So with my new-found free-time (which I admit there still isn't much of), I have begun reading again. I am hungry for books! Stories, something educational, anything. I have been devouring them! After deciding to eat better (we are trying not to eat partially hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup), I mentioned this to a friend. She then recommended and lent me the book The Omnivore's Dilemma (by Michael Pollan).
WOW. Talk about educational! Granted, I take what the author says with a grain of salt. He seems a little disenchanted by the governments handle on the American Food Crisis, but I think he makes some excellent points. He discusses the process and methods behind the industrial food chain, following the process of corn through is place on the farm to the grocery store. What you learn is amazing! Did you know that more than a quarter of the food products in the grocery store contain a corn product? While that may seem like a random and useless fact, it is actually alarming in more ways than one. I could go off on a tangent on this, but I'll let you read the book. I'll just say that the gross surge of corn production has caused or will cause farmland degradation around the globe and is having a major impact on our health and economy, not to mention the global crisis. But I digress...
One great point I thought he made regarded how much we spend on food. Organic, or clean food as this farmer calls it, is generally more expensive. Enter author Michael Pollan and the true organic farmer he is quoting:
“ 'Whenever I hear people say clean food is expensive, I tell them it’s actually the cheapest food you can buy. That always gets their attention. Then I explain that with our food all the costs are figured into the price. Society is not bearing the cost of water pollution, of antibiotic resistance, of food borne illnesses, of crop subsidies, of subsidized oil and water - of all the hidden costs to the environment and the taxpayer that make cheap food seem cheap. No thinking person will tell you they don’t care about all that. I tell them the choice is simple: You can buy honestly priced food or you can buy irresponsibly priced food.'
He [here Pollan is referencing the farmer] reminded me that his meat would be considerably cheaper than it is if not for government regulations and the resulting high cost of processing – at least a dollar cheaper per pound. 'If we could just level the playing field – take away the regulations, the subsidies and factor in the health care and environmental cleanup costs of cheap food – we could compete on price with anyone.'
It’s true that cheap industrial food is heavily subsidized in many ways such that its price in the supermarket does not reflects its real cost. But until the rules that govern our food system change, organic or sustainable food is going to cost more at the register, more than some people can afford. Yet for the great majority of us the story is not quite so simple. As a society we Americans spend only a fraction of our disposable income feeding ourselves – about a tenth, down from a fifth in the 1950’s. American’s today spend less on food, as a percentage of disposable income, than any other industrialized nation, and probably less than any people in the history of the world. This suggests that there are many of us who could afford to spend more on food if we chose to. After all, it isn’t only the elite who in recent years have found an extra fifty or one hundred dollars each month to spend on cell phones (now owned by more than half the U.S., population, children included) or television, which close to 90 percent of all U.S. households now pay for…So is the unwillingness to pay more for food really a matter of affordability or priority?"
Isn't our health and environment worth it? I'm off to find a local produce farmer as we speak...
I highly recommend this book! I've also heard Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver shares a similar message and has come recommended. Let me know and give me some ideas...how are you being more food conscious in your home?
