Oh, come on already!

Sometimes it seems that people don’t agree for the simple, and in my view perverse, joy they appear to take in disagreeing. What is the big deal about labeling food that has GMO ingredients? Alarmist, they say? If I want to know what I’m putting in my mouth, that’s unreasonable? Big food companies have been putting all kinds of things in my mouth for a long time. Yes, perhaps they are on the package, but if I’m not a chemist, botanist, a food scientist or a particularly curious person, I probably don’t know what they are. When we grew or raised what we ate, we knew. Yes, we needed to get more efficient and grow farming to feed the people. What we didn’t need to do was lose the connection between people and their food that we’ve managed to lose in the process. 

Its time to make that reconnection and it needs to be made in many ways. This is one. We need to give people a true choice of what they choose to eat.  If you don’t want to eat GMO foods and I do, we should be able to make that choice. If I want to save seed and you want to grow GMO crops, you shouldn’t be able to sue me if my seed becomes “contaminated” with genes from yours, or vice versa. Food prices, well, there is another sticky wicket. And an important one that must be addressed. But allowing information about if a food includes GMO ingredients, that seems to be a simple choice.

From today's New York Times:

Battle Brewing Over Labeling of Genetically Modified Food

Concern over the possible health and environmental effects of such food has prompted a move for labeling it, but scientists, farmers and technology companies call the measures alarmist.

Consciousness revisited

Today at the grocery I saw something that almost made me stop and stare, but I didn't. Even so, I can't get the image out of my mind.

I had just checked out and was annoyed that I'd forgotten my eco-friendly shopping bags, so I had to use the store's plastic ones. Yes, I could have bought more eco bags, but how many do I really need? On the way toward the exit I saw a woman in the self-check line setting up one of those eco bags to fill. It was a nice sight. Someone trying to do the right thing. Less petroleum, more earth friendly. A conscious choice.

Then I saw what she was putting in the bag. It was just the perfect shape and size to hold stacks of frozen dinners, boxed foods and all manner of processed things. I honestly didn't see a fruit or veggie anywhere in all her purchases. A conscious choice to use eco friendly bags and what appeared to me to be a completely unconscious choice of the food to put in the bag. Maybe I'm wrong, but it looked really odd to me. Go figgur....

Well-Pict Package

Photo from the Well-Pict website

I believe in eating local and in season. But every so often, I succumb to the temptation of a fruit or veggie that's out of season. Recently it's been occasional strawberry binges. I avoid the giant ones that taste like nothing and try to find what I consider to be more normally sized berries, typically in those clam-shell packages that at least can be recycled. Its a small comfort that maybe it's not as bad as if the packaging couldn't be recycled.

As I was getting ready to recycle my lastest package, I noticed something embossed onto the bottom. I'd never noticed anything on such packages before and was curious. In addition to the symbol showing that the pack could be recycled and the type of plastic it was (it was "1" or PETE, polyethylene terephthalate) the embossing said:

www.penpack.net
70% recycled drink bottles and 50% energy from the sun

This little bit of information was eye-opening. This particular brand, Well-Pict Berries, had made a conscious choice of their packaging and the packaging maker had made a conscious choice to use recycled and renewable in making their products. I was impressed. Not only was I not buying from the apparent gorrilla of the berry business, Driscoll, I was also buying from people who were concerned about sustainability. Hooray me.

Addtionally there have been concerns that reused PETE bottles are connected to health issues and their production new is not sustainable. So the idea of safely reusing such a land-fill hog was even more satisfying.

Here is more information on Well-Pict and Penpack. I still will eat primarily local and seasonal, but when I stray, I'll look more closely at the packages as well as the source of the food (which I had been doing) and make my own conscious choices.

Making a difference

I've been involved in a number of conversations over the last few months that have a common theme. They all somehow involve fresh, fair, available food and interest in growing it, preparing it, increasing awareness of it, supporting its producers financially and creating the policies and laws that support a food system that is sustainable and good for the people and communities it touches. It seems that everyone is interested in food, and that's a good thing. What is more challenging is organizing and selecting a focus that is both appealing (to attract the human, financial and other resources necessary to do meaningful work) and appropriate (the equivalent of solving the right problem in the right way rather than looking for how to make something into a nail because we have a hammer.)

Competition has no place in this arena. It's time to stop guarding information, looking out for "number 1" and establishing arbitrary territories that belong to "us" and "them." The problems we face are too big and too complex for any one group to deal with. And they are too interconnected to be simple to solve. If solving my problem creates a problem elsewhere,  net net, we are no better off.

What we face in the food world is a global puzzle like a rubic's cube. Access to food that isn't affordable isn't a solution. Affordable food that isn't healthy isn't a solution. Healthy food that doesn't reach everyone isn't a solution. It's not enough to get problems solved in one part of the world because we're interconnected, and what we do upsets the pattern that others are trying to achieve elsewhere. Yet, it's hard to work with others who may hold views that we disagree with, but we must. It's hard to give up certain long-held goals to achieve other, larger goals, but often, we must. It's hard to try, and try, and try and come up short, but we must be willing to continue. Solving a puzzle requires that everyone contribute their piece to the picture and accept that others have pieces to contribute as well.

Planting financial seeds

Back when I grew up - it really doesn't feel that long ago, but in terms of practices I guess it is - people mostly knew the people they loaned money to. The same way that they had a pretty good idea of where their food came from. In just a generation or two, that has changed dramatically to the point where recently I saw a video of last an urban teenager from a less advantaged neighborhood taste his first apple. Nothing exotic, just an apple. But he'd never tasted one in his life.

On the financial front, people don't know where their money goes when they invest in a mutual fund or a huge international company. It may go for things they like - or they don't - and they don't have a say. Growing up I remember walking into the Savings & Loan with my little deposits into my savings account (that helped pay for college) and having a vague sense that they were going to get used to build things in the area where I lived. Maybe a house, or apartments or something like that. There aren't so many local financial institutions any more.

Locals used to be in touch with and helping locals. Now we often don't know our neighbors let alone what our savings or investments are used for. And therein lies a bit of a problem for me.

Seems to me that we need to take some steps back so that we return to those earlier practices. I'm not so naive as to think that the clock gets turned back 100% and everything is done on a local level. The world is too interconnected and interdependent for that. But it is possible to consciously choose to eat an increasing percentage of calories from locally produced foods and to encourage and support those people by investing directly in their operations when they need a new piece of equipment or a to expand their storefront, or have a great business idea to get off the ground. Not being the only investor or lender perhaps, but being there in a way that makes a difference. That's the simple idea behind Slow Money.

If investing locally in food and food related businesses is something you are interested in and you reside in SW Michigan or NW Indiana, let's make it happen. Let's recreate a local culture where neighbors help neighbors and we know our food.  Contact me (gardentotableinfo(@)gmail(dot)com). I'd love to hear from you and move this process along...

When to stop trusting experts

I grew up with parents who put great faith and trust in experts of all kinds. Expert was another name for authority. Whether it was science, doctors, the church or any other of all types of authority, if they said it, it must be right. I remember my father voting his stock proxies and when asked why he didn't vote against some proposed board members or proposals, he was genuinely taken aback and told me he always voted with management because they knew what needed to be done.

Then came my teen and college years and they were full of the rebellion of war protests over Viet Nam and hippies and all the anti-establishment actions you could imagine. My coming of age. Yet I wanted to believe in the benevolence of the authorities out there as well. I went back and forth trying to make sense of it all. It never did sort out exactly.

Today I believe most people, most of the time are good and want to do the right thing. By "right" I mean right for most people, not just themselves. And I believe that bad systems can, over time, corrupt good people. George Bernard Shaw said "Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity." At the same time, I believe that what is considered good, can, with more time and information, turn out out to be bad. Good intentions have unintended consequences. A case in point in today's New York Times:

How Chemicals Affect Us

Scientists warn that chemicals we’re exposed to every day can cause genital deformities and even breast cancer. Is our government paying attention?

I don't believe for a minute that the chemical industry set out to create dangerous things that would cause health problems. I do believe that nothing should be assumed and over time, careful, honest investigators should learn more about such creations. If what they learn is negative, they have an obligation to share that information widely and unambiguously. I also believe the people have to pay attention to what they do because there is so much information out there (reliable and unreliable) it is overwhelming and critical thinking skills often seem in short supply. Yet, having people whose job it is to pay attention (regulators) makes sense to me, as long as they remain honest and committed to the welfare of the whole as opposed to the interests of a few - whoever those few are.