THE OMNIVORE'S DIALOG

Listen and Learn

This is an excellent one hour audio of a panel of noted luminaries in the Real Food movement.  Authors of some of our favorite tomes on the American food system are on this panel.

An Unlikely Source

You read it here, a Takoma Park resident referring you to an article in a Conservative Magazine!  This came by way of a diligent and thoughtful member of the Slow Food Listserve.  Alice Waters' recent book, The Art of Simple Food, which encourages us to eat locally, in season, and sustainably, is frequently referenced in developing school food programs and a way of life centered around the dinner table.  Alice is far from a conservative when it comes to politics, but to see her so well quoted in a conservative magazine does give one hope!  Please enjoy this article – very thoughtful, very well written.

Nutrient per Calorie Thinking

A very well-referenced article in the New York Times by renowned chef Dan Barber outlines the necessity for a change in the way we think about growing food.  Chefs have long realized that the best tasting food results from the most sustainable, least fuel-based farming practices.  The lovely result, great sustainability equals great taste and energy efficient production. 

Barber talks about nutrient content per calorie, a concept prevalent in one of the most effective diet books by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, praised by many doctors sporting spectacular credentials.  Nutrients per calorie reveals how much actual health benefits we are getting out of the food we eat.  This type of measurement is shunned by the mega-industries of dairy, meat, and processed foods for obvious reasons - they can't measure up!   

Look Carefully as You Drive Through the City

We make dire assumptions about "those" neighborhoods where many suburbanites and small town dwellers fear to tread.  Take a closer look and you will see verdant vegetable gardens hidden in empty lots, behind abandoned buildings, local residents toiling to raise healthy food for themselves and often times to sell to their neighbors at local markets. 
You will stumble upon youth gardens, school gardens, community gardens - simple plots of land which unites neighbors, generations, and families.  It is a very hopeful sign of the power of the people.  And that wisdom, thanks to the pinch of rising food and fuel prices, is spreading to more affluent areas.  New vegetable gardens are replacing Chemlawns, and not only in the rear of the house.  Apartment buildings are offering little garden plots as an incentive to future residents. 

Most of these gardens are organic - an encouraging sign in a society hooked on commercial processed food.  In neighborhoods served by nothing but a convenience store, riddled with rampant obesity and diabetes, an organic vegetable garden offers hope and the nutrients and exercise so necessary for improved health.   Since our medical system does so little in terms of prevention, how fitting that people are taking steps to improve their own health - we have no alternative!

The Rising Tide of Food Prices

A very thoughtful article in Grist discusses some solutions to the rising cost of conventional food.  While some say it will drive people to buy sustainable because the playing ground will be level, Tom Philpott suggests that rising prices may drive people to the fast-food drive-ins, given the pricing leverage that large conglomerates possess.  Washington State, progressive as always, seems to have come up with some answers to thwart this possibility.  Philpott, in a successive article further clarifies his stance, outlining how industrial food conglomerates will find a way to profit from the ensuing price dilemma.  Important reading, indeed!

Warped Speed

Convenience – I’m all for it. It is not inherently evil. It is not “ a bad thing.” It’s a part of the sustainable toolkit since characteristics of convenience support an efficient use of energy and time. For example, having farmer’s markets in the parking lots of supermarkets has proven to be a boon for everyone. Shoppers can do all their shopping at once – convenience reigns. Merchants have not experienced an erosion of their bottom line, customers get the quality produce they prefer, and the farmers win as well.

HOWEVER – no doubt, no argument, convenience has led us down some lunatic and wrong-minded paths. When seduced by convenience we can too easily become lazy and loose all sense of sensibility.

Convenience is one of society’s hottest battlegrounds with consumers on one side and advertisers and merchandisers on the other.

Here’s a new product sold as “quick, easy and fun.”
Someone on a design team is feeling very proud.
What do you think?

Jeez Whiz

In earlier eras, serving exotic and foreign foods granted one status and distinction. To serve foods, fruits and flavors that traveled great distances to one’s table demonstrated that you had money and/or connection to provide courses of pride and unusual pleasure.

Today, new fashions are afoot. Serving foods with proven “patrimony” representing a deep, authentic experience of place, preferably local, grants the host crunchy hugs, cerebral salutes and soulful gratitude.

Battles are being waged to ensure the integrity of authentic foods especially when the food at issue carries the name of the place from whence it comes. To name it is to claim it, and cheesemakers are at the forefront of protecting their techniques and ingredients to ensure that what you buy IS, in fact, what it has long been.

Recently the cheese producers of traditional Camembert in Normandy France have formed the Committee for the Defense of Authentic Camembert to “preserve the mandatory use of raw milk in the production of AOC (Appellation d’Origiine Controllee) Camembert.”

Cheeses produced with pasteurized milk will not be able to sport the coveted AOC label.   Here’s the story: 

Of course, you’ll get kudos if you serve the AOC Camembert, but the hug you’ll get won’t be as crunchy as the ones you’ll receive if you were to serve a  farmstead chevre from within your area code.

From the Trenches

Brain numbing and riddled with lingo, the Farm Bill can too easily seem theoretical and remote.  But this recent OpEd piece from the New York Times states clearly how the bill impacts the choices we have in our local supermarkets.

A Tale in Every Bite

OK; here we go: What do Jerry Garcia, lead guitarist of the Grateful Dead and Vittore Carpaccio, the 16th century Venetian painter have in common? Does it help to know that Carpaccio is best known for his painting cycle, The Legend of Saint Ursula? Didn’t think so. Well; here’s another hint: What does Marie Ana Smith, the 1868 Australian gardener share with Rudolph Hass, a 1920’s California Postal worker? Still stumped? Think Sylvester Graham, the entrepreneurial 19-century Presbyterian minister and….. here’s the big clue: Dame Nellie Melba, the famous soprano singer.

YES ! All have foods that bare their name.

Horticulturists and artists, heads of state and entrepreneurs, restaurateurs and chefs have long embraced the old maxim: You Name It, You Claim It. To name a soup or a sauce, a beverage or a candy, a fruit or a dessert in someone’s name, or claim it in your own, has been an honor when bestowed upon others, and at times, just plain good marketing!

Lend an Ear

Sex is good, but not as good as fresh, sweet corn.
Garrison Keillor

Corn.
(seen here - beautiful, organic... delicious...) There’s a great deal being reported about the problems that have resulted from a reckless, thoughtless and greedy proliferation of corn production. The subsidies and the dumping; the misguided use of this grass as food for cow and car; and the ubiquitous presence of high fructose corn syrup – has put is at odds with  this grass which, in other eras, inspired poetry and was emblematic of high aspirations of culture and society.

Lend an ear to some critical thinking - searching for solutions: