Whether it be pulled chicken & jalapeno tamales with guacamole, or a seaweed miso masterpiece. I love good food and hate crappy food. The problem is, unless you make it yourself (which I am finding is the only solution) good food is expensive, while bad food is cheap and everywhere. With age, I have come to learn and fully appreciate the differences of these opposites, it really hasn't been until recently that I have come to fully understand the complexity of locally grown organic food. I think my family's love of food, my green thumb, and a couple of documentaries & books have motivated a very earnest passion and desire for world change on the food-front.
While I haven't yet read Michael Pollan's first book, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals; his second, In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto materialized fact to my already growing suspicions. His primary point is found in motivating the reader to really look at what they consume in their day and ask themselves "Is this really any good for me". Outside of the basic FDA nutritional guidelines (which Pollan pokes some serious holes in) we must as a civilization demand food that taste's good, is very nutritious, and is grown in a sustainable way with caring local hands & most importantly (and what is at greatest stake for humanity currently) is the ability and freedom to plant and grow ones own seed, -ones own crop- ones own nourishment for themselves. To identify the source of such a dilemma posed against humanity one must pull away the curtain that many multimillion dollar corporations would like never to be discovered. Behind which would be revealed a reality drenched with money-lust, laden with greed and week without power scenario that sounds more likely suited for a science fiction novel. The reality is grave, we as a people, united as a human race are faced with a war (most of which are unaware of even existing) of preventing imperialism over life itself. This nightmare scenario is made possible, by the patent law under the World Trade Organization agreement & US Law from which many conglomerate corporations are heeding the rights to own seeds through biotechnology and patenting. Such tools are being used by huge multinational corporations in their quest to control the global food supplies. There is so much that big corporations have blinded us to. What would our children's children say to us now if they had such an opportunity to change what is happening currently? Read an earlier post on: Monsanto to try and outlaw Organic Farming here.
I have been engrossed in the field of "Green Washing" with reusable shopping bags, but with food it is a different story. The best food for you doesn't have a label. There should be no marketing behind it, at most a farmer's hand making a sign. Today as one walks down the aisles of a super market, or even Whole Foods for that matter, we find claim after claim of how packed nutritionally the package food is. While Whole Foods does a good job of offering local food, they too have processed items packed with crap claiming to be good crap (because it is packed with Omega 3!). As the saying goes, we are what we eat- no wonder most Americans are obese.
Food, Inc. - Well, no more meat. That's about all I can say after this greatly executed film. I have been severely altered in my view of our meat in this country. I knew a lot about genetically altered plants, but Chickens, cows, pigs, etc. Arrgh. I love good meat too, which makes it even more troubling. I guess as long it is grass feed, holds no growth hormone, free range, and organic we could eat it. There is something about visually seeing what happens in our food systems around this country that sticks in one's head, unlike reading about it.
Since I can remember I have planted a little garden every spring (with the exception of some recent apartment-living years). Whether it be in a pot at my Long Beach house, or digging up my mom's entire backyard and scheming the crop rotation and needed ingredients for the compost - Soil and my own grown food have coated my hands. First because I simply liked digging, getting my hands dirty, and watching something grow. Now, I have come to really appreciate the harvest, no matter how small. It is the accumulation of countless hours of work, planting, watering, weeding and sweating. Life is about appreciating the small things- the fruits of one's hard work and as citizens of Mother Earth the freedom to grow. If we all spent a little more time appreciating our food I think we all would be a much happier people, un-needing of more stimulation of yet more wasteful material. Closer to complete satisfaction with ourselves and what we consume.
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth is revolutionary."
- George Orwell -
