Spring Meal

Yummy.

Neat

http://www.devilsfooddictionary.com/dfdentries.html

Wal-Mart

"Today, twenty-one cents of every food dollar spent in the United States is spent at Wal-Mart (and some experts say it may be fifty cents by 2010" (from "The End of Food," by Paul Roberts, page 61).

Whoa. I had no idea that Wal-Mart was so pervasive in our eating habits. I wonder if its success at infiltrating our diets has something to do with the fact that there are really no limits to what products it can sell. People know Wal-Mart as an everything store, not limited to foods, and it has no particular niche. We all know Monsanto is evil, but they only sell seeds; McDonald's is equally threatening, but its specialty is fast food, etc. Wal-Mart can and does sell everything...

I spent a little time at the Wal-Mart website. They categorize their products into fourteen different departments, ranging from jewelry to baby items, grocery to pharmacy. They also sell discount iPods and music downloads for only 64 cents a pop. The site even offered to sign me up for updates from their stores, so I'd be sure to not miss out on the latest sales and new products. I guess they really are the epitome of the One Stop Shop.

Wal-Mart has really played the desire of American's for convenience. Hell, can you think of many others places that you can buy a flatscreen tv, diapers, and a gallon of milk all together? And the stores are everywhere, and everything is cheap, cheap, cheap.

The website also boasted new recipes appearing every week - so, at Wal-Mart, you can not only buy your food, you can learn to cook. Or perhaps learn to serve microwavable foods in various forms... The top two categories of recipes were "Fresh & Healthy" and "Budget Friendly." Ah, now doesn't that say something about our society's culinary habits. We say we want to eat healthy, but it all depends on the price. And can I also point out that the "healthy" Mexican Taco Salad recipe calls for "one 1.25 ounce envelop taco seasoning" and "one package assorted greens." Uh-huh. A packet of artificial colors and flavors and some shrink-wrapped lettuce... real healthy.

Very interesting. Everything you (think) you need, at one place, for cheap. Everywhere. They must have some surprisingly sharp executives at the steering wheel of the Wal-Mart enterprise to make it happen.

Also -- this came up when I searched for an image of Wal-Mart. Do you think the Wal-Mart big guys followed those rules?

Money, Power, and Work

I feel like most of the human-related problems (and really, what isn't human-related anymore?) today are caused by issues stemming from money, power, or work. People have an inherent desire for money and power, and many have a innate disdain for work.

So many of the issues I'm encountering in my reading are either explicitly or implicitly caused, directly or indirectly, by - you guessed it - the never-ending quest for money, power, and less, or at least easier, work.

For instance...

• Joel Salatin's frequent attacks by government officials, threatening to shut him down for "noncompliance." These people like wielding their government-given POWER. I distinctly remember some of the more transparent officials Salatin spoke to admitted that they wouldn't be in this line of soul-crushing business if it wasn't for the big ol' paycheck - MONEY.
• The fact that people like the ones mentioned above try to squash the little guys, and look the other way at the big producers that churn out pesticide-ridden vegetables, e. coli-contaminated meat, and milk full of blood and puss - these guys are scared of the powers above them that decide whether they have a job or not - MONEY. Also, guess what? Size matters. It's a lot harder to monitor huge industrial companies than to scrutinize small farms - so they don't. Too much WORK.
• The continuation of ignorance towards people's food sources. Ignorance is bliss. Maybe it's too much WORK to seek out higher quality, more nutritious, local foods. It also could be a lot of WORK to prepare your own meal from fresh, whole ingrediants - a hell of a lot easier to slip a TV dinner out of the plastic packaging and slip it into the microwave. Faster, too, and we're impatient. It's the American way.
• Environmental and social degradation. It's easier to let things go to shit than maintain them. Isn't that called entropy, the natural tendency of the world to gravitate towards a state of chaos and disorder? It takes WORK to keep things healthy and happy. Same goes for humans. No wonder we're all fat and depressed.
• More and more farmers opting out of the small, local systems and moving up towards industrial-sized production. That classic mindset: bigger is better. The allure of more MONEY. More land, more production also means more POWER over more people who depend on you.
• Anyone who own or operates industrial agricultural farms, factory farms, processing and packaging plants, fast food empires, anything that has to do with corn monocultures... MONEY and POWER at the cost of environmental, wildlife, economic, social, and personal health.
• People who buy into the whole "industial-organic" complex. Often these are the people who buy into the "organic is elitist" thing. Being one of the so-called elite gives the illusion of having POWER over those less.. what? Fortunate? Conscious?

I have a tendency to become overwhelmingly pessimistic and critical of humanity. The above observations most likely reek of that sentiment. Moments like this, I have a very low level of tolerance, respect, and hope for humanity. For this, I apologize. I have a frequent urge to say that humans are a repulsive race who in the end will only lead to their own, and everything else in the physical world's demise. I would say, we never should have evolved. I'd even offer to give up my sentient brain to go back and live as some creature before the time of homo sapiens.

But I won't say that here. I'll just stick to, we humans can really suck.

"Fast Food Nation"

Before I even opened Eric Schlosser's book, I was struck by the book's subtitle: "The Dark Side of the All-American Meal."

Isn't that pathetic? Our country is so young compared to others. The USA is totally a baby, with its.. what? 233 years? Not only does our nation have a short history, but I think some aspects of our culture have really suffered because of it. For example, our "All-American Meal." The food symbolic of our nation and our nationalistic pride is a friggen cheeseburger and fries. That's what we have to show as our country's culinary talent?

France has artisan cheeses, developed from ancient recipes using milk from domesticated mountain goats. Italy has wine from heirloom grape varieties indigenous to different regions of their country. Each of these countries also traditions celebrating the sitting down and lengthy enjoying of meals with others, as well. Let's see, what else... even the Jewish religion has celebrated food items that are symbolic of their people's struggles and what they've overcome.

What does America have? A meal made out of unhealthy, crappy ingredients which is made to be consumed on the go, on a whim, or gobbled up behind the wheel of a car. Our national meal symbolizes waning health, obesity, the rise of industrial agriculture and big box companies, the triumph of efficiency over quality, the forgotten tradition of enjoying meals at a table with others, the buried talents of cooking and providing for oneself and one's family, and basically, the destructive powers of our culture.

And we export this. There are McDonalds in 119 countries. Remember in France, when a new McDonalds opened up in some little village and some proud Frenchmen took a bulldozer to it? What a guy. No one would ever do that here. Fast food is too American. A person who did what that French guy did would be called a terrorist, or something here.

Like I said, pathetic.

The Last Supper

Ok, not really. As my final project/product of this independent study, I have the hopes that I can create a full meal from all local, in season ingredients.

The tentative menu is as follows...

Hors d'oeuvre: Fresh baked sourdough bread and local cheeses

Salad: Spring greens salad

First course: Handmade pasta with chévre and asparagus

Second course: Maple roasted meat something (chicken, pork, or beef TBA)

Dessert: Rhubarb pie with sheep milk yogurt

I've begun assembling recipes from various sources (muchos gracias to mi madre in particular) and have begun planning where I might find all of these ingredients.

Cheese and milk products are easy - I'll get them from home (Appleton Creamery).  A&B sells Maine stone-ground flour, which I can continue to use to bake bread from my sourdough starter.  Similarly, I will use that flour to handroll the noodles for the pasta dish (with eggs from Appleton Creamery, as well).  I've already got a jar of local honey (to use as a sweetener), from Gardiner's Honey & Pollination.

I remembered a local sea salt seller from Maine Fare a few years ago.  Apparently their business took off and can now be found in local health food stores: Maine Sea Salt.  Yippee!

My hope is that the farmers markets up here will be in full swing in a few weeks, so I can find the traditional May fare of spring greens, and other early spring veggies.

Herbs I can collect from the gardens at home.

I'm very excited!!

Seasonal Product Guide

Courtesy of the Rockland Farmers Market - here.

Addition to Bibliography

• Katz, Sandor Ellix. The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2006. 
• Kingsolver, Barbara. Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. 
  
• Pollan, Michael. In Defense of Food. New York: The Penguin Press, 2008. 
  
• Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma. New York: The Penguin Press, 2006.  
  

The Coffee Hypocrisy

The one true roadblock to me ever becoming a full-on, 100% "locavore" would be, of course, my coffee. I love coffee. I can't live without it. I'll never give it up - I can't. I won't.

This, of course, poses a challenge to all coffee addicts like myself, who don't want to give up the beans but still want to eat all local. Reflecting back on my readings, Joel Salatin doesn't consume coffee (much to Michael Pollan's dismay, if I remember correctly), I wouldn't be surprised if Alyssa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon of "Plenty" don't drink the stuff, either (New Age yuppies..), and of course, most recently, in "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," the Kingsolver family allowed each member one item - and only one, in limited quantities - that they could continue to have, even after their own local foods challenged commenced. Kingsolver's husband and co-author, Steven, chose coffee as his own item (good choice, Steven).

How do we amend this? I've never heard of a local coffee bean grower. I highly doubt we have the correct climate anywhere remotely near here... unless global warming transforms us into a tropic. Well, there's the upshot, I guess. But anyway - there's no such thing as local coffee beans here.

There are local coffee bean roasters, though, for sure. Rock City Coffee of Rockland, Maine (a personal favorite); Carrabassett Coffee, adjacent to Sugarloaf; and there's even a woman who roasts and sells beans at one of our own farmers markets (my lovely Hanne, of Cornerstone Farm). So, roasting locally is a start... but the beans are still coming in from Mexico and beyond. How much of a difference does roasting locally make? Is it any different than comparing an imported whole tomato to an imported can of tomato paste? Does where the processing takes place overwhelm the fact that you're still starting with an imported item?

(This is not to condemn or belittle any of the aforementioned coffee roasters. If any of them stopped doing what they do, I would probably die.)

On my darling disposable cup of gas station coffee this morning, I took a moment to examine what was printed on the cup. A very eco-friendly design, I must say... rolling hills, happy clouds, and of course, endless green forests - you know which coffee company I'm talking about. The cup told me that it was, in fact, an "ecotainer." What does that mean? It doesn't actually explain itself anywhere on the cup itself. Is it made from recycled paper? Is the slick coating on the inside of the cup not made from harmful chemicals? Are they equating ecological health with cultural health, and are trying to tell me the coffee is fair-trade? I don't know!

On my handy-dandy heat-resistant sleeve was a big green heading, commanding "drink globally - act locally." Underneath, the words are elaborated upon: "a portion of the profits from the coffees we source around the world helps support social and environmental programs in our local communities." Okay... what? Where are they saying is local? I'm damn sure my local isn't the same as their local. And wait a second - they're taking money from other countries to boost our local economy? That's not acting locally. That's exacerbating import issues.

So what the hell are we to do about our coffee? Some coffee companies claim to be making the world a better place, but just how is still unclear to me.

Conventional vs. Revolutionary

One recurring issue I've found I'm having with all these books I'm reading is a matter of terminology. Pollan, Katz, Kingsolver, and even Salatin... they all use the term "conventional farming" to denote industrial agriculture, whereas organic, local farming is "new," "revolutionary," and "alternative."

This, I don't get.

Why is industrial agriculture "conventional?" Conventional is defined as "ordinary; conforming or adhering to accepted standards" (thanks to www.dictionary.com). Industrial agriculture adheres to accepted standards? I don't think so. Conventional also connotes some sort of presence in history. The Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century that produced industrial ag. was only 150 years ago. That's barely a blip on the timeline of the history of agriculture.

Why is organic, sustainable farming labeled as new and alternative? Farming was done organically for millenia before chemicals and technology was developed. It may not have been called organic... it may not have been called sustainable... it was probably done before the word agriculture even came around - but still, industrial ag. is a rogue baby compared to organic.

Is organic farming only called revolutionary today because it is a form of rebellion against the current predominant form of farming? How did the two terms, conventional and revolutionary, get switched around - when did this happen? Was it when industrial farming overtook and overwhelmed the real conventional farming? This terminology baffles me.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

Image from the first page of Barbara Kingsolver's book... I love it.

Nutritionism as Reductionism

I wrote this paper for my Chaos & Fractals class last term in response to our introduction to linear vs. nonlinear thinking.

(References Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food," Penguin Press, 2008.)

Part vs. Whole

(Linear vs. Non-linear)

 

            Our brief introduction to the idea of linear versus non-linear functions (and accordingly the concepts of reductionism versus holism) in class the other day got me thinking about the ideas of part compared to whole in more general terms.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I kept relating these mathematical terms to a key word that I’d recently discovered through my own independent research.  One of my biggest interests and passions is learning about sustainable food systems.  Consequently, I’ve been reading a lot of the work of Michael Pollan, renowned food author/activist.  By pondering what I learned in class, I was able to relate these mathematical concepts to a fundamental principle that Pollan puts forth.

            Michael Pollan uses the theories of reductionism vs. holism in his book, In Defense of Food, with regards to his idea of “nutritionism.”  His book outlines the problems that people are facing when it comes to choosing foods, and he offers his own ideas about how to solve these problems, or better, wipe their existence.  He describes the concept of nutritionism as the trend of studying and selecting foods solely based on their chemical components – nutrients.  For example, when we think about eating a cheeseburger, we could see the cheeseburger as individual thing – one unit of food.  What are we consuming? A cheeseburger, plain and simple.  However, a nutritionist viewpoint would be to look at the burger, and not see a burger, but see fat, carbohydrates, maybe a little protein.  The person would probably choose not to eat that burger, because all they see are way too many calories from fat.  They would most likely opt for a spinach salad instead – ah, antioxidants, vitamins A, B, and K, iron!  This, of course, would be the reductionist point of view – seeing something as its constituents, missing the bigger picture. 

            Pollan advocates the abandonment of nutritionist thinking and the adoption of what we would call, holistic thinking.  The biggest misconception that nutritionism instills in society is that focusing on the parts, not the whole, will lead to a healthy diet.  However, obsessing with the nutrients and forgetting about the big picture is what leads to those unhealthy crash diets (Atkins says throw out the carbs – they’re evil!) and strips the cultural aspect from eating meals.  But we all know by now (hopefully) that carbs are an essential piece in the diet of humans.  If we really think that the nutrient themselves are the only important things, we should all be taking pills – instead of just taking daily multivitamins or something, we should take pills for every essential vitamin and nutrient.  But the idea that we should give up eating food altogether seems absurd to us.  There’s more to food than its nutritional components – there’s also a huge cultural significance placed on eating.  We miss something, we lose the greater picture, if we only think of things in terms of their parts. 

            So why is reductionist thinking (or linear thinking) so popular?  For one thing, it’s just logical.  Like with our ice cream example in class, if one pint of ice cream costs three dollars, then two pints will cost six dollars, three pints will cost nine dollars, and so on.  It makes sense.  We think that we can understand something more if we can understand what it’s made up of.  We’ve been taught that attention to detail is paramount and comprehension of the bigger picture will follow after we lose ourselves in the details.

            Linear thinking makes sense, but we lose something by breaking things up into pieces.  Whether it’s the ice cream example (each pint is three dollars, but if you buy five pints, you get a discount! The discount would be ignored in a linear system, but is integral to the non-linear one), or Pollan’s nutritionism (I like to think of my dad’s mac and cheese as a traditional dish special to my family – not solely as a heaping mass of fat and carbohydrate molecules), the whole means more to us than the part.