by Carol C. Giesecke, Ph.D., RD
Food, Nutrition and Health Specialist
Lincoln University Cooperative Extension
Jefferson City, Missouri
Have you ever been in a garden and picked a ripe juicy tomato? You might polish it on your jeans, then take a big bite out of it, savoring its rich sweetness. If you have had this experience, then you already know one of the pleasures of eating locally. There are real gustatory delights in the nearby vegetable garden. As a person interested in environmental issues, you might be happy to know that performing a pleasurable activity like eating a fresh, ripe, locally grown tomato could be helping to preserve a natural resource — our local farmers and gardeners.
Perhaps you have had the satisfaction of working to remedy a potential environmental problem in your locale. Maybe you participated in a letter writing campaign, testified at a hearing, or distributed leaflets to get the word out concerning a situation which was environmentally detrimental to your area. You may already be aware of the power of voting with your dollars to boycott an environmentally unfriendly product or to support a “green” business. Did you also know that what you decide to eat can have an enormous effect on the environment?
Wendell Berry coined the phrase “industrial eater” in an essay he wrote about 10 years ago (“The Pleasures of Eating” in What are People For, North Point Press, San Francisco, 1990). He defines such a person the quintessential consumer... passive, uncritical and dependent. He makes the point that instead of this we can see eating as an agricultural act by being cognizant of the connections between the land and what we eat.
Do you think your lifestyle doesn’t permit a trip to the local farmer’s market or a stop at a roadside stand? Or is time at such a premium that you can’t see yourself preparing garden fresh foods? What are some ways you can regain the pleasure of eating? I believe we have to make a space in our lives to savor meals once again. I’m not advocating going back to a “simpler time.” I am suggesting that we have to make a healthful diet of locally grown foods high on our list of priorities, as important to our long–term health as walking in the woods or cleaning up the nearby stream.
Our current food supply is so highly processed that farmers get a very small share of the money spent on any food item. Much of our food is transported long distances, processed beyond recognition, double– and triple–packaged, and advertised heavily. Cooking is becoming a lost art. Some questions you might want to ask about the food you eat are: How fresh is it? How far was it transported? How much did manufacturing, packaging, or advertising add to the cost? How has processing affected quality or nutritional value? In the trend toward the development of more global markets, food is not one of the items that we should leave to corporations to provide for us.
What can we do?
1) Participate in food production. Grow something to eat, even if it means sprouting alfalfa or radish seeds in jars on the kitchen sink. One can also grow lettuce and spinach, tomatoes and peppers in containers on the patio if no land is available for a larger garden. Gardening can be a form of relaxation after work, and 20 minutes is all you need to spend on it several days a week.
2) Prepare your own food; there are lots of resources on cooking fresh foods quickly. And many of the produce items available from local farmers can be eaten raw or with little preparation. Get a good cookbook on cooking creative vegetable dishes. Most of today’s cookbooks emphasize nutritious meals in minutes. If you don’t have a family, I recommend Healthy Cooking for Two (or just you) by Frances Price, Rodale Press, Emmaus, PA.
3) Buy food produced closest to your home. Go frequently to the local farmer’s market. Or get involved with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA). These operations are usually run by a farmer who sells subscriptions for so many weeks of produce during the growing season. CSA is a wonderful option for anyone, but especially for families with young children, as visits to the farm are usually a part of membership. If you want to find more information about CSAs, one excellent website is: www.umass.edu/umext/csa
4) Ask restaurants and stores you frequent if they buy any locally grown foods. More and more chefs are joining Alice Waters in serving fresh, locally grown foods in their restaurants. Many stores carry locally grown products in season. Some are better at it than others. If enough people ask managers about the origins of their foods, it can act as an incentive to get them to consider buying locally if they aren’t already doing so. One group that stands out in the movement to get chefs more involved in using locally grown foods is the Oldways Preservation and Exchange Trust. If you want to find out more about their project, the Chef’s Collaborative 2000, visit their website at: www.chefnet.com/cc2000
If you are interested in getting more involved with strengthening the links between food producers in the region and the rest of us “eaters,” I’d like to hear from you. Just drop me an email at
giesecke@lincolnu.edu
or call me at (573)681–5592.
Perhaps after adopting this course of action you will agree with Wendell Berry that:
“A significant part of the pleasure of eating is in one’s accurate consciousness of the lives and the world from which food comes. In this pleasure we experience and celebrate our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living from mystery, from creatures we did not create and powers we cannot compr