Food

I read a book last weekend called "The Omnivore's Dilemma". The basis is that humans, being omnivorous, have the advantage of being able to eat almost anything, but the disadvantage of having to decide what should be eaten. The book looks at corn, beef, and modern agriculture in the form of the factory farm, and then contrasts it against a small, self-sustained farm.

For years I've made an effort to eat healthy, and I do a pretty good job. However, stories in the news about disease outbreaks affecting large amounts of the food supply have made me question the utility of the way we farm in the modern world. Just this week, there was another e. coli outbreak from a lettuce farm in Salinas, causing the recall of salad mixes clear across the nation. Many would have you believe that the solution is things like irradiation. I'm starting to believe differently after reading the book.

The self-sustained farm profiled is just that, self-sustained. The farmer doesn't buy fertilizer or feed or pesticides or herbicides. His equipment is minimal, and yet he supports a family on 100 acres plus 450 acres of forest. He doesn't produce waste, and unlike most factory farms, which run an energy deficit, requiring more fossil fuel energy than they produce in terms of food calories, ethanol, etc, he come out ahead energy wise because he relies on the sun. The difference comes because he runs his farm like an ecosystem. His crops and livestock are balanced and help each other. Animal waste becomes compost and fertilizer, the sun grows grass and grain to feed the animals, and bugs are taken care of by chickens and wild life. Amazingly, his commercial prices to the local community aren't much more than typical fare, and as the restaurants up to several hundreds of miles away attest to, the price is worth it. In fact, once you factor in the subsidies and tax breaks given by the federal government, his prices are really no different.

Whenever I visit Yakima in the summer I'm excited about the food. That's because I know I'm going to get fresh, ripe produce, that simply tastes better than supermarket fare. I remember when growing up, mom used to only buy produce in season, largely because of price. But as it became easier and cheaper to ship produce from all over, that became less of an issue. I used to think this was great, but not anymore. It's not smart to make our food supply as dependent on others as our oil supply and I've decided I'm no longer supporting large scale farming.

So, I've decided I'm buying my produce from local markets, although I will make exceptions for food that isn't grown here, although in limited amounts. I'd like to do the same with my meat, but the local beef all comes from the feed lots in Chino as far as I know, and I don't know of any small slaughterhouses. The farmer in the book slaughters and sells his own meat. I'm buying produce in season. This won't be all that tough in California, but if I move I may have to learn to can so I can eat during the winter. I'm also going to cut back on the amount of meat I eat. Despite all the vegetarian propoganda, the one thing that finally convinced me is that when you run a farm like an ecosystem, there is a natural balance between produce, grain, and meat, that limits the amount of meat that can be sustainably farmed. I eat too much meat. I've cut back some in the past years, replacing the protein with nuts, but I'm still too high. Unfortunately, because of my exercise regime, I need pretty high levels of protein. So, I guess I've got to start looking into soy. Ugh!

One last thing: I was thinking a while ago about how I make food choices, and I realized I've carried something over from my childhood. When I was young, I learned to eat what my body needed. That's what food is for. Eating is for fuel and nutrition. It isn't for comfort. It isn't for entertainment. It isn't something to do when bored. It isn't for pleasure. While it can be all those things, that shouldn't be the focus. I learned this when young, and even now, when I plan out a meal I look at what I've done, what I will be doing, what my past meals have been, and then fix something to get me what I need. As a result, I'm fit, healthy, and energetic. And yet I'm still comforted, entertained, and find pleasure in eating. I love food. I'm just going to make it work even better for me.