Just began reading Joel Salatin's book "Holy Cows & Hog Heaven: The Food Buyer's Guide to Farm Friendly Food."
I have to begin by reiterating my undying love for Michael Pollan's writing (he wrote the forward for this book). He just makes everything so damn approachable. I honestly believe that he could dissolve Monsanto and the likes if he just took the head honchos out to coffee and shared with them his thoughts. I must share how Pollan, in literally one paragraph, summed up the end-all be-all solution to the problem industrial agriculture created:
"Why should local - rather than, say, organic - be lynchpin to this revolution? Because a farmer dependent on a local market is far more likely to raise a variety of crops, rather than specialize in the one or two plants or animals that the national market demands. That system wants all its apples from Washington State, all its lettuce from California (and make that Iceberg, please) and its corn from Iowa. Well it turns out the people who live in Iowa can only eat so much corn and soybeans; if Iowans were eating locally, rather than from the supermarket. their farmers would soon learn how to grow a few other things besides. And as they soon gave up on their monocultures of corn and soy, they would quickly discover they could also give up on their pesticides and chemical fertilizers, because a diversified farm will produce its own fertility and its own pest control."
That's it. Done. Follow, everyone - and problem solved! Thanks, Michael. And theoretical accommodating Iowan farmers.
But to move on... the first chapter in Salatin's book goes over the importance of integrity in the farmers from which you buy your food. Salatin defines integrity by giving examples of what someone possessing this trait would and would not do. I couldn't help but recall a particular test I once had to take in a high school science class. During this time in school, we had been discussing ethics in science and moral dilemmas that modern scientists encounter. On the test (since we all know every "unit" covered in high school culminates in test) on the first page there was printed a very simple command: define integrity. Since we had been talking about the various levels of integrity that scientists show in their work, I wrote a lengthy paragraph, giving what I believed to be a thorough and coherent definition. We were handed back out graded tests a few days later. I got that question wrong. My paragraph had been crossed out, and my teacher's correction, scrawled in red ink, was one word: honesty. Huh. Apparently, all scientists have to do to have integrity is to be honest.
Salatin thinks there's a little more to it than that. He offers up a check-list for how to tell is your local farmer possesses or lacks integrity. These bulleted points include checking up on your farmer's street cred and scrutinizing his bookshelf to see if he's been reading pop junk or manifestos that align with your philosophical and political beliefs. If only we each had that opportunity before we buy... and I bet there'd be some really interesting and unlikely texts on the bookshelves of farmers I know.
Salatin also brings up a point that I really respond to. He says that you cannot take a passive approach when attempting to change or revolutionize the food system. Unlike the people that remove themselves from the pollution problem and oil crisis by not owning a car, and those who throw out their televisions so they won't be part of the capitalist propaganda machine, you can't opt out of the food system. I like this thought a whole lot. You wanna change something about how your food is made or where it comes from, you gotta get off your ass and make a conscious decision - each time you fill your plate. You can't fight industrial agriculture without supporting the sustainable, organic, and local food systems.
One more thought from this first chapter - Salatin throws out the factoid that the average meal's constituents travel 1,500 miles from farm to plate. He wrote that in 2004, and I remember using a strikingly similar number in a paper I wrote in high school, and moreso, I feel like I came across it again even more recently. It seems to me that this number should have changed at some point. I mean, regardless if the mileage went up or down (more disgusting or less) it should have fluctuated a little. I mean, I know there's a huge movement for local foods now, and the major food corps. are fighting even harder against it, so don't you think that one side of the fight would have made ground somewhere and influenced that number? Hmm...
No comments:
Post a Comment