Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Following Pollan's Advice & News

Today is exactly two months from the day I posted a review of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food. I have attempted to follow his rules about eating for the past two months and found it to be more difficult that I imagined, but still fairly easy. I can only share with you my own frustrations and revelations on this matter, but keep in mind that everyone has different skill levels, different access to food, and different food preferences.

In the past two months, I have discovered that the biggest challenge in following Pollan's advice is finding foods with less than five ingredients. I made several exceptions to this rule because many foods include each spice listed in the ingredients (which I lumped together under spices when reading the list).   I found that I could no longer eat pre-packaged burritos, fake meats, or even most breads.

I have to admit, the hardest part of finding five or less ingredient foods was finding bread products fitting this criteria. I could not find a single sandwich bread that followed Pollan's rules. I attempted to make my own, but did not use a recipe that wielded the fluffy, soft bread that I am accustomed to. (Instead, my bread was dense and dryer than I liked.) This is, most likely, attributable to my lack of experience in baking this kind of bread. I did find that making focaccia (which I am proficient at) allowed me to have a flavorful sandwich bread with a pleasant texture. So, my advice to you on this count is to find a bread that you can make to substitute for the sandwich breads you buy in the store, which are made with many fillers and ingredients you cannot pronounce. You might be surprised with the variety of breads you can use to make sandwiches; these tend to be even better than those you buy in the store anyways.

I'm learning to make corn tortillas with a tortilla press.

I was unable to find a flour tortilla in the stores with less than five ingredients. I learned at Heifer Ranch how to make my own corn and flour tortillas, which is a simple process. However, these tortillas are not as malleable as those I am accustomed to. Therefore, I cheated on this count and continued buying my preferred brand of flour tortillas. I made this exception since I had cut out most of my bread intake from lack of time to bake my own focaccia bread every week. I also managed to only buy two packages of eight tortillas in the last two months, making my consumption rate very low. If you are fond of tortillas, you can try making your own (foodgawker has several recipes like this) or just give yourself this exception.

Making Cheese

Cheese is another exception I've made over the past two months. I can buy locally made cheddar and colby cheeses from Conway Locally Grown (CLG). Plus, I learned on the Ranch how to make my own farmer's cheese from goat's milk, which is similar to the goat cheese you buy in stores. I have made goat cheese from raw goat's milk after milking my own goats; there is nothing tastier than something made by your own hands, literally from scratch. Knowing I had a hand in the collection and processing of the milk I'm sure had an influence on my preference for the cheese; nonetheless, it is a delectable form of cheese. However, if I wanted any other cheese, like bleu cheese or parmesan, I had to buy it already processed. I love cheese. It is one of the reasons I could never be a vegan. Therefore, I made the exception and bought cheese from around the world when I wanted it.

Ripening Grape Tomatoes
Guatemala Garden at Heifer Ranch

As a result of my lack of bread, I ended up eating a number of meals which consisted of a conglomeration of vegetables thrown together in a stir fry or soup. Thanks to the wonderful fruits of Summer, I had a variety of fresh garden vegetables available for these meals such as: zucchini, zephyr squash, rainbow chard, cabbage, eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, onions, potatoes, jalapeños, butternut squash and various herbs. The massive amount of tomatoes produces this year made me very happy. I've found a number of uses for them, including processing some and freezing them for use when my tomato plants are long gone. It's extremely easy to freeze or can your Summer garden vegetables for use through Fall and Winter. This is an easy way to curb a craving for something not in-season.

Fairytale Eggplant

Eating almost entirely local became an easy feat for me. I am a member of CLG, which gave me access to the vegetables that I didn't grow myself. There is an orchard, Collin's Orchard, outside of Conway, which allowed me to get local fruit when Summer came into full-swing.  I also managed to gather several handfuls of wild blackberries in late June. That was a real treat. Wild fruit are more common than you might think and I suggest taking the time to look for them along roadsides.

The fact that I live in Arkansas has its perks when it comes to adding grains to my diet. Riceland rice is all Arkansas rice and is packaged here too, meaning local rice is available for my use. I took advantage of this several times in the last months.

I've taken a number of fruit and turned them into jams because I enjoy the process of canning foods. There are local jams available at Farmer's Markets, but I prefer my own. When Autumn comes around, I plan to make my own fruit butters as well. If you think you don't have time to process your own jams and butters, you should take a look at some recipes (like this). You can process fruit into jam from start to finish in a matter of hours. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon?

Harvest for June 25th
I do not feel any different since I've stopped eating virtually all processed foods (excepting cheese and milk), however, this was not a drastic change in my diet. For others, who are used to less fresh foods and more processed ones, I'm sure it would make you feel healthier and improve your overall health. If you cannot grow your own vegetables for lack of space, I recommend checking out Conway Locally Grown or the Little Rock (LR) Farmer's Market. Now that it is Summer, the LR market is open at 10a.m. on Saturdays in the River Market. It is actually fairly easy to follow Pollan's advice about selecting food. I have found my own system: Eat local, even if not organic, but eat organic if possible. Don't waste time on pre-packaged and pre-cooked foods (though I do love Amy's burritos). Grow my own food when possible.

Happy Eating!

__________________________________________

My exciting news:

I have been accepted as an AmeriCorps VISTA member to work with Little Rock's Love Your School Initiatives. I will be working with one of eight schools in the Little Rock area to combat obesity through school gardens, exercise programs, and community outreach. There are fourteen VISTA members this year who will all help to design new Summer Programs to increase participation in Summer gardens and exercise programs. We will work with nutritionists and chefs from UCA, UALR, and Pulaski Tech to teach parents how to cook meals at home. We will work with students (kindergarten through third grade) to give them more knowledge about food, nutrition, and gardening. Culminating with the creation of a Youth Farmer's Market run by the students.

I am so excited to be a part of this team! Especially to be involved in bringing nutrition education into children's schools. If we do our job right, we can help initiatives like the Delta Garden Study to prove that school gardens and focus on nutrition can help to combat obesity in school children.

I will essentially be working in the same capacity as Heifer International: combating hunger and poverty by providing knowledge to the impoverished about how to help themselves. I am excited to be able to continue working along this path and hope to see as much change in the lives of these school children as I did in the attitudes of the participants of Heifer Ranch programs. I begin my position by flying to Denver, CO for national VISTA training on August 12th. I start training in Little Rock the Monday following my return (the 19th). I will most likely be linking to another blog about my work through the VISTA program in the future.

Sunday, June 9, 2013

The Slow Food Movement


I recently realized that I have yet to write a post explaining the Slow Food Movement (SFM), which is my favorite food movement. Consequently, I gathered up all the books I have on the SFM and brought them to the Ranch in preparation for writing this post. I was then reminded that I have written extensively on the subject for a Sociology class a few years ago. I have spread this essay to the general populace through several means and decided that adding it to this blog would be beneficial. So, keep in mind while reading this post that all of the information was originally intended for an audience of Sociologists. 
I have added some modifications to the original paper, namely highlighting key ideas in bold lettering so that you can easily pick them out.
That said, I hope you enjoy learning about the SFM, or even furthering your knowledge of the subject, as the case may be.
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Having read a large amount of material on the Slow Food Movement (hereafter referred to as SFM), I find it necessary to interject my own sociological analysis on its principles. Within this paper, I will address several tenets of the SFM and how they can be used to alter the social structure of a progressive capitalist society, specifically the United States, in a positive way. I will discuss several issues surrounding the SFM including, but certainly not limited to, the social structures that demand for such a movement to exist, how the concepts presented by the SFM can aid American society, and critiques surrounding the movement. (I acknowledge that the term American truly refers to all peoples living in North and South America; however, for the purposes of this paper, I will use the term to refer to citizens of the United States.) Through this analysis of the SFM, I hope to explore how the concepts presented by the movement are necessary for our society and how peoples and groups who are not associated directly with the SFM perpetuate them.
The History of the Movement
The SFM is generally viewed as beginning in 1986 as a protest to the opening of a McDonald’s in the Piazza di Spagna, Rome spurred by Carlo Petrini (Padovani 2006). However, the movement attributes its true beginning to another organization known as Arci (the Associazione ricrreativa culturale italiana) a previously political leftist group who had discovered the convivial pleasures of food and wine, especially of the local variety (Padovani 2006). The group participated in many gastronomic and enological events and came to understand “a new balance between conviviality per se and a system of cultural values” (Padovani 2006:9). The group claimed for the Left the idea of pleasure; they thought of the “snobbish haute bourgeoisie” as gluttons, not connoisseurs (Padovani 2006:9). The political ties of the group allowed them to connect with regional producers, including a closed circle of Borolo wine producers. They connected to this group through Bartolo Mascarello. It was in his living room that the wine producers and Petrini forged the idea of a club, “something like the then-trendy gastronomical academies, but with the specific goal of spreading the culture of good food even among ordinary people” (Padovani 2006:12). Thus was born the precursor to Slow Food associations the Libera e benemerita associazione degli amici del Barolo (Free and praiseworthy association of the friends of Barolo). Throughout Italy, other institutions were born and given voice by Petrini in La Gola, a monthly magazine that was contributed to by “writers, poets and artists” and focused on food culture; the publication ran from 1982-1988 (Padovani 2006:17).
In 1986, many tragedies struck Italy. The methanol-tainted wine scandal that killed 19 families and herbicide contamination polluting the water of Po Valley are two examples (Padovani 2006:17–18). The group Arci Gola (later called Slow Food) was born in the context of these travesties. The ideas promoted by the group began to get a lot of attention; “the focus was on enjoying the traditions of the farmhouse, trading the stories and knowledge of the older generation, and eating well” (Padovani 2006:52). In 1987, Carlo Petrini wrote, “Here are the coordinates within which I think the work of Arci Gola should situate itself and grow: environmental protection and consumer protection, with the right amount of conviviality, good living, enjoyment, and pleasure that such issues require” (Padovani 2006:56).
The rest of the history of the SFM is long and arduous; therefore, I shall not make you suffer through it. The point of this section is to explain exactly where the movement comes from, specifically the Italian communist party and the search for conviviality and pleasure taken in the consumption of regional foods and wine. The background of 1986 is more significant than a mere opening of McDonald’s in Rome. The effects of industrialization on the food and drink of thousands of people in Italy spanned from methanol poisoning to water contamination. The opening of McDonald’s merely added to the problems being experienced by Italians because of globalization and industrialization which promoted bland, standardized food with health regulations that threatened the regional specialties.
Slow Food Movement Principles
In 1987, the Manifesto dello Slow Food was drafted by Folco Portanari (Petrini 2001:13) and signed by fifteen countries in December of 1989. The manifesto called for “Homo Sapiens to rid himself of speed before it reduces him to a species in danger of extinction” (Anon 2011). Petrini tells us, “In 1991, the year of the second national congress at Perugia, the association emerged as a new phenomenon in the food and wine market in Italy. It brought together several tens of thousands of enlightened consumers, supplied them with publications, supported the education of the sense of taste and smell, promoted gatherings and large-scale events, and thus had enough weight to exert a considerable degree of influence on the market for good-quality food and wine” (Petrini 2001:14).
In 1996, the first Salone del Gusto (literally, Hall of Taste) was held in Turin. The same year, the SFM launched its L’Arca del Gusto (Ark of Taste) (Petrini 2001:11). “The task of the new association was to combine styles and notions that were thought incompatible until that time: excellent quality and affordable prices, enjoyment and health, delight in life’s pleasures and social awareness, quickness and lazy rhythms” (Petrini 2001:12). The purpose of these projects is to bring people together to appreciate the taste of local foods, to promote exchange between farmers, chefs and gastronomists, and to protect regional biodiversity. 
The SFM is also not arguing to completely alter the production back to the old model. Instead, it is arguing for a synthesis of the old and the new: “a modern agronomic science that enters into dialogue with agroecology and traditional knowledge; and a scientific research that does not go only in the direction of productivism but places itself at the service of the producing communities and of small-scale agriculture, combining their respective skills” (Petrini 2007:182). Petrini argues that traditional farming knowledge should supplement the new age technology; allowing for quicker, easier cultivation of a biologically diverse ecosystem.
There are three principles that the SFM promotes in regards to food; it must be good, clean and fair. Good meaning healthful and delicious, clean meaning sustainably produced, and fair meaning socially just. The Salone del Gusto and the L’Arca del Gusto promote these principles by connecting people to regional dishes and the people (farmers, chefs, etc.) who make them possible. The Ark of Taste serves to aide those who are trying to preserve a regional tradition, food, or dish. However, the goal of the SFM is not to create bubbles in which populations of a region shall only taste local, seasonal produce. In fact, Petrini himself says, “to eat a different kind of food in every street in the world is the best answer to fast food” (Petrini 2001:18).
The SFM also has the goal of preserving regional flavors, which would be lost to the industrialized model. An example of this is Laguiole cheese. When the Fleur d’Aubrac cows indigenous to the region of Laguiole, France were replaced with “more productive” Holsteins, the cheese became impossible to cultivate. As Valadier, head of the association of AOC cheese producers tells it, “Their milk, which contains much less fat and also less protein than that produced by the indigenous cows (as well as being less tasty), is virtually useless for making Laguoile cheese” (Petrini 2007:15). Many other examples from around the world would not be hard to find. Indeed, here in North America, the production of corn has become reduced to a mere fraction of the species that were once widely available because of industrializations preference for high yields (Pilcher 1998). The flavors reduced to those of sweet kernel corn and commodity No. 2 corn (Pollan 2007; Pilcher 1998).
L’Arca del Gusto is an important project for the SFM to undertake for this and other reasons. The problem with losing biodiversity in regions is that you also lose knowledge of which plants are edible, such as happened with amaranth in Tehuacan. In 2002 one winner of the Slow Food Award for the Defense of Biodiversity was attempting to reintroduce amaranth into “one of the poorest areas in Mexico” (Petrini 2007:11). This food had been used for many “nutritional and medicinal purposes” a mere two generations before, but had been lost because of the globalization of intensive cultivation (Petrini 2007:11–13). Clearly, as biodiversity is lost, so is the knowledge needed to cultivate certain foods and use them in creating healthy meals.
A final principle that I wish to bring to light is that surrounding education, on which the SFM puts a great emphasis. Petrini (2001) states, “pleasure without knowledge is merely self-indulgence” (61). He talks of a time when knowledge of food, recipes, customs and traditions that require special feasts were passed down from parent to child (68). Then, he points out that the children of our time have knowledge and tastes that are formed by industrialization and the food industry (68). As Petrini (2001) aptly advocates, “It is not so much a question of fighting a fundamentalist war against the spread of the hamburger as it is of informing, stimulating curiosity, giving everyone the opportunity to choose” (69). The SFM promotes the education of children when they are young, so that their tastes can be developed before the school system’s industrialized foods can undermine their ability to learn (Petrini 2001:73). That is not to say that someone cannot learn after they are tainted with industrialized foods. Indeed, in 2004 the movement opened its University of Gastronomic Sciences, which is open to students of all ages and backgrounds (Padovani 2006). The movement also holds workshops, which allow people to “examine a food or beverage carefully, in a setting divorced from everyday eating rituals, and see them for what they really are” (Petrini 2001:77). Slow Food seeks to educate people about taste; sustainable practices and why factory farms are a negative thing; how to cultivate and use their regional flora and fauna; and how fast food is not the way to a healthy life (Petrini 2001; Padovani 2006; Petrini 2007; Anon 2011).
Social Structure and Application of Slow Food Principles
The Industrial and Green Revolutions served to create a social structure that revolved around fast-paced, efficient society. The Industrial Revolution gave us machines that sped up production and allowed for larger areas of land to be used for agriculture. It brought with it ideas of Fordism: one-size-fits-all mass production, assembly line production, and the rising of wages to promote consumption (Tolliday and Zeitlin 1987).  The Green Revolution brought with it a way to dispose of the chemicals created in World War II and a furthered reliance on the principles of science. Synthetic fertilizers using the N-P-K (nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium) principle began to be used along with synthetic pesticides. These factors combined to create foods that were grown by synthetic chemical means, producing immense quantities of commodity foods like No. 2 corn that needs to be processed further to make edible products, like high-fructose corn syrup (Pollan 2007). These two revolutions added to the idea that all products are the same, taking away from the quality regional products hold. Consequently, they added to the purchasing of foods that travel long distances, but are cheaper in price. The revolutions also began to decrease the biodiversity of many regions in the world by replacing the regional varieties with the most efficient plants (Petrini 2007).
The problem with this type of production is that it is unsustainable. Monocultures are depleting the soil as well as regional plants and animals (which were adapted to a specific area). The nutrition of our foods is lowered because of industrialized growing methods (Pollan 2007; Petrini 2007, 2001). The diminution of regional varieties and standardization of food is most disconcerting. This has caused a depletion of regional dishes that depend upon the specific flavor of a product just like the milk of the Fleur d’Aubrac cows for Laguiole cheese (Petrini 2007:14–16). Indeed, if you have ever tasted a tomato (or any other produce) grown organically and picked fresh from the garden, you understand just how bland the flavors of industrially grown foods truly are. As mentioned above, these are two of the main issues that the SFM addresses: biodiversity and taste.            
Sociologically speaking, the postmodern world in which we live creates “the need to search for comfort in a slower-moving past” (Tam 2008:209). Modern elites have very little time to spend on gathering and preparing food, a fact that led to the rise in processed, precooked and packaged, bland meals. The rise of Post-Fordism also changed our system of production; catering to niche markets rather than having one standardized product allowed producers to package the same product in different ways and charge a higher price for it (Lipietz 1997). Now these pre-made meals can cater to children, young adults, middle aged adults and elders as well as vegetarians, vegans, pescatarians and so forth.
As a result of this fast-paced lifestyle, we are unable to take leisurely time to travel to distant places. However, popular notions idealize these places in our minds. For example, Tuscany, Italy has become the setting for popular romantic thoughts thanks to Frances Mayes’ Under the Tuscan Sun; however, Italian olive oil producers found the book to be “inaccurate and boring” (Meneley 2004:167). Marketing analysts use this to promote foods that give us a sense of place. As Meneley (2004) points out, “The commodification of Tuscany itself depends on foreign imaginings of it as a desirable place” (167). Tam (2008) expresses the culmination of all these factors: “The combination of individuality, of sourcing and of information creates an image of tradition and authenticity that feeds a current need in the social life of commodities” (212). As Tam (2008) points out, Appadurai (1993) calls this “armchair nostalgia”, which is allowing the general population to remember an experience that they have never really had. This is what the market of industrialization and Post-Fordism thrives on.
The SFM proposes that rather than allow oneself to be consumed by “armchair nostalgia” you travel and experience these sensations in real life to their fullest extent. Slow Food allows yourself to slow down and take time to enjoy a meal, some company, or a culture, rather than speeding through life with mere imitations presented in a box that you throw in the oven or microwave. Petrini (2001) states,
Some people even maintain that a richly varied intake of food is economically unrealistic nowadays, or incompatible with the amount of time available. But monotonous eating is actually a recent and invasive phenomenon, related to consumerism and higher disposable incomes and the devaluation of food as pleasure (23).
He argues that in fact, the opposite is true and our declining income requires us to eat what is readily available, pointing to what is eaten during wars and famine (Petrini 2001:23). He goes on to point out that the notion of having no time is preposterous; “we have more free time than any generation in history, with our reduced working hours and long weekends” (Petrini 2001:24). The idea of the SFM is to live slow in all aspects of life, not just in regards to cooking meals that require time and effort, but realizing just how much time we do have to spend on activities that do not revolve around the capitalist need to gain and spend money; to understand that we have time to get to know the farmer who grows our produce and raises our cattle in a sustainable way that will allow the human population to perpetuate rather than becoming extinct like so many species we have driven to extinction.
“Some people see food as no more than nourishment, but others experience all its rich dimensions of health, hedonism, and culture.” (Petrini 2001)
Pietrykowski (2004) states that as consumers, we adapt our consumption in light of how we are perceived by others, while influencing others in the same way (308). As Lock and Scheper-Hughes (2010) point out, we in the United States have a “’healthist’ and body-conscious culture” with health being “an achieved rather than an ascribed status” (546). As a result of this, each person judges others based on how they look and act with regard to fitness. However, at the same time people are expected to flaunt their wealth by consuming as much as possible: “Competitive consumption becomes a race run on a treadmill with the goal of superior social status lying just out of reach” (Pietrykowski 2004:308). Because of the perceived need of being thin and fit, but at the same time being an indulgent consumer, many women and men have developed eating disorders. This is especially hard on American women “since one cannot be hedonistic and controlled simultaneously, one can alternate phases of binge eating, drinking, and drugging with phases of jogging, purging, and vomiting. Out of this cyclical resolution of the injunction to consume and to conserve is born, according to Crawford, the current epidemic of eating disorders” (Lock and Scheper-Hughes 2010:546). Women can become obsessed with the idea of food and yet repulsed by it, causing a strong desire to avoid the subject altogether. Petrini (2001) says of the general populace, “We still mortify the flesh when we sit down to eat, denying ourselves wine and tasty treats under the illusion that it will keep us perfect and immune” (23).
There is a connection with this social structure and the idea of eating alone. Because consumers are afraid of appearing too gluttonous, the idea of eating on their own becomes more appealing. Advertisements clearly show the tendency towards this thinking. Dove presents us with images of a woman indulging in chocolate alone in her apartment. Yoplait plays on the fact that women want to be fit, but still shows a woman eating the “dessert” alone. We can also see genderization in advertisements (Bordo 1998). Again using the example of Yoplait, there are other commercials that depict the woman talking about a sweet treat to her friend on the phone while her husband combs the fridge for the dessert. We then see that the dessert was simply the flavors of the treat compacted into a healthier yogurt. The woman clearly has more pressures not to eat sweets than the man. This is another social structure that is embodied by our food.
I argue here that the mandates of the SFM could counteract this negative social structure. By putting forward the idea that we should consume good, clean food, the movement would help women and men to come to a better relationship with their food. Indulging in a meal, indeed deriving pleasure from the act of eating, would no longer be seen as a negative action. Because the food is good for the body it would aid in the health of the individual. The idea of fair food is also relevant here, in reference to the idea of consuming while conserving. As a consumer of fair food, an individual would be able contain money within the community. As a result, both the tenets are fulfilled. Therefore, by following the SFM, Americans would be able to satisfy their image of healthy eating practices while indulging their capitalist needs as well. This change in social structure would allow for a healthier relationship with food. Consequently, fewer women, and men, would be caught in the dilemma of wanting food but being repelled by it.
The idea of food as a base for community and family is also presented by the SFM. As Alice Waters says, “The ritual of cooking and eating together constitutes the basic element of family and community life” (Petrini 2001:x). The idea of eating alone is no longer a viable option. Eating should be about family and communication. It should be a time when people relax and enjoy a meal, the taste and the company. It is a time for reflection and thinking about something other than work and the fast pace of life.
Critiques of the Movement
A majority of the SFM critics point out that it is an elitist movement. Indeed, an Italian olive oil producer has said, “Slow Food paradoxically serves to promote the interests of the larger rather than the smaller producers it claims to champion”. It is easy to see this perception with the likes of Alice Waters promoting the SFM considering her meals at Chez Panisse cost vastly more than the average American can spend. However, I would argue that there are many organizations that promote the principles of the SFM without being directly associated with it. The People’s Café of Bello Horizante is one example. This café promotes sustainable food production and gives people, no matter economic status, a place to eat a healthy, slow meal for low cost (F. M. Lappé and A. Lappé 2003). Another example would be the town of Missoula, Montana’s Garden City Harvest program. The program connects farmers and community gardens to help feed the poverty-stricken residents (Smith 2010). Like the SFM, Garden City Harvest promotes education within the community by teaching visitors about the garden project, hosting interns from the local college, and having garden visit days for local school children (Smith 2010). The project promotes sustainable agriculture and even teaches people recipes to use the food they get from the CSA (community-supported agriculture) program (Smith 2010).  To reiterate, I argue here that the SFM is not meant to be elitist, no matter what it may seem on the surface; there are many examples of institutions that follow the SFM principles and cater to those in poverty.
It has been said that the SFM does not address the ideas of class disparity and how that challenges people’s chance of obtaining its goals. Petrini (2001) points out that the amount of money we have truly pushes us towards buying local produce or growing our own. I would like to add to his argument that it is our acceptance of the principles of wanting “more for a buck” that pushes us towards consuming processed foods rather than whole foods. The problem with our society is we are concerned with the amount of calories we can intake for the cheapest price and are not educated in what foods would be better for us even on a smaller calories scale. As I mentioned earlier, Petrini (2001) also states as one of the L’Arca del Gusto’s long-term goals the synthesis of quality and affordability (12).
Like a political-economist would, I wish to point out another factor: the market in this Post-Fordist regime caters to the consumer. If everyone in the U.S. demanded foods that cater to the principles of the SFM, then the market would be forced to adjust. I would also bring to light that the SFM pushes local production, which is something that the U.S. tends not to cater to. Since producing materials in impoverished countries like Mexico or India is cheaper than producing them in the states, companies have moved their production outside the U.S. The globalization of the world has led to a decrease in jobs in our own land because of exploitation. Catering to the call for local production would give more jobs to local populations as well as keep money circulating within the local community.
A final critique of the movement is that is does not address the ideas of genderization and racism regarding food. I argue that it does not directly address these ideas because the movement should not have to address them. There should not be a genderization of food, nor a race/ethnicity association like is common in the U.S. (an example being that African Americans like fried chicken). It is not within the bounds of this paper to explore a full feminist view on this issue, so I will leave my argument at that. In regards to race/ethnicity, Petrini (2001) does advocate the tasting every variety of food in its place of origin; it could be argued that he believes the ethnic association with food would not be an issue since you would be in an ethnic culture.
Conclusion
I believe it is fair to say that the social structure in the U.S., as well as other capitalist and globalized countries, demands that a movement such as Slow Food exists. Throughout this paper, I have provided for you evidence of the usefulness of the principles of the Slow Food Movement: good, clean and fair food; protecting biodiversity; promoting education and sustainable growing practices; and developing an acceptance of pleasure in relation to food. These principles combat industrial practices that are leading us down a path that will deplete our resources and destroy biodiversity. They also address social structures that cause a love-hate relationship with food and poor education (both in regards to what our system does to the earth and ourselves, as well as to ancient knowledge of edible foods and artisanal production). The history of the movement itself shows that these practices pushed the founding members to fight back with Slow Food. The quick spread to other countries shows that these factors are present around the world. This is truly worrisome from a structural functionalist point of view because it means that the interconnected parts are following the wrong path; however, the SFM can aid in correcting that path.
The movement is not just about juxtaposing fast food with slow food; it is a way to change your life to suit that of the earth. It is a way to regain the regional knowledge that connects us with the life sustaining food and sustainable practices that will allow the human population to prosper for years to come. It is on the smallest level a symbolic interactionist’s dream; a way to find oneself through pleasure in food, taste, and company, as well as a chance to take time and reflect. Despite many critiques of the movement, I truly believe that its principle can help save the Earth, which the capitalist society has begun to destroy with the Industrial and Green Revolutions by promoting quantity over all else. Quality over quantity truly is the answer to many of our problems.

References
Anon. 2011. Photograph. Retrieved November 10, 2011. (http://kontano.wordpress.com/2011/05/26/hello-world/).
Anon. 2011. “The Slow Food Manifesto.” Slow Food. Retrieved November 13, 2011 (http://www.slowfood.com/about_us/eng/manifesto.lasso).
Bordo, Susan. 1998. “Hunger as ideology.” Pp. 11-35 in Eating Culture. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Lappé, Frances Moore, and Anna Lappé. 2003. “Beautiful Horizon.” Pp. 93-102 in Hope’s Edge. New York: Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Lipietz, Alain. 1997. “The Post Fordist World: Labor Relations, International Hierarchy and Global Ecology.”Review of International Political Economy 4(1):37-41.
Lock, Margaret, and Nancy Scheper-Hughes. 2010. “A Critical-Interpretive Approach in Medical Anthroplogy.” Pp. 530-555 in Readings for A Hisotry of Anthropological Theory, edited by Paul A Erickson and Liam D. Murphy. New York: University of Toronto Press Incorporated.
Meneley, Ann. 2004. “Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Slow Food.” Anthropologica 46(2):165-176.
Padovani, Gigi. 2006. Slow Food Revolution: A New Culture for Eating and Living. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.
Petrini, Carlo. 2007. Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should be Good, Clean, and Fair. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.
Petrini, Carlo. 2001. Slow Food: The Case for Taste. New York: Columbia University Press.
Pietrykowski, Bruce. 2004. “You Are What You Eat: The Social Economy of the Slow Food Movement.”Review of Social Economy 62(3):307-321.
Pilcher, Jeffrey. 1998. ¡Que Vivan Los Tamales! New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press.
Pollan, Michael. 2007. The Omnivore’s Dilemma. New York: Penguin Books.
Smith, Jeremy N. 2010. Growing a Garden City. Kindle. New: Skyhorse Publishing.
Tam, Diasy. 2008. “Slow Journeys: What Does It Mean to Go Slow?” Food, Culture and Society 2(2).
Tolliday, Steven, and Jonathan Zeitlin. 1987. The Automobile Industry and its Workers: Between Fordism and Flexibility. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Book Review: Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food"

So, I must preface this review/summary of In Defense of Food with the fact that I adore Michael Pollan; he is one of my favorite contemporary authors. Possibly, this is because I like his journalistic style of writing or the serious humor he incorporates. Or, maybe I just enjoy that he writes about a topic most of America cringes to think about. Now that I have stated my bias in this matter, let us discuss the contents of the book.

I had managed to condense about 200 pages of text into four pages of notes, but as I wrote this post, those pages expanded considerably (I have proceeded to cut them down twice over). I cannot ever hope to achieve the likeness of Pollan's compacting the entire solution to the problem of the Western diet into seven words: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." These are the first words read upon opening In Defense of Food; words that Pollan himself reflects should be self-evident. In the Introduction, Pollan goes on to explain that the rest of the book is broken into three sections: 1) discussing "The Age of Nutritionism", 2) discussing the Western Diet and disease , 3) stating rules for eating in a healthy, pleasurable manner. Pollan states, "My aim in this book is to help us reclaim our health and happiness as eaters."

Pollan has filled a profusion of facts into the 200 pages. I cannot possibly present them all for your perusal without simply re-writing his book. Therefore, I am going to address the overarching ideas he presents in each section. At the end of each summary, I've included my favorite quotes from the section (the ones that really drive the point home); feel free to skip them if you prefer.
"Today in America the culture of food is changing more than once in a generation, which is historically unprecedented - and dizzying. "

The Age of Nutritionism
In this section, Pollan explores the history surrounding our eating practices and explains the origin/development of the nutritionism ideology. The overall point of this section in the book is to point out the flawed logic behind the ideology of nutritionism and nutritional science. There are too many factors that we don't, and often cannot, examine in our research of nutrition. Our methods in examining the effects of nutrients and diets are based on trials that have too many human and reductionist errors (placebo effect, lying on surveys, removal of lifestyle context, etc.). The ideology of nutritionism is causing too much anxiety coinciding with the Western diet; our obsession with health and eating borders on becoming a medically recognized eating disorder ("orthorexia nervosa"). Journalism, government and the food industry are responsible for the prevalence of this ideology. Plus, nutritionism has failed at its root goal to make us healthier. Thus, we need a "whole new way to think about eating."
"By framing dietary advice in terms of good and bad nutrients, and by burying the recommendation that we should eat less of any particular actual food, it was easy for the take-home message of the 1977 and 1982 dietary guidelines to be simplified as follows: eat more low-fat foods."
"Not only does nutritionism favor ever more novel kinds of highly processed foods (which are by far the most profitable kind to make), it actually enlists the medical establishment and the government in the promotion of those products."
The Western Diet and the Diseases of Civilization
In section two of In Defense of Food, Pollan examines several studies that show exactly what transformations the Western diet has wrought on our way of eating and how we can change them. A 1982 seven-week experiment with diabetic Aborigines in Western Australia showed that the health problems brought on by the westernization of a diet can be reversed by adopting a more traditional (hunter-gatherer) lifestyle [note: not just a traditional diet]. Pollan explains that his regard for this study revolves around Kerin O'Dea "not attempting to pick out from the complexity of the diet (either before or after the experiment) which one nutrient might explain the results [...] focusing instead on larger dietary patterns." He points out that most nutritional researchers treat overall dietary patterns as a fixed matter, that is, unchangeable. Considering the Western diet consists of "lots of processed foods and meat, lots of added fat and sugar, lots of everything except fruits, vegetables, and whole grains," is it really any wonder why adding this or that nutrient to our diet doesn't lead to being healthier? Other studies Pollan presents examine the connection between overall health of soil, the food grown and the eaters of that food (us and the animals we eat).

Pollan states five transformations caused by adaptation of the Western diet that can be reversed; we have moved from:

  1. Whole Foods to Refined
    • Part of this adaptation was refined foods acquired a prestigious status upon first entering the market since not everyone could afford them and "refining grains extends their shelf life." Many food products in today's market are extensions of the refining process started with grains.
  2. Complexity to Simplicity
    • Here, Pollan discuses how we've simplified foods into nutrients and the biochemistry of soil. We've reduced the complex nutrients in soil to Liebig's big three, nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium. We've reduced the food in our diet to what nutrients and vitamins they provide us. By processing our food we deplete some of the natural nutrients, only a small amount of which science can add back during "fortification". We've also reduced the number of species in our diet by breeding sub-groups together for greatest yield.
  3. Quality to Quantity
    • We are producing increasing amounts of food with our high-yield crops; however, "USDA figures show a decline in the nutrient content of the forty-three crops it has tracked since the 1950s." We are consuming a lot more calories since 1980, but "nearly a quarter of these additional calories come from added sugars."
  4. Leaves to Seeds
    • We grow grains because they are so efficient at "transforming sunlight, fertilizer, air, and water into macronutrients [and] these macronutrients in turn can be profitably converted into meat, dairy, and processed foods of every description." Grain seeds can also be stored for long periods of time. However, these seeds provide a minuscule amount of the vitamins, minerals and other nutrients that humans need to live. This ecological change has caused the change in biochemicals that are found in our diet, which scientists are always studying.
  5. Food Culture to Food Science
    • "Before the modern food era - and before the rise of nutritionism - people relied for guidance about what to eat on their national or ethnic or regional cultures." These traditions were passed down through the history of our people's and had stood the test of time. Today, we rely on the newest information about nutrition to dictate what we eat. What is this information based on, but a few (relatively unreliable) studies? Not only is this information not tested by evolution and centuries of history, but it often contradicts itself leading to confusion about exactly what we should eat.
A way to reverse this is to simply add more whole grains and produce to your diet. Do not eat anything with high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS), which is a by-product of refining corn.  Try to cut the amount of pure sugar down in your diet and consume whole fruits, which cause a less harmful effect on the body thanks to the fiber slowing its absorption. Another part of the solution is to eat more organic foods which have been shown to have higher levels of minerals and phytochemicals. Of those organic foods, we should try to eat more leave based foods than seeds (like soy, corn and wheat). When it comes to eating animals, we should eat those that were pasture-raised rather than fed more seeds (mostly corn), especially cattle who are not meant to digest corn. Last but definitely not least, we should attempt to reclaim a food culture rather than relying on food science to tell us what to eat. [In my house, I eat a lot of homemade foods (like salsa, jams and pickles) because my grandparents grew a garden, made their own food and canned a lot of it.]

"Looking at eating and food through the ecological lens opens a whole new perspective on exactly what the Western diet is: a radical, at least in evolutionary terms, abrupt set of changes over the course of the last 150 years, not just to our foodstuffs but also to our food relationships, all the way from the soil to the meal." 
"Our food system has long devoted its energies to increasing yields and selling food as cheaply as possible. [...] Today, corn, soy, wheat and rice account for two-thrids of the calories we eat." 
"You now have to eat three apples to get the same amount of iron as you would have gotten from a single 1940 apple, and you'd have to eat several more slices of bread to get your recommended daily allowance of zinc than you would have a century ago."  
"Of all the changes to our food system that go under the heading 'The Western Diet,' the shift from a food chain with green plants at its base to one based on seeds may be the most far reaching of all."
"We think of culture as a set of beliefs and practices to help mediate our relationship to other people, but of course culture - at least before the rise of modern science - has also played a critical role in helping to mediate people's relationship to nature. Eating being one of the most important manifestations of that relationship, cultures have had a great deal to say about what and how and why and when and how much we should eat."
"The concept of a changing food environment is not just a metaphor; nor is the idea of adapting to it. In order for natural selection to help us adapt to the Western diet, we'd have to be prepared to let those whom it sickens die." 
Apparently it is easier, or at least more profitable, to change a disease of civilization into a lifestyle than it is to change the way that a civilization eats."
Getting Over Nutritionism
 In this section, Pollan gives us some suggestions on how to adjust our diet to combat the ideology of nutritionism; expounding upon his original seven words of wisdom: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." [Most of the following are direct quotes that I will refrain from putting quotations around for the sake of attractiveness.]

  • Avoid foods that make health claims.
  • Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
    • Don't eat anything incapable of rotting.
  • Avoid products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number, or that include d) high fructose corn syrup.
  • Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.
    • Get out of the supermarket whenever possible (shortening the food chain).
  • Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
    • You are what you eat eats too (so consume animals who mostly consumed leaves).
  • If you have the space, buy a freezer (because buying in bulk is cheaper).
  • Eat like an omnivore (diversify your diet).
  • Eat well-grown food from healthy soils (mostly organic, ideally local).
  • Eat wild foods when you can (berries are found everywhere in summer! Venison, squirrel, rabbit and wild hog are also good options).
  • Be the kind of person who would take supplements (but don't need to take them).
    • i.e. be more health conscious and better educated (reading many perspectives on the subject of food; I recommend Michael Pollan and Carlo Petrini).
  • Eat more like a traditional food culture ( French, Italian, Greek, Indian, Japanese, etc.)
    • Remember, "the whole of a dietary pattern is greater than the sum of its parts."
  • Have a glass of wine with dinner.
  • Pay more, eat less.
    • This goes back to quality over quantity; better food will be better for you and you will need less of it.
  • Eat meals
    • Do all of your eating at a table (a desk does not count).
    • Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does.
    • Try not to eat alone.
      • "The shared meal elevated eating from a mechanical process of fueling the body to a ritual of family and community, from a mere animal biology to an act of culture."
    • Consult your gut.
      • "Eating more slowly, and then consulting our sense of satiety might help us to eat less."
  • Eat slowly
    • "I means 'slow' in the sense of deliberate and knowledgeable eating promoted by Slow Food."
    • "Eating with the fullest pleasure - pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance - is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend."
  • Cook and, if you can, plant a garden.
    •  "To reclaim this much control over one's food, to take it back from industry and science, is no small thing; indeed, in our time cooking from scratch and growing any of your own food qualify as subversive acts. These acts subvert nutritionism."
    • "The cook in the kitchen preparing a meal from plants and animals at the end of this shortest of food chains has a great many things to worry about, but "health" is simply not one of them, because it is given." 
That last quote is the final sentence of the book and wraps up Pollan's suggestions quite succinctly. Shortening and diversifying our food chain, by buying (or growing ourselves) whole foods that are grown organically, locally, and seasonally (and by cooking those foods ourselves) we are able to increase the quality of our diets and therefore the quality of our health. To shop like a traditional food culture is to worry not about nutrients, but about taste and quality. To enjoy our food, especially in the company of others, is to become better acquainted with our bodies needs and to gain more than simply physical health from the act of eating. To no longer be afraid to eat this or that because of the amount of fat or carbohydrates (or some other arbitrary nutrient) is to lose some of the anxiety that does nothing good for our health.



To eat in the way Pollan suggests is not as easy as it once was. I have been attempting it for the last two weeks, since I completed the book. The hardest point for me is making sure my food has less than five ingredients (find me a flour tortilla in a store that does, please!) as everything has fillers (even lime juice!). It is, however, possible if you can give up some products. I have not eaten processed foods (like microwave dinners) for quite some time, but some processed products, like bread and certain cheeses, were harder to give up. 

Pollan's book has inspired me to attempt to escape the ideology of nutritionism, which I can clearly hear in my head anytime I go to the grocery store. It is my hope that you can now better understand how the Western diet has transformed the way we think about food and how it is not providing us with better health as it claims to do. I encourage you to read Pollan's book for yourself to learn the facts that I have omitted. I will attempt to eat following Pollan's advice for the next two months and report to you the difficulties I find, if there are any, and to aid you in being able to do the same should you so choose.
"In order to eat well we need to invest more time, effort, and resources in providing for our sustenance than most of us do today. [...] For most people for most of history, gathering and preparing food has been an occupation at the very heart of daily life."


Monday, April 22, 2013

Earth Day

Well, I did have this post for you with the statistics about poverty/hunger that I promised a while back. Unfortunately my computer is currently under repair, so I'm unable to procure that post, which is saved only on the desktop. However, I thought that I should write something considering it is Earth Day.

Firstly, I would like to refer you back to previous posts I have written that contain advice which is pertinent to the topic of Earth Day. Specifically the posts on weekday vegetarianism and urban gardens. Both of which topics are addressed in the following articles on Huffington Post: Grow Food at Home and Healthy Food Swaps.

I would, however, caution you not to become too obsessed with what nutrients the plants you decide to plant can add to your diet. I have been reading Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food," where he cautions against the radical ideology of nutritionism that has permeated American culture since the 70s.  Pollan describes research that suggests we were better off before science became involved in our food habits because we were less stressed, we spent more time gardening and cooking (therefore expended more calories) and we ate real food rather than processed empty calories. I'm only a third of the way through the book at the moment, so I'll have more to say on this subject once I've finished. I would recommend reading any book he has written, though. His writing style makes the topics easily accessible with a serious humor that keeps you turning the page despite the sheer amount of facts presented in so few pages.

Pollans writing always reminds me of the reading I've done on the Slow Food Movement, which tells us to go back to enjoying our food for it's flavor and complexity rather than for what nutrition it can add to the body. (You can look up information on the slow food movement in the U.S. here.)

Mostly, I just wanted to share links with you today. Also, to wish you a happy Earth day and remind you that you can make a difference with small changes.

Cheers!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Happy Discoveries

I recently read in the Arkansas Times about an olive oil/vinegar shop which opened in Little Rock last Fall. I was intrigued by this since I had visited similar shops while traveling in Europe. Yesterday, I was able to visit this shop, aptly named Strippaggio. As Richard and I walked in the door, we were greeted with samples, including a vinaigrette, an award-winning strawberry jam, and the house bread dip blend in a mellow oil. I was instantly in love with the shop after tasting the vinaigrette, which was a combination of the blood orange olive oil and pineapple vinegar. I would definitely recommend this combination for a tropical feeling salad.

Within seconds of taking my first sample of olive oil from a tiny plastic cup, one of the shop girls came up to me and explained the proper way to taste the oil. The shop is named Strippaggio, which is the proper Italian tasting method of taking the oil into your mouth, coating your taste buds and then inhaling air from the corners of your mouth to allow the scent to reach your nasal passages and get the full effect of the flavors. I have to say, it changed everything. I retried the first oil and was able to detect the hints of banana and flowers. I tasted around twenty different flavors of oil, including a delectable black truffle. The shop also has about fifteen varieties of balsamic vinegar, mostly fruity flavors.

Richard and I agreed on a Tuscan Herb olive oil to pair with a Cranberry Pear Balsamic vinegar, which we planned to put on a shrimp salad for dinner. Then, Richard pointed out the chocolate and espresso vinegars. I was absolutely smitten. Espresso vinegar! Such an amazing flavor, anyone who drinks espresso would agree. I decided to grab a small bottle of this to pair with fresh strawberries as a dessert. I managed to leave with only these three bottles, but will definitely be going back for more soon.

We cooked the shrimp in the Tuscan Herb olive oil with no other seasoning. Our salad consisted of some local romaine, local broccoli leaves, local green onion, bell pepper, carrots, tomato, and feta. The Cranberry Pear vinegar added a sweet touch to the rich tomato like flavor of the Tuscan Herb oil and made a perfect vinaigrette for this salad. I give it four stars.

The dessert was phenomenal. I can say this because I managed to make Richard, who is not a vinegar fan, declare that it was delicious. I literally just quartered some organic strawberries and poured about two tablespoons of the espresso vinegar onto them. I turned the strawberries about four times while preparing the salads, then allowed them to soak up the vinegar while we ate. This might be my new favorite dessert. If I had cooked the mixture down, let it cool, and topped vanilla ice cream with it, I think it would be just as good, if not better. (I had to try this dessert even though it's still a little early for strawberries to be in season.)

Strippaggio is located in the Chenal Parkway shopping center. Each of the olive oils are true extra virgin oils, unlike a majority of the ones you buy in a grocery store. At only $11.15/200 ml bottle, I believe these quality oils/vinegars are worth the expense. I recommend you splurge a little for a friend or a lot for yourself.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Heifer Ranch and other updates

Sorry it has been so long since I last wrote. I got caught up in preparing to leave for Heifer Ranch and then my work here on the Ranch. I've learned a lot since coming to the Ranch, about hunger/poverty, about intentional communal living spaces, and about myself. In the near future, I will write about the statistics of hunger/poverty around the world that we tell our participants. For now, I want to tell you a little about what it's like to live/work on the Ranch and the self-awareness it has brought me.

As you know, I was accepted to work as the Village Caretaker at Heifer Ranch in Perryville, Ark. This truly is a jack-of-all trades position. There are four broad departments that volunteers can work under on the Ranch: Education, Livestock, Gardening and Maintenance. My position encompasses work from all of these departments, though I am technically classified under education. As the Caretaker, I am responsible for setting all of the supplies needed for our Global Village experiences (you can learn more about those here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi10qHUDh10); I care for the animals that remain in the village during our programming seasons; I am responsible for trail and site maintenance; and I plant, care for and harvest the gardens in the Global Villages. In effect, I do all of the behind-the-scenes work that keeps the Global Village programs running smoothly and effectively.The point of these programs is to raise awareness in participants about hunger/poverty around the world and to provide them with a simulated "real-life" experience of what the living conditions of the hungry/poor are like.

Since my position relies on program participants to be scheduled, I sometimes have quite a bit of spare time during the week. I use this time to work in other departments, occasionally maintenance, but mostly livestock. I've had the pleasure to bottle feed goat kids and lambs. Yesterday, I helped another volunteer chase down a sheep who was having trouble giving birth. I ended up tackling the sheep to the ground in the end so we could assist and was rewarded with a live baby. I've helped give sheep shots, soak their hooves and herd them from pasture to pasture. I also added AgroForestry to my resumé by helping maintenance to plant baby pine trees.

I am very much enjoying working here on the Ranch. It's a unique experience that is allowing me to gain practical knowledge about the trials and rewards of farming/raising animals. It is also bringing more understanding about intentional community living.

I live in Valley View Up, which is the upstairs portion of the volunteer house known as Valley View. For the sake of consistency, I am going to talk about Valley View Up and Down as one unit, VV. Within our household, there are eight girls and two boys. At the beginning of the Spring season (meaning the period where the new volunteers arrived), we set a chore chart. This included taking out compost, trash and recycling as well as general household cleaning like sweeping and vacuuming. The problem is, everyone ignores this chore list. Which means that recycling, trash and compost only get taken out when they start to overflow. Generally speaking, the house is pretty good at getting everything taken out at once. Someone just has to take initiative and decide they will be the ones to remove everything that week. The main problem with this many people in one household is the dishes and cleanliness of the common areas (kitchen and living room).

Dirty dishes are a pet peeve of mine. I have a tendency to get frustrated with them and do them myself, even when I wasn't the one who used them. Which, in turn, frustrates me even more. This week has been the best week out of seven, as far as dishes are concerned, so I won't go into any rant about them. My observation is thus, for myself, the hardest part of communal living is sharing dishes and others not having the same standard of cleanliness as myself. As far as the intentional living goes, everyone is really good at recycling and composting because we all really are for the environment.

A nice thing about communal living in a situation such as this is that all of my housemates are concerned with the same things as myself. Sustainable living is at the forefront of everyone's agenda, everyone has an appreciation of good food, and all of us have dedicated our time to volunteering to help educate ourselves and our program participants about the challenges the world faces. All of these commonalities mean that we are able to get along on a base level.

I am learning quite a bit about myself living and working on the Ranch. I'm learning that I like to take charge and delegate, I like to get my hands dirty, I enjoy working with livestock in addition to gardening, and I have a tendency to be hot tempered. I am attempting to make progress as far as the last point is concerned. Now when I start to get upset about some little thing going wrong, I take a deep breathe, count to ten and then joke about it (if possible). As far as the other points are concerned, they are driving me more towards having my own farm someday. It has always been a dream of mine to own a restaurant or café. I think that owning a farm where I supply a café of my own would be a fantastic career for myself. At the moment, this is no more than a dream, however, I do plan to look into it when I am finished with my philanthropist career.

Speaking of which, I am applying to work for another non-profit organization after Heifer. My FoodCorps application has been submitted and I am eagerly awaiting May when I will hear back from them about my advancement to the second round of the application. FoodCorps is a subsidiary of AmeriCorps who works to "teach kids about what healthy food is and where it comes from; build and tend school gardens; and bring high-quality local food into school cafeterias". Currently, FoodCorps has sixty sites in twelve states around the U.S. The application to work with them is highly competitive because there are only about eighty positions every year. I am very much hoping that this will be the next step in my career. Though I am unsure about where these steps will eventually lead me, working at Heifer Ranch has taught me that I want to continue working with food and helping to educate others about sustainable food practices.


Tuesday, January 15, 2013

A New Development

I was so bored yesterday that I decided to cook a three-course meal for Richard, myself and three friends. It was an excuse to be busy all day and to use my crystal dish-ware. However, I ended up being pleasantly surprised by a phone call while I was out getting groceries. This phone call turned my three-course dinner into a celebration.

Many months ago, I applied to be a volunteer at Heifer Ranch. It was one of the many jobs/volunteer positions I have applied for over the past year. During that phone call, Diane, the volunteer coordinator at Heifer Ranch, told me that a new position was opening up for Animal Caretaker. She explained that she thought I would be a good candidate for the position (which would start before February). I informed her that I was absolutely interested in the position, especially after she stated it was a jack-of-all-trades position. (Those are my specialty.) A few hours later, I got an email saying the committee had approved me for the position and it was mine as soon as my background check came in clear.

I have to admit, cooking became a little bit more difficult after this. I was so excited I couldn't stop bouncing around (and squealing, according to Richard). So, in a week or two I will be working on Heifer Ranch, probably through the Fall. I am superbly excited to finally have something work out for me. For a while, I was trying to teach English in South Korea for a year. I ended up having two interviews with schools, but neither panned out. So, instead I will continue to work with agriculture.

                  ----------------------------------------------------------        
My three-course meal turned out fabulously. My friends all approved, especially of the strawberry tartlets. Below you can find the links to the dishes I made. There were, of course, variations made for each recipe. My main comment on variations is for the strawberry tartlets. I used five inch quiche dished to make individual tartlets instead of large tarts. I recommend making only half of the crust recipe for 4 five inch tartlets. I used a full recipe of the custard for the four tartlets. Since it is winter and strawberries aren't in season, I bought frozen strawberries and let them thaw.

Butternut squash and apple soup.             Strawberry tartlets.

When it came time to make the custard I was a little confused as to why it called for corn flour. So I replaced the two tablespoons of corn flour with a tablespoon of cornstarch. I think the flavor was delicious and the thickness was just right with this substitution. I recommend it for a smoother texture.

Sadly, I don't have a picture of the roasted chicken and vegetables for you. I was talking and carving and completely forgot a picture should be taken, haha. But I assure you, it was scrumptious.

Altogether, cooking this meal only took about three and a half hours. Definitely something I would recommend for a weekend adventure. Remember, the key is finding foods that flow well together. Start with a light appetizer, a medium or heavy entree, and a medium or light dessert.

Here are the recipes:
http://www.simplebites.net/butternut-squash-and-apple-soup-recipe/
http://cookinginsens.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/a-little-chicken/
http://hungryatmidnight.com/2012/09/16/strawberry-tarts/

Friday, January 11, 2013

Weekday Vegetarianism

I am starting to realize that I should count myself among the lucky. I grew up with grandparents who grew gardens every year (and still do). I knew what fresh vegetables were supposed to taste like. I was able to eat freshly made salsa out of the pot while helping my grandmother to can it. When I was home with my mom, during weekdays we ate a lot of boxed dinners and casseroles. But on weekends, we would go crazy cooking food. Sometimes, it was the southern traditional food like barbecue or hamburgers, but other times we would make stuffed bell peppers or something else healthy. We always had fresh fruit and vegetables around. That is the real reason why I am lucky. I didn't grow up eating only processed foods.

I began to realize how lucky this made me when Richard started commenting on how he had never had certain foods fresh before, like cauliflower. He grew up in a family that pretty much always ate food from a box, with the exception of holidays. When I introduced him to all of my crazy cooking, he was amazed to find that he liked foods he thought he didn't. I finally got him to enjoy eating a stuffed red pepper the other night, it was his third try. It's really difficult to adjust to a vegetarian lifestyle if you don't know how to add fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet.

I used to tell my mom that I could be a vegetarian easily, if I wanted. However, growing up in that family, it would have been more difficult than I thought. It was mid-way through sophomore year of college before I made good on that statement. I decided I was going to be healthier, so I became a full-fledged vegetarian and started going to the gym every other day. It wasn't as hard to adjust as people made it out to be. I didn't ever like red meat that much anyways, so I only missed chicken, shrimp, and sushi. For about eight months I was a vegetarian. Then I got tired of the occasional cravings for protein and decided to become a pescatarian. So, I supplemented my diet with fish and shrimp. There are people who say pescatarianism is the healthiest diet. I stopped craving protein even though I only ate seafood about once a week. It was the best decision I could make for my diet.

Richard isn't taking being a pescatarian quite as well as me. He craves fried chicken on a weekly basis. I don't even understand what could be missing from his diet to make him crave that. So, occasionally I break down and buy a chicken from CLG, which I end up cooking in three or four different meals. My favorite being chicken and dumplings.

Today, we watched the TEDtalk by Graham Hill about becoming a weekday vegetarian. When it finished Richard immediately exclaimed, "See! That would be so much easier!" I could only shake my head at him. On reflection, though, being a weekday vegetarian is definitely an improvement from his old lifestyle. It would probably also mean he didn't consciously miss eating meat. So, maybe that would be an easier way for him to transition.

I would definitely recommend becoming a weekday vegetarian as a starting point. I know several people who have tried giving themselves a New Years resolution to become vegetarian and quickly failed. It's the age old problem where when you deny yourself something, you want it so much more. So, instead of denying yourself completely, try to limit your intake to the weekends. On top of that, buy local organic meats, which are better for you and the environment. I have to say, chicken from CLG definitely makes me miss the diversity of dishes you can make when you add meat to the plate. In the past year, I have had a number of slip ups with eating meat. Curried goat and lamb is just too delicious to pass up every time I eat at an Indian restaurant. Admittedly, it all started with a roasted leg of lamb in Paris, France. So, I think it is okay.

For the most part, I plan to be pescatarian this year. Or perhaps I will become a weekday vegetarian, reserving seafood, poultry, and deer for the weekends. Otherwise, I'll stay away from red meat. The smell of it makes me gag anyway. I will make a concession for meats that are locally produced, or shot in the wild, since my main problem with meat is the conditions in which animals are kept.

I am glad to have grown up in a family who taught me what fresh food tastes like. I am also glad to have taught myself how to cook proficiently, so that the transition away from meat was made that much easier.