I'm at a bit of a crossroads. For one, I try to eat and buy local and sustainable food as much as I can. I try to buy from local farms, attend as many farmer's markets as possible and inquire about where my food comes from. You can say I'm trying be a localvore in this corporate retail kingdom. As someone that's in the business, I see more people outside the world of the "food industry" that understands the world of "local food" than the so-called food experts. Why is that?
Strangely enough, I'm starting to figure this out. The food movement is still seen from the inside as this elitist, leftist, snooty movement for gals driving Subaru outbacks and writing poetry. For me, it started about improving my diet and using logic when it came to my purchase habits. It then curtailed into my sense of humanity for animals and the practices of farming. I believe this is why most folks pursued this path. The final attribute for me was the taste. Most food just tastes better when it's fresher and not handled. Tomatoes taste best in summer when they're picked from your garden soil. Fish tastes best when it's fresh and caught in the wild. Meat is far superior when it's less handled and not processed. It's pretty simple.
So, why don't most Americans pick up on this? Well, for one it's this pompous attitude that a fringe of folks portray about food. I respect that people have different priorities in life and choose to invest different amounts of time and their hard earned money into nutritional aspects. Joe the plumber is probably not going to worry if the burger he is eating comes from a grass fed cow that was raised humanely. He's concerned about the price, convenience and taste. Probably in that order.
As a part of the population that respects the food system and it's sustainable attributes, don't belittle the people who aren't participating. Don't force feed the fact that because they continue to eat at McDonald's that they are supporting a centralized food distribution system. Instead, ask them if they've ever tasted a grass fed burger from a local farm. Ask them if they've ever tasted a juicy tomato picked from the vine in late July. Tell them it tastes good and in the same breath, that your local farmers appreciate their taste buds. Keep the nonsensical attitudes out of it. Our country is consistently being pulled to the fringes. We have Liberals versus conservatives, Tax more, Tax less, Pepsi versus Coke and so on. Nobody ever wants to find a middle ground. Food is where we can maneuver that viewpoint and make some progress. Listen, you can't force feed your views to a group that won't budge. Instead, make sustainable, organic and local food more appealing to them. Not, from a Mass marketing approach through the grocery stores, but through local networks. Make it feel more mainstream for people to embrace CSA's and visit farmer's markets. Some people feel excluded walking through a market if they're not dawning their hemp shirt, Birkenstock sandals and gritty beard. It's got have to have an appeal to them that they can walk around and buy some great food and no feel as if they joined a PETA protest or liberal think tank.
Right now most food experts state that industrial food is needed to feed the world's starving masses – even though it has been documented time and again that small-scale organic farms are far more productive per acre than their industrial counterparts. Most people know that until we change the health and safety regulations that are currently strangling small, local producers and businesses, small-scale farming will never make it through this mess. Most of these have been enacted because of the abuses of large-scale businesses, they can make it almost impossible for smaller businesses to survive. In any case, it is usually not a shortage of food that leads to hunger globally, but development and trade policies – largely designed to benefit those same big businesses – that pull people away from self-reliant village economies and consign them to poverty in urban slums. Folks, we have a case and it's the centralized big business of food. So, in actuality the big business commodity food buyers are the ones that are elitist in it's rightful terminology. And, it's customers are the folks that us "elitists" push away.
So, find some common ground with people. Talk about your interests and passions. Point out the fact that if you support a healthy food community, it's not this "we're against the establishment" mentality. Show them that, you're in fact, supporting the little guy.
As a part of the population that respects the food system and it's sustainable attributes, don't belittle the people who aren't participating. Don't force feed the fact that because they continue to eat at McDonald's that they are supporting a centralized food distribution system. Instead, ask them if they've ever tasted a grass fed burger from a local farm. Ask them if they've ever tasted a juicy tomato picked from the vine in late July. Tell them it tastes good and in the same breath, that your local farmers appreciate their taste buds. Keep the nonsensical attitudes out of it. Our country is consistently being pulled to the fringes. We have Liberals versus conservatives, Tax more, Tax less, Pepsi versus Coke and so on. Nobody ever wants to find a middle ground. Food is where we can maneuver that viewpoint and make some progress. Listen, you can't force feed your views to a group that won't budge. Instead, make sustainable, organic and local food more appealing to them. Not, from a Mass marketing approach through the grocery stores, but through local networks. Make it feel more mainstream for people to embrace CSA's and visit farmer's markets. Some people feel excluded walking through a market if they're not dawning their hemp shirt, Birkenstock sandals and gritty beard. It's got have to have an appeal to them that they can walk around and buy some great food and no feel as if they joined a PETA protest or liberal think tank.
Right now most food experts state that industrial food is needed to feed the world's starving masses – even though it has been documented time and again that small-scale organic farms are far more productive per acre than their industrial counterparts. Most people know that until we change the health and safety regulations that are currently strangling small, local producers and businesses, small-scale farming will never make it through this mess. Most of these have been enacted because of the abuses of large-scale businesses, they can make it almost impossible for smaller businesses to survive. In any case, it is usually not a shortage of food that leads to hunger globally, but development and trade policies – largely designed to benefit those same big businesses – that pull people away from self-reliant village economies and consign them to poverty in urban slums. Folks, we have a case and it's the centralized big business of food. So, in actuality the big business commodity food buyers are the ones that are elitist in it's rightful terminology. And, it's customers are the folks that us "elitists" push away.
So, find some common ground with people. Talk about your interests and passions. Point out the fact that if you support a healthy food community, it's not this "we're against the establishment" mentality. Show them that, you're in fact, supporting the little guy.
