Trade-Offs

Trade-offs.

I'm not good at them.

I want what I want, when I want it. I don't like to wait; I don't like to compromise. And I simply do not want to give up one option for another.
Turns out that this sort of mindset can get me into trouble. Boys, for instance. They kinda want you to choose just one of them. But that is easy compared to the dilemma of choosing between, say, french fries or a brownie, or beer or a baguette with butter.

For most of my life, I haven't been choosing. I haven't been a woman that diets (and I still don't want to be). I don't often decide that I'll have a salad for lunch, or that I'll use a low-fat spread, or that put nondairy creamer in my coffee. I'm a proponent of real food--I think our bodies are meant to have the nutrients found in food that comes from nature, not food that has been altered by a machine. The salad thing, well, it's mostly because salads don't satisfy me.

But what I'm meaning here is that, because I focus on food and not on low-fat, low-caloric substitutions, I need to find some other way to cut back. I'm never going to be skinny, but when last year's shorts won't fasten, it's time for a change. So trade-offs. Having a beer with dinner means no dessert. Choosing the amazing chips from Jack's Fish Spot means giving up pizza later in the week.

It's not about being thin. It's not about self-denial. It's about knowing my body, and knowing what makes me feel healthy, and what makes me feel as though I'm dragging. And as much as I love my beer, chocolate and butter, it's about consciously choosing not to have all of them in one day...or if I do, to have them in much smaller quantities.

I Miss the One I Care For...

I own a shirt that reads, "I found my heart in New Orleans."
In a city in which I have experienced such turmoil, such frustration, such fragility,I truly found my heart. Here, amidst the brokenness of both a city and of myself, I have re-discovered love.
I have discovered love, and passion, as it relates to one of the essentials of life: food. I know now that almost nothing makes me happier than preparing food. I want to study it, to talk about it, to help people to realize that food is more than just an energy source, but it is a part of local economies, of culture, of community. Continuing to commodify it has negative effects on our health, in both a personal and corporate sense.
But more importantly, I have discovered the love of community. The people that I've found here have reminded me that we're not meant to live our lives in isolation. This community that we've built for ourselves revolves around enjoying the city together, cooking together, eating breakfast, lunch, or dinner together, exercising together, worshiping together, doing nothing together. My life here, with the community I've made here, is the one I've been wanting since graduating college.

But I'm leaving.
I'm leaving this city that still holds a piece of my heart. When I think about turning and walking away, it hurts. But there is something more out there. There is family, whom I miss more each day. There is another city that I have loved for my entire life. There is a piece of my heart, residing out there near Puget Sound. But ultimately, there is home.

I leave in a little over two weeks. I have to make it quick, like a band-aid, or I'll linger on and on. But in those two weeks we have Krewe du Boo, we have a pumpkin party, and we have Frenchmen Street. There are still more restaurants then I will be able to visit in this short amount of time. I hope to see y'all before I take my leave--you are the reasons I stayed so long, and you will always have a place to crash in Seattle.


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Now playing: We Shot The Moon - Please Shine
via FoxyTunes

Back to when we started losing who we were

Yesterday, after a rousing football match at Audubon park, I headed over to Whole Foods to complete my weekly grocery run. I already had plans to make a quiche, and tomato sauce with pepper and mushroom. However, I wanted to make a pot of split pea daal as an easy lunch option. The recipe is a simple split pea with curry, but I like to add carrots. Imagine my surprise when I scanned the produce aisle and saw no pointy orange roots, no frilly green offshoots. When I inquired about the lack of carrots to the produce man, he looked surprised and gestured to the bags. No, sir, I do not want a tiny carrot encased in a plastic bag. Where goes the rest of the carrot? Why do I have to waste plastic to find my carroty goodness? Where is the wholeness in this equation?

Sadly I left Whole Foods with no carrots.

More and more I realize that I like my food sans barcode. It requires greater assembly, but the effort pays off. I feel better. My kitchen is a mess but I can be proud of what I've created. It encourages me to share with friends. So now, when I have to buy food covered with plastic film, it irks me.

This is one of the reasons I have accepted a position on the New Orleans Food Cooperative Board of Directors. I was upfront about my desire to relocate closer to home, but let them know that I am still passionate about food access and fostering a local food economy in New Orleans. The membership voted me in, and I am thrilled to have even more of a voice in creating the co-op. I hope that we can create a suitable plan focused on sustainable, local fresh goods mixed with healthy, affordable items.

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Now playing: Copeland - What Do I Know?
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Now playing: Copeland - Not So Tough Found Out
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I need caffeine in my bloodstream

Today.
October 15th, 2008.
Began an experiment I never imagined would happen in the gracefullypunk world.
For today I began the process of weaning myself off caffeine.

Recently the pain has returned, sharp pains in my lower right abdomen as well as searing pains throughout the midsection. At first I buried my head--all treatments are not over, so perhaps I just need to wait another month? But then I started researching, and discovered that hormonal treatments do not work on all endometriosis sufferers.

At first I freaked out, as I fit all characteristics of someone who should be considering a hysterectomy. Turns out that I don't want to travel this route just yet. So I started researching what might be causing the pain to increase. And the first factor I landed upon was caffeine.

Over the past month or so, my tea consumption--particularly black tea, but also green--has increased by at least one and often 2-3 cups per day. Such is a by-product of dating an Englishman I suppose...even if he's not right here the constant references to tea implanted themselves in my brain and got me hooked. Can I say definitely that this is what has increased my pain? Of course not. But it's worth a shot.

So today I cut back from 2.5 cups of coffee to 1.25. Tomorrow it will be just a cup (but made with less beans) as will Friday. Saturday will be caffeineless. And no midday jolts, either.

I suppose I should be glad that I'm doing this. After all, I know I am dependent. I'm foggy right now, and cranky, and wondering where my bed is. I didn't realize how reliant upon caffeine I am until today. But at the same time, coffee is a part of my lifestyle. I love its tastes, I love its complexities, I love the people who grow it. I'm seriously considering building my masters work upon coffee. How can I give it up?

But it's two weeks. And Graham is doing it with me (I guess it's good we're not in the same place or he might run in fear at the realities of Kirsten without caffeine). I can survive two weeks. And if it makes a difference, I will re-introduce caffeine, as studies have said that two cups is ok. Still, this is going to be a long two weeks.



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Now playing: Cobra Starship - Guilty Pleasure
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Now playing: Cobra Starship - Guilty Pleasure
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I threw everything out that doesn't make sense

The more I cook, the more I am able to realize what it is I need to stock my kitchen. While Rachael Ray published a cookbook which included a tear-out list of how to stock a pantry, I contend that it's best to find your method of cooking and base your grocery runs around that. After all, I've had a jar of artichoke hearts sitting on the shelf through two moves now.

So what to I make sure is always stocked?:
*Canned black beans
*Rice (preferably two kinds, Louisiana popcorn rice and basamati rice)
*Vegetable and chicken stock
*Canned tomatoes (fire roasted, diced, crushed and whole)
*Tomato paste
*Coconut milk
*Multiple types of pasta
*Peanut butter and honey roasted peanut butter--freshly ground
*Pineapple
*Chili peppers in adobo sauce
*Tofu
*Eggs
*Whole milk
*Mushrooms
*Garlic
*Onion
*Parmesan cheese
*Soy sauce
*Curry paste

And then everything else is more or less varied upon the season. Clearly I have a well-stocked spice cabinet, oils, flour, sugar, butter. This week I have bell peppers, pears, cherry tomatoes and creole tomatoes, and shitake mushrooms. I'm thinking red beans with chipotle, fresh tomato sauce with mushrooms and peppers, and probably making a dessert with pears. Oh, and I have patty sausage from the meat man, so maybe throwing that into black bean soup.

I do feel uninspired, cooking-wise, these days, so I'm going to go read a bit of Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food.

PS--I have twenty-four books on my shelf that I have yet to read. I am not allowed to buy books until this is down to ten or less.

A Constallation of Frustration Driving Hard

I am experiencing extreme frustration right now, for a few reasons. I figure it's best to write here rather than to continue to take it out on people that are simply trying to help.

First, I'm extremely frustrated with my co-op work right now. I jumped right into the New Orleans Food Cooperative work, without really considering what it might mean. I figured, food policy, ok, this was a chance to be involved with something local, sustainable, and with a positive impact on the local economy. I still believe this--but I don't believe that planning a cooperative makes for the best use of my talents. I've been trying and trying to help prepare a grant submission, but keep experiencing roadblocks in the form of people not understanding that this is what I do on a daily basis.

Second, I'm frustrated with my job in general. It's not what I wanted, not what I ever wanted, and at this point I'm sticking with it for the money--something I promised myself I would never do. I hate that I spend a significant amount of time waiting around for someone to give me work. It's not that I don't take opportunities to create work myself--it's that there's no work for me to create. I am purely reactive, and it makes me crazy.

Third, I'm frustrated with my education. I know that everyone thinks that I did such a wonderful job making this all come together...but that doesn't mean that it's what was best for me. I fell in love, and so I chose this city. I sought out Tulane because their School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine does have a great reputation. But their Food and Nutrition track is not fantastic, and the switch to Environmental Health wasn't the best choice, either. In short, I'm here because I made my plans fit to Tulane, rather than seeking out the best fit for me.

This is all coming to a head because, more and more, I'm realizing that it is likely I won't be content until I have at least a masters--and more probably a PhD. For years I've known that what I want to do is research. I love the reading, love the analyzing, love making the pieces fit and then communicating those ideas to the rest of the world. I'm sure that it's likely that I can get to this place by staying right where I am, finishing my MPH and continuing on to a PhD. But I'd always wonder where I could have been had I given myself the chance. Can I convince someone to pay me to study? I don't know...but I think I'm going to try to find out.

Whew. Just writing it down has lowered my frustration. I know that I've a lot of difficult work ahead, both in sorting out my thoughts and in execution. I'd like to stay involved with the co-op for as long as this amazing city is my home, but even more so I'd like to do as much as I can with the farmer's market. I have to take a long hard look at my education--I don't even know how to go about finding the programs I might want. I've started, but I don't know how to proceed. I also need to finish my biostats class (ugggggggggggggh) and sign up for two more classes. I might as well get as many for free as possible.

Have I mentioned recently how ready I am for vacation? As much as people might not believe it, being bedridden for over a week does not constitute vacation. I haven't had a day off that was not sickness related since Mardi Gras (and actually...that day was a little sickness related, too). I'm ready for a week of being away. I'm ready for the stress relief of family and of old friends and of water and...I'll stop there.

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Now playing: Snow Patrol - Hands Open
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Change this something normal into something beautiful

Earlier this week, I promised I'd write about the mailer I received from Lutheran World Relief. Seeing as it's Sunday, and that apparently I can no longer sleep for more than six hours at a time, now seems an appropriate time.

This is the kind of fast day I'm after: to break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation in the workplace, free the oppressed, cancel debts. What I'm interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families. (Isaiah 6-7, The Message)

LWR is working on a campaign entitled "Fill the Bowl." The goal: $500,000 raised to support current, successful food growing programs. These programs support food security (moving away from monocultures), sustainable agriculture (caring for the land as a way of improving crop yields), and emergency food aid (currently to assist communities in drought-stricken Niger).

There is a disconnect in our nation. We are obsessed with food. We frantically hunt for the best diet. We seek out new options to excite our dulled taste buds. We self-medicate by binging on sugar, and counteract by refusing to eat for days. We seek food that is easy, that is simple, that fuels us, that is cheap but that does not factor its true cost to society.

I do realize we're in an economic crisis. However, we've brought it upon ourselves. Our fuel costs are soaring--and we have an agricultural system based upon cheap oil. While it is tempting, as food costs escalate, to choose what has the cheapest price ticket at the grocery store, it is not sustainable. It is time to consider the true costs, and to see how those costs are affecting the rest of the world, a world fixated on food not because there are too many options, but because there are too few.

If Isaiah were writing today, I think his words might be something like this:
The fast I choose is this: Each day, as much as possible, to consciously avoid foods which perpetuate the endless cycle of injustice. With this fasting I will choose foods which support the local economy, which promote fair trade, which elevate small-scale farmers rather than large corporations. Join me. Your food choices, do, in fact, help you to feed the hungry. Consider others beyond yourself.

I chose to include the devotional from Isaiah that the LWR flier uses because, once again, I feel that many Christians are neglecting to view food and food policy as an essential element of social ministry. Do justice. It is easy to send away a donation (and I do encourage it; please visit LWR). But the broader view--seeing that food choices impact local farmers, undercut societal traditions, devastate the environment--this is a view that is gathering momentum, but it is not moving quickly enough.

It's not meant to be easy. But true justice rarely is.


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Now playing: Jimmy Eat World - Chase This Light

All I want to do is stay til early in the morning

Another week has begun.
Others' weeks begin on Sunday. Or maybe Monday, with the work week. Mine begins on Saturday, with my trip to the market. Apparently my brain has some sort of internal market clock. At 6:30am it sprung to life, although with no working at the market this morning, I only needed to roll out of bed at 7:30am. But no, apparently 4.5 hours of sleep were sufficient for my overeager mind, and it forced me awake and down to the CBD.

The haul for the week:
Leeks
Eggs
Tomatoes
Nectarines
Apples (first of the season)
Peaches
Sourdough bread

Also in the fruit bowl:
Cucumber
Corn
Orange pepper
Red onions
Zucchini
(Perhaps this is the veggie bowl)

Possibilities for the week:
Fresh tomato sauce! Hooray!
Tomato sauce with sauteed peppers and zucchini
Yogurt with peaches
Nectarine cobbler
Something with leeks and the potatoes under my sink

I need to be more proactive about making meals this week. I'm sick of the hospital cafeteria. I need some leftovers. I guess today's going to be a cooking day.

After I go back to sleep...
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Now playing: The Postal Service - Brand New Colony
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What does it take to be a super hero in my world?

I have conquered--I have created. I have made tomato sauce from scratch.
And it was red, not purple brown.
And it was good.

As was the meal we created.
MC, Mary, Emily and I got together at Mary's last night to make calzones. We used pizza dough from a tube, quartered and spread on a cookie sheet. We then filled them with ricotta cheese mixed with spinach, ground turkey, and tomato sauce. They were quite delicious.

Per usual, the company was wonderful. I let down the baseball side by not caring enough about the All-Star game...but after the intro took an hour, it was tough to work up a lot of excitement.

There's a lot on my mind right now. Decisions that may need to be worked through that I thought really weren't an issue. The days in this office just seem to be getting harder and harder. Elements need to be weighed.

And it appears that the veggie dog is, once again, down in the dirt.
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Now playing: Something Corporate - Straw Dog

I guess its better then silence and better then shame

I haven't done a food blog in quite some time. It's summer. My mind escapes during summer. Summer is about moving slowly and napping in the afternoon and baseball on the radio and testing my non-AC endurance. Yet a few things have combined to encourage me to delve back into food.

I received a flier in the mail from Lutheran World Relief. Normally I toss these things straight in the recycle bin, but LWR is one of the few places that receives my hard earned pennies (only A+ charity rating besides ARC) and the stark image of an empty white bowl caught my attention. More about what I found in this mailer in the next couple days.

Next, I returned to market work on Saturday. I volunteered rather than sold this week, so I became intimately acquainted with Leidenheimer bread, fig and blueberry jam, pesto, and French cheese. I realized that those who shop the market regularly know the vendors, know their stories and their locations and their family history.

Finally, I had conversations with people that made me realize, hey, others really do know that food is one of my passions and that they can turn to me for advice or discussion. They want to know market hours, the concepts behind the market, even ideas on gardening (watering would help...oops).

Sometimes I think that I can do nothing. Other times I think people have no interest in what I have to say. It's part of what fuels my desire to have those three letters behind my name, the idea that maybe if I have a PhD, perhaps people might listen to me. But now I'm realizing that I might have a voice, and maybe that voice can grow to truly be a shout through an empty sanctuary.

So Emily's brother Andrew has created a new blog in which he apparently steals my thoughts and makes them more eloquent. No...they are not my exact thoughts, but through email we have discovered we have many of the same perspectives on food. And so I took a look at his blog this morning and found this excellent sentiment:

Maybe that's it. We can only take one breath at a time. We can only take one step at a time. How are we breathing? Which way are we walking? Are we defeated before we even step out the door?

It's not about conquering the world. It's about taking the small steps. It's about walking in the right direction--even if we take a step backward, taking two steps forward to make up for it. What does this look like in the food policy sphere? It's talking to my friends about the difference between grocery store produce and the peach you pick up on Saturday morning from the market vendor. It's about being conscious with what I choose to eat and cook--choosing recipes in season, recipes that do not require fruit from Australia or veggies from Chile. It's about remembering the connections between the land, the economy, the people and the plate.

Being passionate about food can make people preachy...I don't want to be preachy. I want to share. Eating together is one of the surest ways to create community. I can barely eat alone anymore--where's the fun in that? Eating with others creates opportunities to discuss, to savor, to laugh and to breathe. It's yet another step in the right direction.

My thoughts on food, my choices on food, even the sharing of my food might not be enough to save the world. But at least I'm remembering the direction I'm walking.
Plus it saves the half bag of sour bright crawlers for those who have the stomach for that sort of thing...



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Now playing: Jack's Mannequin - MFEO

Don't ask twice if you don't wanna know

To live, we must daily break the body and shed the blood of creation. When we do it knowingly, lovingly, skillfully, reverently, it is a sacrament. When we do it ignorantly, greedily, destructively, it is a desecration.
...Wendell Berry

Sometimes I get frustrated.
Me, frustrated? NO. Never.
Anyway, my frustration stems from the fact that many around me do not seem to understand why sound environmental policy, and particularly food policy, is an essential element of Christian ministry. Christians are starting to realize that their voting should look beyond abortion and homosexuality and embrace a platform that is truly pro-life. Many are concerned about urban poverty, about education, about foreign policy.

But why, oh why are we forgetting food policy?

I think it's because it's so easy to overlook. But it is such an essential part of ministry. Feasting plays a large role in both the OT and the NT. Jesus knew the role of food in ministry. He was always sitting down with people. And I'm betting his first priority was not "cheap."

And so that's why I've introduced the quote at the top of this blog as my email signature. It is a reminder that God gave us the gifts of creation. He blessed us with the ability to be discerning in what we choose to eat. When we take the time to consider what we eat--how it was grown, how it will be cooked, whether we choose to sit down with friends or grab it on the run--we acknowledge the wonder that is all around us, and we give thanks for it, and we remember that it is our job to honor and glorify creation. But when we consider food to be just a simple refueling exercise, meant to satisfy us temporarily at the lowest possible price, we damage both our bodies and the world around us.


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Now playing: Keith Urban - Where the Blacktop Ends
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To Take This Town and Make This Home

So I'm exhausted! I was meant to go to a movie tonight with the girls, but what a weekend. 13 hours of co-op planning can really drain your energy. But I've come away with a positive perspective on the co-op and a definite role on the leadership team. It means bi-monthly meetings but again, I feel this is something that I'm called to do.

Clearly I didn't get much cooking done this weekend. Went to the market on Saturday morning before the meeting started and bought tomatoes (they're growing them hydrophonically in a greenhouse and they're some of the best I've ever tasted) along with strawberries, tamales and eggs, as per usual. Made another quiche tonight but am looking for other ways to use my spinach. Got a new perspective on vegan cooking this weekend. I've never been one for vegan ways since I love my eggs and cheese too much, but one of the co-op members made some very tasty lunches. Particularly a carrot salad with canola oil, lemon, and cinnamon. Yum!

Once again my week is piling up, with something Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night now, along with the gym at the least tomorrow. Hopefully Wednesday too. Got info on a free yoga class in Mid-City on Tuesdays that I'd like to try but not this week. The garden is surviving, yay, and there's another garden up the block I'm going to help with. I'm realizing more and more that this really is home, and that I'm finally finding a place to put down roots--literally!

What a plan to set in motion
Wanna try to make this all our own
To take this place and make this home


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Now playing: Sister Hazel - Strange Cup of Tea
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There’s things that aren’t worth giving up I know

What am I doing this weekend?
I am voluntarily giving up not one but both of my weekend days to attend a financial meeting. Oh joy, oh fun, oh bliss.
Why, one might ask, considering I have absolutely no concept of finances or ability to create a business plan. I'm doing it for the sake of the New Orleans Food Cooperative.



Most people don't realize it, but NOLA has some of the worst food access problems in the United States. The nearest grocery store (as opposed to a corner market) is at least five miles away from our neighborhood. My neighborhood is Bywater, which is separated from the Upper Ninth Ward by one street-St Claude Avenue. While Bywater is a fairly mixed income neighborhood, full of plenty of hippies and liberals and whatever other dirty names you might like to call us, when you cross St Claude to the Ninth it's nearly uniformly poor. I hope I'm not making too much of a generalization, but most in that neighborhood cannot afford to 1. pay high prices for groceries or 2. take a lot of time out of their day to make their way five miles to a lower-priced grocery store. So what happens? Most end up buying groceries at the corner markets or meals from the po'boy shops. Not too many fruits and vegetables in those locations.
So the mission of the NOLA Food Coop is to allow access to healthy, fresh, affordable groceries for everyone. We've been offered a 5,000 square feet space that straddles the Bywater, St Claude and St Roch neighborhoods--places where people desperately need access to groceries.
But now what we need is a plan, a way to make sure that this is feasible. And that's what we're doing this weekend, sketching out that plan.

It feels sometimes like I never rest. This weekend, of all weekends, I could've used some good-old-fashioned down time. But this is important to me. If I didn't go, and didn't offer all that I could, what would I be? Just someone who blahs and blabs and blogs about the importance of food but never actually does anything to change the situation. So instead I'll whine a little about the lack of free time and go give a bit of myself
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Now playing: Jack Johnson - Sitting, Waiting, Wishing

We're Something, But We're Starving

Let's celebrate the humble pig, the eater of scraps, another of our fellow mammals that has the audacity to sweat. Pigs are the reason that I was never able to be a true vegetarian and pork products remain the only meat that I savor. This is why my trip to Cochon, back in late fall, remains one of my favorite restaurant experiences in New Orleans. And now the New York Times has recognized it as one of the top ten new restaurants outside New York (snobs).

Cochon won a James Beard award in 2007 for Best Chef: South. In New Orleans, if you claim to know your food and celebrate it like so many of us do, you best know that the James Beard awards are the Oscars of the food world, and you also better know that it's Donald Link that's the chef at Cochon, and that he's also the chef at Herbsaint. These are just things that you need to know to proclaim your foodiness in NOLA.

We're proud in this city, rightly so, of the amazing food that can be found almost anywhere, at almost any price. It makes it hard to eat anywhere else. For instance, during Mardi Gras I stumbled upon a homemade sign pointing me to Jazzy Po'boys, at a new location. I turned the car and ended up with the best roast beef po'boy of my life, all the while chatting with the chef and owner. I can have absolutely delicious red beans and rice, or mac and cheese, for about $2 in the cafeteria of Tulane Hospital--a cafeteria! In a hospital! It makes it difficult to visit other places and be faced with the choice between a McDonalds and a Taco Bell for lunch.

So thanks, NYT, for acknowledging this. Cochon is one of the most delicious places in a city with too many places to try. We may disappoint vegetarians but we're people who maintain lists of "restaurants to try", who keep the reservation numbers in our cellphones, who find it hard to narrow down the list of restaurants to take visitors. Food is part of the history here, food is part of our rebuilding effort, and food is our way of life.

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Now playing: Bright Eyes - I Must Belong Somewhere
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C'mon Sweet Catastrophe

It's what everyone's reading. Well, it seems that way when I read blogs such as the Gristmill and Sustainable Table, am a member of the New Orleans Food Cooperative, and get emails from Amazon announcing that Michael Pollan is their guest blogger. I admit, I love MP. He's my newest hero. He says everything that is in my head when it comes to food and how it relates to culture, environment and sustainability--and he says it so much more eloquently than I. I venture to guess that he can spell the word eloquently. I plan on posting quite a bit from this book, but I encourage you to go pick up your own copy.

MP's manifesto is "Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants." He follows this with a few guidelines of how to do just that. But what I wanted to write about today may seem like a contradiction to this rule...high-fructose corn syrup.

HFCS is created by processing corn syrup in order to increase the amount of fructose in the syrup. The result is a liquid sweetener that is used as a substitute for sugar, which comes from sugar cane or sugar beets. So, if HFCS is a byproduct of plants, why, exactly, should it be avoided? Well, without getting into a lot of chemistry (I quake in fear of the "Fundamentals of Environmental Chemistry" on my class schedule), the basics are that HFCS is a man-made sweetener comprised of fructose and glucose. Common table sugar is neither of these, but rather sucrose.

So why so bad? The body isn't used to so much fructose, and many studies suggest that this is a contributor to insulin resistance and therefore diabetes. In addition, HFCS is found in nearly EVERYTHING. Why? It's a preservative, and it extends the shelf life of many processed products. In addition, the US has created an agricultural market that favors artificially cheap corn while creating tariffs on sugar--it's much cheaper to use HFCS than it is to use actual sugar.
I've been trying to avoid HFCS, absentmindedly for about a year, with greater intent for the past month. I don't like the idea of chemically created sweeteners, especially ones that likely lead to weight issues and diabetes. I also want to give the agrobusiness producers and promoters of corn one less consumer (two less, actually, as my voice usually goes further in the buying of groceries and B doesn't like HFCS either). I don't want corn to be in every one of my meals, and if I keep an eye out for HFCS, I'm usually avoiding processed products, and so avoiding supporting those agrobusinesses.



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Now playing: Sherwood - A Different Light
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Good Morning, America, How Are You?

Don't you know me?
I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the city of New Orleans...

Waking early in this city is so strange--if people are awake, it's because they have been all night. But every Saturday, a group of us are there, in a parking lot on the corner of Girod and Magazine, vying for the best produce.

This week:
Broccoli (huge crown)
Baby carrots (they are no relation to the chopped and bagged fingers of the grocery store--they look and smell like a carrot!)
Huge bag of spinach
Organic satsumas
Pint of strawberries
Pint of whole milk

I indulged in:
Oyster mushrooms
Queso d'bola (like Mexican cheese but less crumbly)
Lemon blackberry scone

So now what to make? I thawed some chicken and didn't realize just how much there was, so I'd like to make a soup, and probably a curry. With the mushrooms and spinach I'd like to do a pasta, risotto or quiche. Problem is, I'm alone this week, and there's still a giant pot of red beans in the fridge--I don't want to make a bunch of stuff that won't be eaten. Guess I should try to feed people!

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Now playing: Taylor Swift - The Outside
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The Truth is So Undeniable

Today is World Food Day. Did you know? If not, I am not surprised.
According to Sustainable Table Blog, US coverage of the United Nations-sponsored event has been virtually nil. However, this is an event that is being celebrated today in over 150 countries. The theme: Right to Food.
Something most Americans don't have to think about, I suppose. We're lucky here...most of us have access to cheap food. But what we might want to think about is--why?
Our nation glorifies free market policies and exports this value around the world. Yet we are guilty of meddling in the market. Why is our food so cheap? Farm subsidies. Why is nearly all this cheap food infused with corn? Corn subsidies. We deliberately interfere with the free market, insuring that farmers (mostly big agribusiness, actually) receive inflated prices for their commodities.
But when other nations attempt to protect their farmers and/or citizens, the US and the WTO (where the US exerts enormous influence) rally around the cry for Free Markets and insist that nations dismantle trade barriers and cease subsidies. For instance, Mexico, under NAFTA regulations, cannot protect its farmers from the flood of cheap corn from US growers, who are paid subsidies. Mexican farmers cannot compete and so must find other ways of making a living (and we wonder why we have such a flood of immigration). Some might argue that these policies enable poor Mexicans to have their "right to food," but I argue that we are taking away the right of Mexican farmers to provide food to their families and their people.
An interesting instance of a nation asserting its right to food despite the efforts of developed nations is the case of Malawi, which I found on my new favorite site, Grist. Malawi in the 1990s had a program in which it gave the poorest farmers packets of seeds and fertilizer. In 1999, the government gave all farmers these packets, and the end result was a large national surplus. In 2000, amid the wisdom of the developed nations upon which Malawi depends for much of its national budget, the government was forced to dismantle this program. The donor nations insisted that this policy distorted the freedom of the market and refused aid if the program continued.
What happened? Smaller harvests, and two years of famine. What about the people's right to food? Last year, the government of Malawi acknowledged the right of its people to food. They distributed coupons to the poorest farmers, allowing them to purchase fertilizer at a large discount. The results? Food production is up 150%, and the cost of the program is half of what Malawi spent importing food from other nations. Oh, and the famine has ended.

Sometimes we forget, as we sit in the land of plenty, that there are 854 million people who are hungry throughout the world...and that, more often than not, it is our foreign policy that allows for such widespread hunger.

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via FoxyTunes

Distance Rips Us Further and Further Away

So today is Blog Action Day, with the theme centered on raising awareness of issues regarding the environment. It seems appropriate then that I write about something that I'm so passionate about...although I wasn't aware that there's actually a name for it until just a few months ago.

Agroecology: an ecological approach to agriculture that views agricultural areas as ecosystems and is concerned with the ecological impact of agricultural practices (http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/agroecology)

Getting closer with...
Agroecology: the science of sustainable agriculture; the methods of agroecology have as their goal achieving sustainability of agricultural systems balanced in all spheres. This includes the socio-economic and the ecological or environmental (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agroecology).

And what I find most interesting...
Agroecology: ecological knowledge is used to inform human management of nature for the production of natural products for human use in ways that minimize environmental impacts (http://envs.ucsc.edu/graduate/) because it adds another lens to look through: examine the deeper social processes through which the institutions that structure our social and ecological agendas have been constructed.

Clearly this can be a series of blogs rather than just one--maybe that's the point of this blog action day. So I'll start with one question for you to ponder--from where does the majority of your food come? This is a question that is popping up more and more in the consciousness of people in the US--from articles in the New York Times to best sellers such as The Omnivore's Dilemma and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Living Locally to the new Buy Local signage being displayed in Whole Foods stores.

Have you noticed? Do you pay attention? When you hit up the produce aisle, do you turn over the apples to see if they are from Washington or New Zealand, do you refuse to buy a peach when it's from Chile rather than Georgia, does it matter to you if your lettuce travels three thousand miles?

It should. In addition to the fact that the fresher your food is, the better it tastes (don't believe me? Eat peas straight from the vine or pick blackberries on the side of the road in August...do they really compare?), we are sending our food on near-pointless journeys in many cases. Why, in Louisiana, are my peaches coming from California??? In addition to the ridiculous amounts of fuel being used to truck these items across the land, we are also using oil to keep the trucks refrigerated and the storehouses cool.

I'm not saying I'm perfect, by no means. Sometimes I need those Driscoll's strawberries. But the fact is that, for the most part, the less your food has traveled the less impact it will have on the environment. What are some ways to find local foods? Grow it yourself, obviously. Shop at local grocers--they're more likely to carry regional foods (in Louisiana, that's Rouse's). Find your farmer's market. Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture, you get the freshest produce).

What are you doing to reduce your ecological footprint? Does your mouth know what your foot is doing?

More to come in the next few weeks...