A bias for action...

Ruminate's co-hosts for their Midwest launch. Image thanks to Ruminate's Facebook page.

There is a new, national not-for-profit organization uniting diverse change makers and food-focused professionals to convene, discuss, and ideate change in our food system. They are launching their Midwest efforts in my backyard. Ruminate considers itself "part think tank, part innovation lab" and is hosting three, hands-on working sessions for food system professionals in Grand Rapids, starting in June. For people ready to put talk into action. 

These two-hour events are intentionally designed, solutions-oriented sessions. Attendees will tackle intractable food system issues. In these Ripe for Discussion sessions everyday leaders can roll up their sleeves, dig in and build immediately-actionable change. The will cover: 

• Building connections between producers and plates - June 23, 2019
• The true cost of food and consumer knowledge - August 18, 2019
• Who is responsible for balanced nutrition? - November 10, 2019

Talking is important for sure. But without action nothing changes.

Time to be healthy again...

Thanks to axtell.com for photo. Worth a look at all these great puppets.

When I was young I hated to listen to old people (i.e. any adult) tell me how much better things were when they were young. To this day I do not believe everything was better way back when. But I expect that some things really were. From where I sit now, there are things from my childhood that were better than what they have morphed into today.

Most adults when I grew up were closer to their food, whether or not they knew or valued it. Maybe this was because they gardened themselves, grew up on a farm, knew a farmer, ate mostly in season, cooked from scratch..., you get it. I benefited from this and it seems to me, my youth was just the time when agriculture was becoming enamored of technology and chemistry to alter traditional growing methods. It was being done as a way to improve the farmers' production, make them more efficient and drive down the cost of food. In fact according to NPR, "...our spending on food — proportional to our income — has actually declined dramatically since 1960, according to a chart recently published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As the chart shows, the average share of per capita income spent on food fell from 17.5 percent in 1960 to 9.6 percent in 2007. (It has since risen slightly, reaching 9.9 percent in 2013.)"

But as food became cheaper, it also became more processed, more corporately created, more carbohydrate-driven and more focused on convenience. In short, as convenience (much of it targeted to the increased number of working women) became a priority and how people ate started to change. Think pre-packaged meals rather than cooking from scratch. But who has time to cook these days, you ask? I believe it's a choice for most people, most of the time. Perhaps not an easy one, but who said cheap and easy eating beats healthy eating as something to shoot for for everyone?

The impact of the laser focus on convenience had an unintended consequence of changing not only how, but how well people ate. According to Harvard's T. H. Chan School of Public Health, "..it’s more important to eat carbohydrates from healthy foods than to follow a strict diet limiting or counting the number of grams of carbohydrates consumed." In other words, put down the processed, packaged dinner and pick up some "unprocessed or minimally processed whole grains, vegetables, fruits and beans." What are unhealthy carbohydrates you ask? Harvard says they include: "...white bread, pastries, sodas, and other highly processed or refined foods."

It's not too late to learn from the past, claim the good and move on.

Local Resiliance

Thanks to Alice Waters' blog for this image. She is the mother of the local food movement in this country.

Readers of this blog are likely all aware of the goal of local, ethical sourcing. Eating closer to home and seeking out the farmers markets, farms and restaurants that share that philosophy. But Naomi Klein talks about why a decentralized, multi-provider food system is a good idea. In her new book, The Battle for Paradise, she takes on the idea of disaster capitalism and how things like monocropping and concentration of power can result in negative outcomes. 

During the years when not only Michiana but the entire country underwent a food revolution, food sources moved from small local and regional growers and producers to more and more regional, then national and international growers and producers. Food became an industry. Rather than being able to rely on local products, consumers, institutions like schools and hospitals and restaurateurs began to be channeled into national brands, low cost producers and food items created for their simplicity and ease in shipping rather than their taste and nutrition.

Now as more and more individuals and businesses seek out local items, possibly even those that are foraged, or choose to make their own breads, sausages, beers, soups and more, they face a different challenge. Amid plenty, there are local food deserts.

Unlike the kind of food deserts that occur when there is no access to healthy food, these food deserts result when there aren’t enough local producers to fill the desires of eaters and restaurateurs for local products. Goals of “eating local” can only be satisfied so far until supply catches up with demand. And can only genuinely be satisfied when diners’ expect and enjoy changing menus, reflecting precisely what’s available rather than what one “has a taste for.” Eating with the seasons means that change is inevitable.

Such eaters and local-focused institutions are reclaiming the specialness, freshness and taste of local. They are working as quickly and as much as the situation permits with farmers, producers, foragers and suppliers to eradicate their local food desert. The goal: rebuilding a food system rooted in a specific place.

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