Sunday, October 24, 2010

Live Fast, Eat Slow.

There’s a man named Matt Malmgren who lives in Vermont and collects fast food burgers. I mean, he keeps them on the shelf in his living room like your grandmother collects salt-and-pepper shakers. How long has he been doing this? Since 1991 (Spurlock 116-117). And they’re in pristine condition, just sitting in their wrappers. That’s not right.

The Slow Food movement is a grassroots organization that focuses on educating the masses, and encouraging people to think about what they are putting in their bodies. Slow Food believes food should be “Good, Clean and Fair” (Schneider 390-391). This may sound vague, but it embodies a vision where people can eat delicious food that is healthy for the body and the earth. It is grown by people who are justly compensated and treated well and the foods are available to everyone. There are steps we can all take to help make our food good, clean and fair.

But what is Good Food?

McDonald’s tastes good. But it’s manufactured to taste good. Not grown, manufactured by a team of scientists in New Jersey (Spurlock).

Raspberries are good. Have you ever been walking around outside, camping, hiking, at the park and came across a raspberry bush? That’s special. The surprise feels good. Succeeding in picking them without getting pricked by their thorns feels good. The seeds stuck in your teeth, not so good, but it’s a reminder of just how good they taste. And if you don’t get to those tasty little morsels by the middle of July, they’re all gone. That’s what real food does. They call it Slow Food, but you’ve got to catch it.

What is clean food?

You use ammonia to clean. So do meat processors. They wash their chicken and beef, so that you don’t get sick (Food, Inc.). The USDA says it’s safe in the small amounts that are used, and they don’t require the treated products to be labeled as being rinsed (“Safe and Suitable Ingredients”). But if your family is hitting up that dollar menu a couple times a week, it’s not so safe anymore. And you’re not just eating ammonia there; you’re eating it almost every time you get processed chicken and beef.

Clean food helps the earth. A sustainable farm doesn’t need to wash their animals with chemicals. The cows don’t get sick because they’re eating what’s natural for them. They provide and disperse healthy fertilizer that means you aren’t getting sick from your lettuce, like the spinach epidemic of 2008, or the Peter Pan peanut butter poison of 2007 (Food, Inc). Clean food is simple. I don’t know about you, but I like the sound of simple. It sounds like I could do it myself.

What is Fair Food?

I must warn you, this is the hardest bit to stomach.

We have an idea of the horror stories, but how often do you think about it? Cows standing ankle deep in their own manure, unable to roam because they’re packed so tightly in pens. Chickens with their beaks cut off, because they’re all so crazy and will peck each other to death. Cows eating dead chicken. Chickens eating dead cows. And do you think of how the human who process these animals are treated? It’s almost as bad as the animals. They’re dealing with contaminated meat, all day every day. They’re slicing for the same piece, over and over again, knives and saws and hooks swinging all over the place (Schlosser 172-173). For many of these people there are no other jobs in the area. Others are undocumented workers or recent immigrants who are afraid of speaking up (174). It makes you wonder how many times a person afraid of losing their job didn’t report an injury that may have affected your burger.
Fair Food is available to everyone. Current agricultural practices are loaded with inefficiencies. The subsidization of corn and soy products means that those ingredients are used to make food cheaper. It also means that unsubsidized foods like broccoli and free-range beef are out of the price range for many low-income families and schools (Food, Inc.).

What can you do?

You can make small changes to your lifestyle. And the changes do have to be small. I still don’t make it to the farmers’ market every week, and my family caves a couple times a month and pulls through the drive-through. But we do buy local whenever possible. With each passing grocery trip I spend less and less time in the middle aisles with the processed foods and more time in my kitchen with fresh produce. We can’t all just pull a 180. It’s impossible on a personal level, and our economy is very dependent on agribusiness. For change to be permanent we can’t just shock the system. You can start chopping your own potatoes instead of buying the frozen fries, you can eat foods that are in season and grown locally, or you can buy Finger Lakes wines and Central New York brews.

You can also join the CNY chapter of Slow Food. Slowfoodcny.org has a lot of information about what you can do to make a difference, starting right here. We have a unique opportunity to make changes here in Syracuse. The chapter hosts pot-luck dinners and workshops and has suggestions for talking to your legislators. There are small farmers abound in CNY. Maple syrup is delicious and our climate is perfect for harvesting it. Apples are big for us. Did you know that hops used to be a huge commodity for the area? Yep, we were the “brewery capital of the country” in the early 1900s. Maybe we can all work to bring that title back (“About”).

I want to believe that eating is one of the few natural things that humans still do. A basic physiological need. But even this simple act has been compromised, and it’s not healthy for many people. We’ve reached a point where a large part of our economy is dependent on the production of foodstuffs. It will be hard to change, but the laws of supply and demand still apply. A Wal-Mart purchaser of dairy explains that the store sells us what we demand. If we demand socially responsible foods, they have the power to change the infrastructure for supply (Food, Inc). I hope that we all start to think about our food a little more and begin to question where it comes from.

Don’t forget to go see Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation and co-producer of Food, Inc. He’ll be speaking over in Hendrick’s Chapel at Syracuse University on March 1st, this spring.


Works Cited

“About.” Slow Food CNY. slowfoodcny.org. 2010. Web. Retrieved 23 Oct. 2010.

Food, Inc. Dir. Robert Kenner. Perf. Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser. Magnolia Home Entertainment, 2008. Film.

“Safe and Suitable Ingredients Used in the Production of Meat, Poultry, and Egg Products.” United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service. usda.gov. 7 Oct. 2010. Web. Retrieved October 24, 2010.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York: Harper Perennial, 2001. Print.

Schneider, S.. "Good, Clean, Fair: The Rhetoric of the Slow Food Movement." College English 70.4 (2008): 384-402. Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 23 Oct. 2010.

Spurlock, Morgan. Don’t Eat This Book: Fast Food and Supersizing of America. New York: Berkley Publishing Company, 2005. Print.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Friend, Follow, Connect/Stumble with and Subscribe to me

It's only been a year and a half since I last posted here. That's not so bad. I've procrastinated doing some things for longer. It took me four years to remember that I was only taking one year off between high school and college.

So what has happened in the past year and half? Well, it's funny you should ask... I don't really know. I know there have been some fun times. Phish came back, so I've seen them a few times. And Further too... this could explain why I don't have more to report on ;)

Time has been flying by. My daughter's birthday is just around the corner, so that should be a testimony to how quickly things change and how easily time slips away. I'm going to blink and she's going to be a teenager. Heck, she already thinks she is. I know how much trouble I'm really in when I look at her.

I have a year and half before I graduate. I spent a year and half in between blog posts, and now I have that same amount of time to get my act together. I need internships and job offers, and most importantly I need the confidence to know I can do this.

I have a plan for building this confidence, and you, reluctant blog reader, are going to help me. Are you ready? I'm going to establish a web presence. I will learn all the tricks for marketing myself, and hopefully I will be able to help others do it too.

Seeing as I have no idea how to do this now, you probably found this from one of my other sites. But if by chance you stumbled upon this page (Stumble Upon? That's a very useful tool) go check out my other pages; friend me, follow me, connect with me, stumble with me, watch me. Hopefully we all learn something from my successes and very public mistakes.

You know what's a mistake... turning on my computer when I should be reading my text books. meh, I like you more.

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