The Sustainable Food Movements Dirty Little Secret
by TwoJunes
Part 1: Let’s face it, our dirty little secret—eating whole foods, eating locally or eating organic, sustainable, non-local is a very real class issue today. What you eat is directly related to how much money you make, how much time you have to source or grow food, your comfort level in cooking and your level of education to know what is “good” for you. We need to at least acknowledge this inescapable fact in the sustainable food movement. The choices we so confidently espouse for the health of humanity and the planet are not made easily by a huge segment of the population, particularly in this economic downturn.
Eating responsibly has many different faces, which is what I think Mark Bittman was recently getting at with his broccoli/hamburger example. He makes the very valid point that for large scale change to occur, it must first happen at the lowest common denominator—the supermarket. The average person must make that basic choice of a fresh vegetable or grain/legume staple over processed food. It seems easy, right? Just eat the broccoli, lady. But, even taking that most basic, seemingly mindless step isn’t as easy as it seems.
In the minimalist philosophy, a few ingredients and basic cooking skills are all that is needed to produce delicious meals. This is absolutely correct and desirable, yet still assumes you know how to chop, sauté, boil, bake, shop wisely, follow recipe instructions reasonably well, and then, have the time to do the dishes in your minimally equipped kitchen. It also assumes a ready and willing audience for the healthy food you produce. This is simply not true for a big segment of the population. Am I wrong here? Do other people out there have stories, data that would indicate otherwise? Stepping out beyond our charmed lives?
With sufficient time, a reasonably high level of cooking skill, maybe a kitchen garden, utilizing the farmer’s market and other local food sources, yes, it is possible for urban dwellers to both eat responsibly and to eat very well. This is TwoJune’s situation—but, to be honest, it takes a lot of time, is expensive, and is only accomplished without too much difficulty because there are two of us, we both cook professionally, one of us works from home and the other has a 9-to-5 professional career. And we don’t even have a child—yet.
Next Tuesday, Part 2: we examine the very real difficulties encountered by the working poor, particularly single parents, in preparing simple, home-cooked meals.
Lisa Bell is a freelance producer, writer and editor. She spent the first fifteen years of her working life as a pastry chef, recipe developer, test kitchen director, food stylist and print editor. She has also taught cooking classes, run a small cooking school, and worked as a food scientist. Nicole Rees currently works as a baking scientist. She is also a food writer and cookbook author specializing in baking science. Her most recent book Baking Unplugged, is filled with simple, scratch recipes that require no electric gadgets beyond an oven.
Tags: Children's food choices, Convenience foods, Cooking and health, Economic elite, Food and politics Education and food, Food choices, Healthy food choices, Industrial food, Informed food choices, Making food choices, Poverty and food, Unhealthy food choices
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13 Comments
Hi, Heather!
I am curious about your techniques for making time to make good meals and what type of meals you make…and I think you are really right about knowledge and information being crucial.
I just read the 2008 stats from Children First for Oregon (http://www.cffo.org/) and it’s pretty frightening. Many folks in Oregon and the US are struggling to eat, not eat well, just eat.
About 37% of Oregon’s children are living in or NEAR poverty–that’d be about 2X the amount considered below official government poverty line, or roughly $41,000 per 4 person household. These are families where going hungry is very real danger on at least some occasions throughout the year. 64% of these households have at least one parent working full or part time.
“More than one in 20 Oregon households reported “very
low” food security, meaning household members strayed from their normal eating patterns or ate less than usual because they were out of money for food. Working poor families struggle under poverty
conditions despite parents working long hours. According to recent analysis of census data, ‘Adults in low-income working families worked
on average 2,552 hours per year in 2006, the equivalent of almost one-and-a-quarter full-time workers.’”
Meanwhile, small farms, especially organic farms, have to charge above supermarket prices in order to make a living for their families.
Extra time and extra money by spent by those of who can afford sustainable as it now stands is a start as is education on cooking whole foods–but we are facing some huge obstacles.
Thoughts everyone?
Lisa
Hi Ladies,
Great post!
My take on this situation is that the majority of the population still doesn’t get how important it is to change the way that they are eating. I don’t think we as a country have yet to convince the masses that boxed mac and cheese is a bad thing. It’s about values and choices, I choose to make good sustainable food a priority in my household and because of that choice that means I may cut costs in other areas so that I can have that wedge of parmesan reggiano or so I can buy organic eggs. Some people just aren’t willing to make those choices. Now I am at a slight advantage because I do have a culinary background and we all know that knowledge is power, but I haven’t worked in the field for close to ten years and my husband and I are by no means Rockefeller. We represent the working class in this country bringing in a combined income of less than $75K a year before taxes. I have a 3 year old and a six month old and I work outside of the home full time. Being stretched for time is always a issue but again I choose to make time to plan good meals.
As a previous commenter said people with extra money and time are leading the change in the arena of sustainability and all we can do is hope that those changes that are being made today will be felt by the majority of the population tomorrow.
Janine,
Yum! Pound cake is a fave of mine. I am considering getting some chickens this spring, have thought about if for years…again, though, even something as simple as chickens is quite an investment in captial for house, run, feed, chicks, etc. Oh, yes, and, land, can’t forget to include that cost. And, of course, time, gotta build the house, keep the coop clean, etc. It’d be a luxury rather than any real type of cost-saving measure.
We use a lot of eggs here…since Nicole writes cookbooks, it’s hard to say no to those $1.99 eggs on special– 16 cents each. We usually compromise…cheap eggs to test recipes and good eggs for eating outright. We’d like to buy the good eggs for everything, but just can’t swing it. Butter also puts a big dent in our budget, but I don’t think I can convince Nicole we can keep cows out back, she’d said no to the goat which I actually thought was reasonable.
Thanks…obviously it’s been on our minds a while too! Came into real focus when we taught for the Food Bank a few years back. More on that next week.
In the meantime I just want to say that I think that extricating ourselves from mass-produced food just ain’t as simple as it seems. Radical ideas get quickly incorportated into mainstream culture, appropriated by the dominent culture, and are diluted and remarketed w/a big price tag.
I have high hopes that the immediate dissemination of real knowledge, direct access to small food providers, and the networking ops like Cookingupastory provides, will enable us to sidestep that end. Using technology to subvert industrial agriculture would be a nice twist!
What is most troubling to me, is that in addition to the well-reported horrors of the industrializaion of farming, what theoretically should have brought us freedom from labor, did not. Most of us now work longer hours now than we have at any point in history to satisfy desires for material goods and pursuits that we are told are necessary to our quality of life.
Thanks…obviously it’s been on our minds a while too! Came into real focus when we taught for the Food Bank a few years back. More on that next week.
In the meantime I just want to say that I think that extricating ourselves from mass-produced food just ain’t as simple as it seems. Radical ideas get quickly incorportated into mainstream culture, appropriated by the dominent culture, and are diluted and remarketed w/a big price tag.
I have high hopes that the immediate dissemination of real knowledge, direct access to small food providers, and the networking ops like Cookingupastory provides, will enable us to sidestep that end. Using technology to subvert industrial agriculture would be a nice twist!
What is most troubling to me, is that in addition to the well-reported horrors of the industrializaion of farming, what theoretically should have brought us freedom from labor, did not. Most of us now work longer hours now than we have at any point in history to satisfy desires for material goods and pursuits that we are told are necessary to our quality of life.
I also find that cooking at home makes a huge difference. Last night my fiance and I enjoyed a lovely orange pound cake that cost about $2.50 in ingredients. That includes farm eggs: at $5 a dozen they were about 41 cents each. When the goodies are home baked you can splurge on the grass-fed beef.
And while it’s true that people with extra money and time are leading the charge in the arena of sustainability, I hope that as more people learn about how some food is produced, they will make better choices.
Nice article – I look forward to more posts from both Junes.
This subject has been one I have always struggled with. A friend of mine (who helped in splitting a 1/2 a cow with me 2 years ago, I might add) said one time to me, “we can’t all eat grass-fed beef, there’s just not enough space in the world for all the cows to graze.”
But as both you and Jaci mentioned, we *can* choose to eat differently. Sure, maybe there isn’t enough land for all the cows to graze for everyone to eat grass-fed beef at the rate we are eating it, but maybe if people didn’t eat beef so often (or so much of it as your photo portrays), then there would be exactly enough. It’s not like we need it to survive…
And maybe if we turned our food system around in this country and truly started to support the farmer and growing sustainable crops, we all *could* eat sustainably, locally, and organically at the right price. Oh, to dream about such a system!
Thanks for your response, Jaci.
I agree with just about everything you say there…it is absolutely possible to eat well, meaning whole foods, real foods–and to eat cheaply from the supermarket taking advantage of sales. We tend to shop at Safeway or Albertsons for staples and some produce and buy meat and as many vegetables as we can from our local coop, organic grocery or farmer’s market. I think where it gets a little trickier is that if you want to buy organic or sustainable foods, today anyway, it can be quite a bit more expensive. Your tactic of eating primarily cheap veggies and saving up the cash for humane meat is an excellent idea. That is what we do too. Consequently, we eat a lot less meat and really appreciate it when we do.
Last year we had the opportunity to buy part of a friend’s cow and are lucky enough to have a small chest freezer–that really helped us out as the meat was much cheaper (and way more tasty, of course!) that way…but lots of folks don’t have a chest freezer. It also means we got creative cooking up cow bits we hadn’t encountered too often. I can now make about 50 different round steak recipes!
Smaller portions are definitely the way to go–we’ve become accustomed to those super-size restaurant meals, the 20 oz. steak, etc.
I gotta admit I love my spice cabinet–spices are definitely the most expensive staple we keep on hand. We’ve found that buying bulk spices is way cheaper and you only have to buy what you will use.
I like it that you do not feel constrained to eat the things “that go together”. Sometimes a perfectly ripe tomato or avocado and piece of good bread is the best meal there is.
Lisa
Great post. Thanks for writing about such an important issue. This has been the the achilles heal of the movement, but I am seeing some encouraging changes. Yesterday, I read about a fast food restaurant in Berkeley that serves healthy organic food at a reasonable price – check out http://civileats.com. Another example is in Corvallis – the Ten Rivers Food Web offers cooking classes to underprivileged families to teach them how to eat well inexpensively. Another missing piece is locally grown beans and grains. Beans and grains are inexpensive, healthy, and calorie and nutrient dense. The Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project is aiming to convert grass seed land back to growing beans and grains.
I think, the heart of this issue is the human tendency toward selfishness. We (at least in the last 20 years) have grown accustomed to deciding what to have for dinner based on our “cravings”. In my opinion this behavior is fed by, and maybe even stems from, the world of convenience to which we feel privileged. It seems we could very well wander through the supermarket, find what is on sale in the produce section and chef up something with those ingredients. I am by no means a chef. I am a 28 year old woman whose idea of spice is salt. Seriously. But, this method has worked quite well for me. Every few days I hit the store to see what is on sale. Of course, usually it’s discounted status is indicative of it’s imminent demise, but in truth – I’m buying it to eat it tonight or tomorrow anyway so who cares. Once I’ve found a few ingredients I decide what to eat based on what is there. Sometimes I eat an egg and a mixed greens salad. Sometimes it’s an avocado, a hand full of carrots and a yam. Now and then I splurge on really good food, like an organic buffalo steak from my favorite company: Wild Idea Buffalo. I think, in order to change the way we eat, we must change the way we think about food. We have to stop thinking that certain foods belong together, that our meals should be ready to eat 30 seconds after we get home, and that if we aren’t over-full after having crammed a whole meal down our throats in the span of 3 minutes, there is something wrong or missing. Smaller portions, real food, and and open mind will get you by on the meager-est of budgets.