food systems – Eat – Drink

Spring is barely here in southeastern Michigan. The snow drops have just finished blooming, with a new flurry of narcissus and tulips taking their place. The grass is trying its best to eke out an existence and the trees are beginning to bud. But this bleak, brownish, massive temperature swing time of year doesn’t mean our food has to look the same. For dinner last night, we had a mostly local feast: chorizo tacos on corn tortillas with cilantro, microgreens, red onions, and feta cheese. A side of elote and red rice. The corn I froze this past summer, the rice was seasoned with salsa I canned in August from all local ingredients–save the cilantro, that’s local now. The non-local ingredients from last night were avocado, some spices, sour cream, and the rice. The sour cream could have been local, as could have been some of the spices. This is the food I want everyone to be able to access, afford, and enjoy.

An important thing to keep in mind is that not all local food is created equally. Ask about regenerative management techniques such as cover crops, compost, and grazing management. However, understand that (based on you location) some crops cannot flourish without intensive management. A hearty example is strawberries. This fruit is susceptible to many pests and fungi. It is possible to have an organically managed, regeneratively grown strawberry, but is unlikely to be affordable on any sort of local, large scale (at least here in MI). So either we eat something else, or we allow wiggle room in the standards we hold food to. Transparency in marketing and products is what will make a local food system thrive.

More examples of completely homemade, almost fully local meals (save seasonings and grains, though again they could be).

What is most important to me, not just as a dietitian, but as a person, a citizen of earth, is food access. This push for local, sustainable managed foods is meaningless if it is not accessible and affordable to all. Markets and food hubs in my area have done well to heed this rallying crying, but this is an exception to the norm. Many “farmer’s markets” still face the issue of one I left behind in Georgia: the food is mainly from resellers and/or most vendors are not selling food at all. There is so much work to be done to create an equitable and just food system, but creating demand is one thing those of us who can afford to can impact. Buy yourself the best food you can afford and commit to supporting markets and producers who are trying to foster access to all. This is not a bad place to start.

My most recent full-local concoction was this sunchoke hash with spinach, canadian bacon, shallots, and the first walking onions of the year. Leave me a comment if you are interested in the recipe. This was my first time trying sunchokes and I am absolutely smitten.

Social Change has been on the forefront of my mind during the last year as inequities and disparities, particularly those involving wealth and health, have been thrust into the spotlight. What I have found to be consistently troubling is the lack of transparency that continues to surround our current food system. I recently finished reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, which was a powerful reminder of how far safety has come in the industrial food system. Though you may not hear of tuberculous pigs being quickly slaughtered and canned, the trouble now is that “wage slavery” is still the norm, exacerbated by stories such as those coming out of Tyson (pork, beef, and poultry agri-giant) of corporate managers betting on the how many slaughterhouse employees will contract Covid. I am so fortunate to have the financial capacity to make meaningful decisions about food purchasing that reflect my values, such as nearly completely local food sourcing, and I believe everyone deserves the right to choice: food that is affordable, accessible, acceptable, and healthy.

There is so much speculation about the positive impacts that could arise from this pandemic. I’ve really enjoyed following along with the BBC’s “Follow the Food” series. An article about soybeans and how crop specialization could impact malnutrition most recently caught my attention. This article also lightly discusses how current conventional agriculture practices are destroying the earth’s topsoil, leading to desertification, and decreasing planetary habitability. As emphasized in this article, the solutions (better agricultural practices, renewable energy, and dietary changes) already exist, the problem is education and motivation.

From what I have seen, the majority of these articles are sponsored by different biotechnology and agribusinesses, but this transparency gives me more confidence in the information presented than when sponsorship or funding information is buried or difficult to ascertain. Beyond this series, I’ve learned about off-the-grid greenhouses in the Jordanian desert that utilize seawater to cool and irrigate, to the unintended un-desertification many thousands of acres of the Helmand Valley in Afghanistan due to increased access to cheap solar power. The United Nations has a public forum coming up on December 9, based on progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, to cultivate ideas during this potential explosive time for change. Out of the chaos may come lasting, sustainable change… or it may all end in talk. The only way to find out is to join the conversation!

There are two quotes from The Jungle that have stuck with me. The first from shortly after the family had immigrated from Lithuanian to Chicago, IL.

“A very few days of practical experiences in this land of high wages had been sufficient to make clear to them the cruel fact that is was also a land of high prices, and that in it the poor man was almost as poor as in any other corner of the earth; […]”

The second is toward the end during a period of propaganda and Socialist discussions.

“[…] one of the necessary accompaniments of capitalism in a democracy is political corruption; and one of the consequences of civic administration by ignorant and vicious politicians, is that preventable diseases kill off half our population. And even if science were allowed to try, it could do little, because the majority of human beings are not yet human beings at all, but simply machines for the creating of wealth for others. They are penned up in filthy houses and left to rot and stew in misery, and the conditions of their life make them ill faster than all the doctors in the world could heal them; and so, of course, they remain as centers of contagion, poisoning the lives of all of us, and making happiness impossible for even the most selfish.”

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Tag: food systems

Local is Now