory

Garden

on Civic

Center

Plaza

is a landscape of ideas, staffed by experts who can guide your hands to the

soil.)

 

 

4. Pack a bag lunch.

 

 

5. Drink tap water. It’s

healthier for you, and it’s free.

 

 

6. Learn about and celebrate the food traditions

your family still possesses. These are like seeds,

long stored and just waiting to be planted.

 

 

7. Invite someone to share a meal. Strengthen the

bonds of friendship and community by cooking and eating together.

 

 

8. Learn about endangered foods and how we can bring

them back to our tables.

 

 

9. Conserve, compost and recycle.

 

 

10. Vote with your fork.

 

 

Slow Food mission

 

 

“Slow Food” considers itself both a movement and a

message - an alternative to fast food, industrial agriculture and the

standardization pressures that it believes threaten local food variety and

traditions as well as the health of humans and the planet. Slow Food Nation

plans to encourage individuals to get involved in the food debate and to call

for new initiatives from national leaders. It is urging the government to:

 

 

– Identify and support food practices that are good,

clean and fair - that is, that produce healthful and delicious food, humanely

and without harm to the environment, in a manner that is socially just to

both producers and consumers.

 

 

– Ensure access to affordable, nutritious food for

all - especially to residents of many low-income areas, commonly known as

“food deserts,” where fresh food is unavailable.

 

 

– Provide and maintain resources and economic

incentives that enable citizens, community groups and organizations to secure

food directly from the source, thus strengthening the network of small

producers.

 

 

– Protect the rights of all farmworkers.

 

 

– Support edible education, providing children with

the tools they need to choose healthy food and to understand the impact of

food choices on their health, the health of their communities and the planet.

 

 

– Implement measures to restore and protect

biological diversity.

 

 

– Support the development of renewable sources of

energy for the agricultural sector.

 

 

Related Information

 

 

Here is a list of top resources for finding out more

about food issues - and finding food.

 

 

The Eat Well Guide is a free online directory of

thousands of family farms, restaurants, markets and other outlets for fresh,

locally grown food throughout the United

States and Canada

(eatwellguide.org).

 

 

LocalHarvest maintains a public nationwide directory

of small farms, farmers’ markets and other local food sources

(localharvest.org).

 

 

Community Alliance With Family Farmers is building a

movement of rural and urban people to foster family-scale agriculture that

cares for the land, sustains local economies and promotes social justice

(caff.org). Go directly to alliance’s local food guide at buylocalca.org.

 

 

National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service

provides directory information and technical assistance for farmers,

ranchers, extension agents, educators and others involved in sustainable

agriculture in the United

States

(attra.ncat.org).

 

 

Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a national

alliance of grassroots family farm, rural and conservation organizations that

advocate for federal programs supporting economic and environmental

sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities

(msawg.org).

 

 

The California Coalition for Food and Farming is on

a mission to build and mobilize a diverse coalition that will improve California’s

food system. (calfoodandfarming.org).

 

 

Slow Food USA,

of which Slow Food Nation is a subsidiary, seeks to catalyze a broad cultural

shift away from the industrial food system and toward the cultural, social

and economic benefits of a sustainable food system (slowfoodusa.org).

 

 

Katrina Heron is chair of the board of Slow Food

Nation and a director of the Chez Panisse Foundation. Contact us at

insight.

 

© 2008 Hearst Communications Inc.

14 Comments so far

 

overkill August

19th, 2008 1:50 am

 

We’re running out of everything. We need to think

smaller, be smaller. Marry a pygmy.

 

pjkobulnicky August

19th, 2008 8:50 am

 

Even though my family and I cook from scratch, eat

as much from the garden as possible (and from May through November that is A

LOT), buy locally and only in-season, eat a modicum of meat and local meat

when possible … even though we do this because we enjoy eating and hate

engaging with big businesses of all types, the article does reflect a

privileged point of view. Privileged, in this case, is based on independent

thought … we are privileged to be able to think independently.

Most people in my community cannot even imagine why

they would think of these issues let alone act on them. They are simply

unaware of these issues or the issues have so little meaning in their lives

that they are just not considered. This lack of awareness is not limited to

food but to most strategic issues in their lives. For the most part, people

do not think. They act in ways that they believe they are expected to act …

in the here and now and to meet the norms of their peers (who are doing the

same). Maybe this has not changed much in the past decades but we are not

nearly the nation of independent people we think we are nor are we as

independent as we were in previous generations.

So … the only thing that will make us change, to

force people to think, is a great collapse of the current social and economic

environment … much like we now think about the gas mileage of our cars.

 

Malthus2 August

19th, 2008 10:30 am

 

Dig up some of your lawn and plant veggies. Learn

some gardening skills. You can’t be sure exactly when the big bust is coming

i.e., when the trucks don’t roll anymore. It will be an unpleasant time, but

in the meantime learning how to grow your food, save your own seeds, etc.,

can be satisfying. Stop breeding and save the planet will help save some land

for the future too.

 

brettalicious August

19th, 2008 12:09 pm

 

Yes there is elitism in food politics and it has

always been there. Ireland

was a net food exporter during the famous potato famine of the mid 1800s. The

abundant grains and meat produced by the Irish people were exported, mostly

to England,

and the Irish were able to grow only potatoes on the marginal land left to

them. When the potato plants got the blight and the crop failed it caused

massive famine among the people. Around the same time in this country the

U.S. Govmnt was paying people to wipe out the Buffalo,

food supply the Indigenous people who’s land we were stealing and still

occupy. Much easier to steal land from a starving people. Look around the

world and the story is repeated time and again.

What’s the solution-local control of food production

and distribution. Look around your community for opportunities that are being

missed. For Example; many schools have small garden plots that students use

during the school year but then are abandoned during the summer when students

are not in school but crops grow the best.

I adopted a garden at an elementary school in Tacoma’s

Hilltop neighborhood. No one else was using it so I planted potatoes, peas

and garlic. When I harvested peas I fed my family for three days. When I

harvested potatoes I got 20 lbs of the best spuds I have ever grown. The

garlic, though small will provide seed for next year’s crop which will be

even larger. I did all this with only four visits to the garden all season

and I only used about 40% of the garden capacity at the school.

I did this as an experiment to see if it would work,

and it did. Imagine what could be accomplished if a few families in the

neighborhood got together and and cooperatively grew veggies for their own

consumption. And there are schools in every neighborhood in every city in America.