For the first blog entry of 2012 I am going to talk about a familiar concept- the old saying "you are what you eat". First of all yes, we are what we eat. Secondly, most of us don't know what we're eating. Hmm, see a potential problem here? I do.
Now you might say, "Seth, I know what I'm eating. I'm eating baked chicken, a baked potato, and some carrots. Ha! See, I totally know. AND I think it's pretty healthy. So there." Well, to some extent you'd be right. This is how I used to think about my food. I tried to buy non-processed foods (shop the perimeter of the store), and would focus on lean meats and vegetables. Sounds good, right? Well, sort of.
The more I have learned about where our food comes from, how it is raised and treated, and how it gets to us, the more I find myself looking for local options. In fact, my wife and I have made the decision that we will only buy our meats from local farms. We've decided that as much as we possibly can, we want to shake hands with the hands that feed us. AKA, "know your farmer".
That is what I mean by the title of this post, "please to meet me". If we are what we eat, "meeting" the food we eat is in essence meeting the nutrients that sustain and nourish us. We're looking ourselves in the eye. Eye of the potato, as it were.
I'm going to go into a few reasons why, and I am also going to recommend a couple of documentaries which deal with the subject of nutrition, health, and the food industry in different ways. One thing I am not going to do is go into some of the disturbing details about the meat industry. These details have changed the way my wife and I look at and consume meat, but this post is not the place for that in my opinion. If you want that information I can point you in the direction, or you could use something called "Google" I've heard about. But my intent is not to turn any stomachs here in this blog post.
Some advantages of buying local:
- Environmental concerns. The commercial food industry uses a lot of energy to produce its, um, produce. The typical carrot in a grocery store travels 1,838 miles to reach your table. There is also the amount of energy used in packaging the food. However, the biggest consumer of energy in commercial food production is the chemicals. Mmmm, delicious, man made chemicals. Yes, up to 40% of the energy used in the food system goes into the production of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. Sounds appetizing, no? Buying local, well, you can see how it takes a lot less fuel to get a carrot to your table from one town over.
- Supports local economy. When you buy from a local farm, more of your money stays within and supports your local economy. Local farmers buy a lot of their supplies from local businesses. The farmers also retain much more of your dollars spent. A farmer selling goods at a local farmer's market will retain between 80 and 90 cents of every dollar. A large commercial farmer, depending on the crop, may retain between 20 and 40 cents.
- You're getting food. What? "Um, Seth, pretty sure that the stuff at the grocery store is still called food". Yes, it is. But why is it that produce grown in California by big agribusiness can be in transport/storage for up to two weeks before it hits the supermarket, then sit on display, then get bought, then can hang out in my refrigerator for another week or so? But the same type of produce I buy at my local farm stand starts to rot in less than a week if I don't use it soon enough? Because one is a lot closer to its natural state than the other, and has been treated with a lot less chemicals. (Guess which one).
These are just a few of the many reasons to try and eat as local as possible. My goal in this post is not to list all of the reasons why and try and convert as many people as possible. (For a longer list of the different issues, click here). My goal is to get people to start thinking about their food choices beyond the nutritional label. What are the implications to your health, the environment, animal welfare, and local economies, when you purchase ground beef at a supermarket? They are profound and numerous.
One book that I highly recommend to anyone who eats food, (hint, that is all of you), is the book In Defense of Food, by Michael Pollan. It is a fantastic read. Seriously, if you are a carbon based being who eats food, you should read this book.
Two documentaries that I highly recommend that deal with this subject on some level. The first is Forks Over Knives. This documentary is less about the "eat local" philosophy and more about examining the traditional Western Diet. The information it contains changed the way both my wife and I eat. A lot of the traditional foods and meals in this country are killing us. Literally. Heart disease, obesity, etc.; guess what, they're not caused by our fashion choices. (Though some outfits are to die for, I know.)
The second documentary I highly recommend is Food, Inc.. This documentary examines the agricultural business in this country. Parts of it are disturbing, but here is something that I find really interesting about that. I will ask people "have you seen Food, Inc.?" and I commonly get the answer, "No. I've heard of it, and it sounds good, but I don't think I want to know what's in it". Wow. Think about what that statement is saying. It is saying, "I know that there is information about the food I eat that, if I knew it, would most likely change the way I eat. But I would rather just ignore it." Wow. Would we ignore it if it were cruelty to children? No.There would be tremendous public outcry. But cruelty to animals and detrimental to OUR OWN HEALTH??? Yeah, I'll just turn a blind eye to that. A little cancer or arteriosclerosis never killed any.....oh, wait.
Don't put your heads in the sand on this one. Take an interest in your health, the health of your country, and the health of your environment. Doing the right thing is never easy. Important significant change requires courage and sacrifice. But every dollar you spend on food is a vote. It's a vote that says you either support or don't support a particular system that got that food to you. At least know what you're voting for.
Best wishes for 2012.
Be well.
Seth
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