What is clean food? What is a healthy Earth? What are our obligations to others? What is ethical behavior?
When I started this blog, I wanted to share my garden and my thoughts, and to receive: comments, questions, challenges. I have avoided, until this morning, discussing a topic that consumes me daily: our treatment of the animals and plants that we eat.
This will not be a harangue. (I read a comment on FaceBook from someone asking, “Should I write a blog? Will people want to read my harangues?”) I hate harangues. But I chose the tag line for my blog very carefully. “Devoted to raising things well” applies to plants, animals, children, and issues.
A recent op-ed piece in the New York Times reminded me that I intended to start this discussion, even if I’m the only one talking and listening. The topic was one of food-miles, of eating locally, and of the “cost” of shipping food around the world. Locavores will tell you that it is best to eat food grown as close to your home as possible, to cut down on fuel and other shipping costs. I agree in theory, but with my eyes wide open to the facts of the actual costs associated with fuel, fair trade practices, and the consequences of other countries farming methods.
Full disclosure: I am a Locavore. By inclination, certainly, and by a certain amount of thought. But I haven’t given up coffee, salt or sugar, and I do not intend to. Let me start this private discussion of eating locally by pointing out the pleasanter sides of being a locavore:
— food is fresher, and therefore is healthier (more nutrients, delivered in a completely usable form to your body)
— food lasts longer in your refrigerator (that’s my first definition of “sustainability”)
— food tastes better
— shopping is a lot more fun (although it is less convenient, and more discussion on that later)
— you support your local economy (something very much on my mind these days)
— you know the ‘face’ of your food, because you get to know the farmer
The recent concern about salmonella in chicken eggs is another call to action — even if our action is only to talk. Great things come from great discussions. Let it continue here!
WORDS FROM OTHERS
“Don’t you find it odd that people will put more work into choosing their mechanic or house contractor than they will into choosing the person who grows their food?”
— Joel Salatin, farmer, author, as quoted by Michael Pollan in “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”
Amy in the Garden 
i was just discussing this issue with my son, the logical economist, a few days ago. He has been reading arguments against the locavore idea, based on it not really saving energy and not being a realistic way to provide enough food for all. I countered with arguments that included those you list above. I didn’t bring up my (potentially slightly paranoid) wonderings about why someone would go to the trouble of arguing against local food.
And on a walk with a friend a week or so ago, we discussed the idea of raising a lot of our own food and how very far from that we are. We agreed that in Montana, we’d be eating a lot of kale.
Thanks for opening the conversation – I’m listening:)
I’m reading this with a big smile on my face for several reasons. First, that someone logical is raising legitimate questions, and second, that his wiser mother is pointing out the obvious facts that he’s missing. (!) I think eating clean food is logical, and of course the big challenge is how to achieve that in such a large nation, where most people don’t farm any more. A big threat to any new logical idea is that it is usurped by the dreamers, who don’t think it through, and then are dismissed by the thinkers, who often don’t think it through either, but they sound smarter, so people listen to them instead.
I was also smiling about your comment about eating a lot of kale in Montana. I get that. I’d recommend reading Eliot Coleman’s “The Four-Season Garden.” This guy started out as a tool consultant, basically studying farming tools used in Europe for centuries, and figuring out how to make them better for American farmers. He farms in Maine — a pretty challenging gardening zone, and he eats fresh all year long. True, it takes effort, and the gardener doesn’t get a season off, to sit inside in a chair reading seed catalogs, but it’s a very compelling idea to me. He describes all types of systems, including cold frames, hoops, etc., but the main thrust is planting varieties that come to maturity before the frost hits, and then remain on “pause” for the winter, allowing you to harvest through the most frigid months. Check out claytonia, mizuna, and mache, among others.
As for your slightly paranoid thoughts, I share those, and remind myself often that just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean people aren’t actually out to get me. The government subsidizes the big guys, the ones practicing monoculture (madness) and raising animals that are sick and broken by the time they are “harvested” for us to eat. The small businessman, the local farmer, is shut out economically. We all have sound reasons to be paranoid. I am so happy every time I see a rational piece of writing, pointing out the value of eating clean food, and am optimistic that the thinkers and the dreamers will get it together.
And try Lacinato kale. It’s as pretty as it is delicious!