Interviews with experts on the science, politics, and culture of food
Food Matters with Mark Bittman, part 1 (video)
Mark Bittman, author of How To Cook Everything discusses the central message of his latest book Food Matters: A Guide to Conscious Eating. Bittman touts the benefits of home cooking, and offers a optimistic note to those who may view the culinary arts as beyond their native abilities. In Bittman’s view, most of us have the ability to become good cooks, and it’s not necessary, nor within his philosophy, to cook fancy meals. He attributes the American diet to a host of serous concerns that impact public health, the environment, and other societal problems. As Bittman points out, although we are one of the richest nations in the world, we rank only 45th in the world for life expectancy. 20 years ago, Bittman reminds us, we spent about 17% of our income on food, and 10% on healthcare. Today those figures have reversed, and the cheap food that we eat, is undermining our health, and fraying our healthcare system.
Like the simplicity of his recipes, there’s a powerful simplicity to his argument that food matters. The notion that sustainability, and organics are only for those who are relatively well off, misses the crucial point: through the restructuring of existing farm subsidies, government could encourage the production of healthier food, and offset (at least) some of the costs of whole foods to consumers, creating the potential for huge dividends on the public health side, not to mention, the reduction of healthcare costs associated with poor diet.
How important to you is good food? Do you believe that there is a bigger role for government to play in reversing the tide of diet-related illnesses: heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc.?
Related video: Food Matters with Mark Bittman 2
6 Comments
It is past time that the government played a major role in developing a healthier & more sustainable food system. The fact that 1,000,000 Americans die of heart disease every year is reason enough, but food is about more than just personal health & a healthy environment. Good food enriches our lives, especially when shared with friends and loved ones, and helps build a culture that values quality over convenience.
The present system of subsidies badly warps the marketplace by making the unhealthiest choices the most widely available and the most profitable ones to sell. Too many people are surviving on what author Michael Pollan calls “edible food-like substances.”
Educating people through the schools and public airwaves is certainly within the realm of government action. In the days of World War II’s Victory Gardens the federal government actually did widely disseminate info for preparing nutritious meals.
Creating a Victory Garden at the White House would make a nice start for the new administration.
I have always found simple, local, fresh cooking and eating less expensive than a trip to the grocery store…and more fun and satisfying! What I have not found it to be is easier or faster. I think that the time it can take to be inventive with the fresh, whole local ingredients can be difficult for many people. Add to that children who don’t want to be the only ones taking carrot sticks and cabbage soup to school for lunch and it can be overwhelming for parents.
My kids have always ate the fresh is better way, but when their friends come over there are often a lot of left overs on the plates.
I think it starts with the parents, and what decisions they make.
Tori, I love your story
In our community we are a group of non-profits that have come together to feed the hungry by starting a pilot program for community gardens.
We believe this not only helps to promote food security but also an education on farming and appreciation of good healthy foods and not just an unhealthy handout by the government.
Tori: Yay for your Dad! It sounds like he really cared about good food, and you too.
I think you hit one of the nails on the head: education. We need to be educated about our food, where it comes from, what’s good for us to eat, and how to prepare it, for starters. Real basic stuff, not everyone is taught this at home. Does this happen at schools – well, it used to with home economic classes, but most of them were slashed due to declining budgets. Does it happen at home – it’s possible with some families, but definitely not all.
I understand some food banks offer cooking classes to folks who use their establishment as a source of food. I think we’ll be seeing more and more classes popping up, ones that cover the areas you mention: how to shop a sale, get the most for your dollars, and make those dollars stretch. Much of this is learned from experience. I hope you are able to pull something together and pass along that information you learned from your Dad and put to practice in your own adult years. We all learn from each other.
Ok, I’m ready for the rest of the interview. Nice job Rebecca. I really wish I could have gone to see Bittman’s talk at Powell’s, but you brought it to us!
He really represents (along with Pollan and many others) the new way of thinking about food – there is a movement out there and people ARE catching on. Simple food (real) + simple cooking = healthy people!
One comment Michael Pollan made in his speech was “if you make food from things in your pantry, you will be significantly healthier than the rest of the population.” Meaning, we don’t have HFCS or additives in our pantries, so typically if we make our own food, we’ll be less likely to overweight, have diabetes, have heart disease, etc.
I don’t think it’s entirely up to the government to determine what we eat – we all have a say with our dollar, and it’s the most powerful way to change our food system. However, many things could be done by the new administration to reverse the damage of the “machine” our food system has come to be.
Bittman has inspired me, and makes cooking so approachable. I love that he is not a classicly-trained chef yet garners so much respect.
Thanks for the piece!
I grew up in a house where good food was king. My Dad had learned to cook from his Dad in the 60′s and because of that took the time to learn to cook properly. My Grandfather was a meat and potatoes guy; it wasn’t until the late 60′s that he was introduced to rice as an alternative to the potato. He had a sourdough start that had traveled with his family in 1912 when they were part of a wagon train traveling from Texas to Utah. He made pancakes on Sunday’s and bread a few times a week but other than that the scope of his culinary education was limited.
Growing up we had a farm so we had meat that we raised and a 1/2 acre garden that we tended. There was a greenhouse to try and stretch the growing season as much as possible. This was in the late 80′s and early 90′s when a majority of the people around us had both parents that worked and kids that existed on crap bought in the freezer section.
No one that I knew had a parent that spent the weekend harvesting vegetables or trying to perfect a pizza dough recipe. My Dad was a single father, like his father had been, and was raising me; we got strange looks from our community. No one knew what to say when they saw my Dad and I buying canning jars by the gross. There wasn’t a man in our town that knew how to can a vegetable; they just knew how to use a can opener on a can of peas bought at the local grocery.
My Dad was a healthy guy when we lived on the farm. Later, when I got older he succumbed to convenience foods because he was cooking for himself and didn’t want to take the time. He became obese and diabetic in no time and wasn’t able to reverse it. He died last month. Because of my Dad I eat well, I eat the way I did when I was a kid. Lots of organic vegetables and lean meat, home made sweet treats and occasionally home baked bread. I have a hard time at the grocery store when I see young mothers with obese children loading their carts with boxed mac and cheese and frozen tv dinners. I know they do it because they can’t afford the right things but I think they also shop that way because they don’t know any better.
The government provides families with food stamps but they don’t provide an education on how to feed your family. They don’t really provide enough money to buy fresh produce. I wish that the government would put a stake in the future and start providing people that get food stamps with classes on a better way to feed their families. I’d volunteer my time to teach a class like that. How to shop sales. utilize every single morsel and stretch every dollar. We’re taking a step forward in Portland by allowing EBT cards to be used at Farmer’s Markets in the area but I know I can spend 50 bucks on a Saturday and come back the next week and do it again. What person on Food Stamps has that amount of money to properly feed a family? Who wants to drag their kids to a farmer’s market and try to keep them together when grocery carts have seat belts to strap them down?
There’s a lot of work for the government to do regarding feeding our families and I think the first steps are more money, education and some sort of fresh produce program in major cities.
(sorry, that got really long. This is an issue that I feel has been ignored for too long)