A strega is a witch and I’m feeling like a strega without a
broom. No, I'm not talking about cleaning;
I’m talking about not having my familiars about, my spices, herbs, oils, vinegars, my tools of the kitchen trade.
Coming back to NYC, to an empty kitchen is one thing. But as I go around the kitchen seeing what I need to start cooking again, I’m realizing what a disconnect the average US person has from their food supply. I’ve gotten used to getting my eggs from Bruce’s obliging chickens, I reach for chili peppers that I grew and dried, I have jars of summer produce and I know I shared the same hot summer sun as that basil, buying cheese isn’t a plastic shrink wrapped affair, it’s a trip to the cheese maker, which involves having a long chat about life and only then do I get the carefully wrapped piece of cheese. It sounds so romantic and nostalgic, but that’s because how many of us feed and clean out a chicken house, or get up pre-dawn to milk sheep? Romance is more fun that reality which is why we make love in the dark. The older you get, the darker the room…but I digress.
Romanticism aside, I was physically connected to my food and
now I’m in the city buying food that I don’t know anything about it. According
to the last US Census in 2000, 80% of us live in urban areas. Since you are
reading this, it’s safe to assume you care about food and know what time of
year tomatoes are at their peak. It’s also a reasonable bet that you are in the
minority. After a screening of the film, Food Inc., at the New School, there
was an excellent discussion panel led by Jill Richardson, and she told of
talking to people who literally thought that spaghetti was a plant, or that
pumpkins grew on trees. Sounds ridiculous, but what if you never had any opportunity
or reason to know better? It’s like having street smarts: I don’t walk around
with my handbag open or put it on the back of my restaurant chair, but that
nice lady from a small town in Iowa who is an instant target for an urban
pickpocket, how should she know better? Tomatoes are always in the supermarket, apples are always in
the supermarket, and cherries appear at Christmas time, how would someone know
the season for these fruits?
Food Inc. is a cornerstone film in the way that Inconvenient Truth was. It’s a wake up call to everyone that we need to look at what’s going on with our food sources and the culture of eating. The film attempts to highlight many of the key areas of concern: industrialized meat operations, consolidation of crops, exploitation of workers, obesity, fuel and water consumption, cheap junk food versus expensive healthy food, the implications of patenting seeds, etc. etc. etc. etc. But, the part that struck home for me was the family that ate dinner together….in their car, after getting a drive through hamburger meal. The mother’s reason was long working hours so cooking was impossible and it was cheaper. She also had been under the impression that a drive-thru burger meal was healthy. The camera then follows them into a supermarket where we see that chips and soda are much cheaper than some broccoli.
There is no magic bullet cure, we are talking about a systemic
multi-generational disconnect from our food, loss of cooking skills and the benefits of dining
together.
The film cobbled together some band-aid slogans as a tagline to make us all feel better: Eat organic. Plant a garden. Etc.
These are noble sentiments, not a guide to a return to respecting our food.
The last audience member asked a simple question of the panel, “What can I do?” And a very wise Marion Nestle replied, “Pick one cause.” She’s right; no one person can provide us with solutions. Stonyfield's Organic Yogurt is now available at Wal-Mart; that was Gary Hirschberg’s small step towards bringing a good product to many.
My battle? Bringing people back together to the dining room table and letting people know that cooking isn’t so hard.
