Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
A Food Manifesto for the Future
This was such a spot-on article I just had to share.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/a-food-manifesto-for-the-future/
For decades, Americans believed that we had the world?s healthiest and safest diet. We worried little about this diet?s effect on the environment or on the lives of the animals (or even the workers) it relies upon. Nor did we worry about its ability to endure ? that is, its sustainability.
That didn?t mean all was well. And we?ve come to recognize that our diet is unhealthful and unsafe. Many food production workers labor in difficult, even deplorable, conditions, and animals are produced as if they were widgets. It would be hard to devise a more wasteful, damaging, unsustainable system.
Here are some ideas ? frequently discussed, but sadly not yet implemented ? that would make the growing, preparation and consumption of food healthier, saner, more productive, less damaging and more enduring. In no particular order:
-
End government subsidies to processed food. We grow more corn for livestock and cars than for humans, and it?s subsidized by more than $3 billion annually; most of it is processed beyond recognition. The story is similar for other crops, including soy: 98 percent of soybean meal becomes livestock feed, while most soybean oil is used in processed foods. Meanwhile, the marketers of the junk food made from these crops receive tax write-offs for the costs of promoting their wares. Total agricultural subsidies in 2009 were around $16 billion, which would pay for a great many of the ideas that follow.
-
Begin subsidies to those who produce and sell actual food for direct consumption. Small farmers and their employees need to make living wages. Markets ? from super- to farmers? ? should be supported when they open in so-called food deserts and when they focus on real food rather than junk food. And, of course, we should immediately increase subsidies for school lunches so we can feed our youth more real food.
-
Break up the U.S. Department of Agriculture and empower the Food and Drug Administration. Currently, the U.S.D.A. counts among its missions both expanding markets for agricultural products (like corn and soy!) and providing nutrition education. These goals are at odds with each other; you can?t sell garbage while telling people not to eat it, and we need an agency devoted to encouraging sane eating. Meanwhile, the F.D.A. must be given expanded powers to ensure the safety of our food supply. (Food-related deaths are far more common than those resulting from terrorism, yet the F.D.A.?s budget is about one-fifteenth that of Homeland Security.)
-
Outlaw concentrated animal feeding operations and encourage the development of sustainable animal husbandry. The concentrated system degrades the environment, directly and indirectly, while torturing animals and producing tainted meat, poultry, eggs, and, more recently, fish. Sustainable methods of producing meat for consumption exist. At the same time, we must educate and encourage Americans to eat differently. It?s difficult to find a principled nutrition and health expert who doesn?t believe that a largely plant-based diet is the way to promote health and attack chronic diseases, which are now bigger killers, worldwide, than communicable ones. Furthermore, plant-based diets ease environmental stress, including global warming.
-
Encourage and subsidize home cooking. (Someday soon, I?ll write about my idea for a new Civilian Cooking Corps.) When people cook their own food, they make better choices. When families eat together, they?re more stable. We should provide food education for children (a new form of home ec, anyone?), cooking classes for anyone who wants them and even cooking assistance for those unable to cook for themselves.
-
Tax the marketing and sale of unhealthful foods. Another budget booster. This isn?t nanny-state paternalism but an accepted role of government: public health. If you support seat-belt, tobacco and alcohol laws, sewer systems and traffic lights, you should support legislation curbing the relentless marketing of soda and other foods that are hazardous to our health ? including the sacred cheeseburger and fries.
-
Reduce waste and encourage recycling. The environmental stress incurred by unabsorbed fertilizer cannot be overestimated, and has caused, for example, a 6,000-square-mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico that is probably more damaging than the BP oil spill. And some estimates indicate that we waste half the food that?s grown. A careful look at ways to reduce waste and promote recycling is in order.
-
Mandate truth in labeling. Nearly everything labeled ?healthy? or ?natural? is not. It?s probably too much to ask that ?vitamin water? be called ?sugar water with vitamins,? but that?s precisely what real truth in labeling would mean.
-
Reinvest in research geared toward leading a global movement in sustainable agriculture, combining technology and tradition to create a new and meaningful Green Revolution.
I?ll expand on these issues (and more) in the future, but the essential message is this: food and everything surrounding it is a crucial matter of personal and public health, of national and global security. At stake is not only the health of humans but that of the earth.
Re: A Food Manifesto for the Future
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD
I agree. It's not THAT hard to make time to cook, FH and I have done it. During Lent last year we actually swore to cut out ALL eating out, and cook all our meals at home, with the one exception of our anniversary (which happened to fall right smack dab in the middle of Lent). There were a couple times throughout where we were scrambling a bit for time to make food, but at those times we usually fell back on something quick like a sandwich.
FH and I are actually planning on doing a CSA this year, and we'll be getting a lot of veggies that we haven't tried before. I'm hoping that we can use the vegetables as our main food supply, and then supplement with other things (meat, cheese, etc) to eat a healthier lifestyle.
I honestly really liked the article, it was spot on. Especially the parts of "truth in advertising". I've always thought that the processed food companies get WAAAAY too much leeway to make their products sound better than they really are. I mean, come on, claiming there's 0 trans fats in a bag of chips by reducing the serving size down to 3 chips? It's insane. By doing that, if you DO eat more than 3 chips (and who wouldn't?) you would have absolutely no idea how much trans fats you're really eating. Although if you ask me they should just remove hydrogenated oils altogether, but if they're going to have it in there, they should at least be forced to be honest about it.
I completely agree. I have always found it odd that the average American spends more time in their car commuting than they do preparing food. And that they spend more time choosing a car or a plumber than they do choosing their food. People say "I'm too busy to cook, I'm too busy to go to the Farmer's Market / join a CSA." What on EARTH is more important than what fuels your body?
I would encourage you to post this on P&CE.
This is a great manifesto.
Done.
Seriously. You don't have to make involved meals every night or any night, for that matter. It's not hard to steam veggies on the stove, throw some rice or quinoa and water into a pot and cook some up some chicken, tofu, beef, beans, whatever. Toss some fruit on the plate and you've got an easy, complete meal.
Set aside some time on the weekend to prepare some meals that can easily be reheated or put into the oven when you get home from work. Chop up veggies ahead of time and store them properly - they will last all week for salads. Throw a whole chicken or a bigger cut of meat in the crock pot and you'll have it for sandwiches, tacos, salads etc. for the week.
It frustrates me when I hear people say that they don't have time. No, you do have time, but you don't want to use that time to prepare food. Learn how to organize your time better.
I am currently reading the Food Inc book and Joel Salatin makes a great point about opting out of processed, industrial food and getting back to whole foods.
He says about society learning to cook again: "First, we must rediscover our kitchens. Never has a culture spent more to remodel and techno-glitz its kitchens, but at the same time been more lost as to where the kitchen is and what it's for."
Isn't that the truth?
#1 12.11.11
#2 10.23.13 EDD