Food Politics (again)
Hat tip to Sherry…
The easiest way to explain Gallup’s discovery that millions of Americans are eating fewer fruits and vegetables than they ate last year is to simply crack a snarky joke about Whole Foods really being “Whole Paycheck.” Rooted in the old limousine liberal iconography, the quip conjures the notion that only Birkenstock-wearing trust-funders can afford to eat right in tough times.
It seems a tidy explanation for a disturbing trend, implying that healthy food is inherently more expensive, and thus can only be for wealthy Endive Elitists when the economy falters. But if the talking point’s carefully crafted mix of faux populism and oversimplification seems a bit facile — if the glib explanation seems almost too perfectly sculpted for your local right-wing radio blowhard — that’s because it dishonestly omits the most important part of the story. The part about how healthy food could easily be more affordable for everyone right now, if not for those ultimate elitists: agribusiness CEOs, their lobbyists and the politicians they own.
Stan:
Liked this because it laid out the simple fact that your taxes are used to sell you cheap, shitty food… and that what you lack by way of money (after paying taxes, among other things) puts more pressure on you to buy that shitty food that you’ve paid to put on the market.
The article fails in the end, I think, because it just calls (implicitly) for better policies. A really pithy insight followed by a really un-insightful response to the stated problem.
17 July 2011, 12:29 pmEdwin Monzon:
Hell Mr. Goff,
I am a young man of 26years of age, who resides in Tampa, Fl. My uncle was given the privilege to serve with you (ODA 354). He and I engaged in a political discussion over this past weekend. This is something we have never done in the past. In fact, my uncle was the one who (without knowing) help me find my religious beliefs in a time that I was confused. Even though we do not necessarily believe in the same thing, his word carries a paramount value to me.
So, once this discussion became close to its end, he provided me your name. He told me that I should reach out you and read into your comments regarding the American Government and those who have been elected to lead. I’ll be honest, I have not begun reading any of your books. However, I have read your post on this very website (feralsholar.org) regarding not voting. To my amazement, your article struck me and started to get me to wonder. Until recently, I have been on of those to use the statement “you didn’t vote, can you truly comment on how things are being run?”.
Much like you, I do not truly declare myself as a republican, democrat, liberal, or conservative (I don’t even claim a religion). I also agree that the current system does not work and the masses of America are blind to how much of a failure the current system is. I look forward to reading more of your work and postings. I am happy that my uncle mentioned your name; referring you as “the smartest man I ever met”. Believe me when I say, I know my uncle was not exaggerating this statement when he told it to me.
Thank you for the time you served and for voicing yourself.
Regards,
A New Fan!
18 July 2011, 1:29 pmStan:
Was your uncle Pedro, Rod, who? Thanks for the note, tho your uncle is being overly generous. (:
Whoever he is, send him my warm regards; and tell him I’ll be 60 in November. How time flies.
18 July 2011, 3:10 pmMichele:
i must confess that i did not read the full article; only the posted excerpt. The reason for that: this doesn’t seem like new information, but merely something that has become more widespread since the financial chaos. It always amazes me that such issues are not discussed widely until they hit the “middle class,” or what was formerly known as such. i guess that makes sense to a certain extent, as there is a larger distribution of population in the mid-ranges, than that above or below. i guess it is just the idea of “no one gets seconds until everyone has firsts” kind of personal thinking that makes this peripheral blindness of the masses rather offensive. That this is more widespread is also unwelcome, but not suprising. There is no joy in saying ‘i told you so’ to any of my relatives, friends or acquaintances.
The link between poverty and obesity due to malnutrition has been widely acknowledged for at least 10 years; and even how corn subsidies factor into both poverty and obesity has been a subject of much study.
19 July 2011, 5:58 amA couple of examples: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1247588/
http://colorado.edu/pwr/occasions/articles/Griffin_The%20Economic%20Cause%20of%20Obesity.pdf
http://www.nature.com/oby/journal/v9/n11s/full/oby2001123a.html
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1753-4887.2009.00157.x/pdf
This last link is more recent, but there are alot of really good papers here on a broad range of topics: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1287408
Having lived in Europe for some time now, it is apparent every day how different agriculture is from in the United States. It costs less to eat healthy, (locally even,) than to eat processed, unhealthy food. Now i suppose i will read the article. Who knows, maybe there will be something there i didn’t already know.
Michael Anderson:
The price factor involving subsidies has been an known issue for a number of years, since local/organic food started taking off, and the price of oil went through the roof. The real test is looking at organic vs conventional FRESH food prices these days—the difference has been narrowing for the last ten years.
The U.S. population has been hoodwinked into thinking for many years that calories=affluence, wherever you get them, since the food price spikes of the early 70′s, along with the cheap and plentiful meme—especially when it ain’t. Stan’s $22 grocery list in Costa Rica was pretty good wake-up call there. In Europe I’ll bet there isn’t a fraction of the commercial “big ag” infrastructure and accompanying bullshit machine that there is here.
One of the other things I see as disturbing now is when I occasionally watch TV, the commercials feature actors who would have been considered fat in earlier times. So, “chubbah” is the new normal.
Let ‘em eat cake?
19 July 2011, 8:29 amSt. Jude as Claus:
Yahoo.com currently has a summary of an article by the online edition of Eating Well magazine that is very thought provoking. The title of the summary and the article is, The best and worst protein choices for your health and the environment. I would have to question why Yogurt gets a lower rating than milk. Anyone who knows what yogurt is knows that yogurt IS MILK. So the authors of this report (study) I think kind of srewed up on that result.
Another bone of contention is the lower rating for Turkey versus Chicken. I have not bought any Turkey in quite a while. I do seem to remember that once upon a time that the cost of Turkey was significantly less than Chicken.
That seems to be a preety good indicator to me that it requires fewer resources to raise a pound of Turkey than a pound of chicken. If it uses less resources it should have a lower carbon footprint should it not?
Then there was this suggestion that I thought was rather funny. It suggested that people drink locally produced milk? Like right. Sure people in Wisconsin drink Milk produced in Arkansas all the time do’nt they. Just like people in Arizona or Nevada have a dairy farm under each of their many water falls.
Land O’Lakes Butter the creamy fresh choice for your morning pancakes, afternoon tortias, and evening muffins.
19 July 2011, 12:46 pmMichael Anderson:
Sourcing your milk, locally or not, is important—here in Coos County we have an lot of organic milk producers, and some “Organic Valley” co-op members—-heirs to the days a century ago when there were hundreds of dairy farms here. You can say, also, that any organic dairy products are better for you than the growth hormone and antibiotic-laden conventional counterparts. We eat LOCAL eggs—-given the furor over E. Coli recently, I think this is self-validating. That top ten list seems to mostly make sense, although I would disagree with the “Loser(s): green beans & any large, starchy bean: kidney, great northern, lima”. Green Beans you don’t necessarily eat for protein. They are antioxidants and roughage, too (don’t forget green veggies process all that radioactive crap out of you body). And, white and red beans and Corn (organic if you can find it) together provide all the proteins that red meat provides. The issue (and diet) is more complex than articles like these project.
Hamburger, of course, is a no-brainer.
19 July 2011, 1:30 pmMichael Anderson:
Turkey, also, is relevant to how they’re grown. A wild Turkey is a biologically different animal than on that is raised confined and drugged and overfed (even organically). My personal feeling is that Chickens are amazing birds.
19 July 2011, 2:04 pmMichael Anderson:
The Fish part of that list breaks my heart, since I love fish. Now, here, on the West Coast, we have to think about Salmon and Tuna not only full of Mercury and PCB’s (wild or NOT), but the fact that they will have radioactive “hot” particles in them, especially Tuna, which are wide-ranging fish.
Local seafood…West Coast/Bering Sea (radiation), Gulf Coast (Oil), East Coast (200 years of “civilization”)…starting to feel boxed-in.
19 July 2011, 2:14 pmTom:
Stan — I hope you take and appreciate young Edwin Monzon’s comments to heart, especially the one about his uncle thinking you are the “smartest man” he ever knew. Please appreciate that comment and compliment for all it entails. I’m not bragging, but I possess a PhD, and I teach in a small, liberal arts university. With that said, I promise, I am truly amazed and overwhelmed with the knowledge and the ability to communicate that knowledge that you and others on this site do so well. I know for the most part that you are self-educated (probably the best kind of education, at least in the U.S.), but it appears that most who contribute here, possess a real voice — an educated voice — a reasoned voice. A voice that puts most of us PhDs to shame. What a refreshing place to visit and learn.
19 July 2011, 2:30 pmStan:
Very kind of you, Tom. Thanks, on behalf of all those folks.
19 July 2011, 6:11 pmSt. Jude as Claus:
Yahoo, has another report about how a Mossad Spy Ring was uncovered in New Zealand during the Earthquake there which happened before the Japanese Quake. If I am not mistaken Wayne Madsen Report reported on that a long time ago.
Why is Yahoo bringing up such old news at this time?
Stan, you and Wayne were both writing for From The Wilderness web site at the same time. Did you two ever talk to one another during the course of your association with Michael Ruppert? I have to admit sometimes some of the things that Wayne writes seem far out like his obsession with earthquakes. I just pass it off as disinformation to confuse people about what it is that really intrests him. Do you still talk (I am really implying conspire)
20 July 2011, 12:54 pmwith him? I know that you both share a fondness for the same woman. I hope that that does not cause any friction.
Bittu:
Jayati Ghosh: Speculation, concentration of ownership and hoarding creates food price bubbles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o0CIMZHyvQ
20 July 2011, 2:44 pmStan:
Good one, Bittu. Thanks. Putting this on facebook now.
20 July 2011, 4:55 pmMat:
Hey Stan,
First of all, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the contradiction of right-wing ideology of nutrition in America. As if it were as simple as making a choice between cheap manufactured foods and the ‘elitist,’ nutritious food we wish we had. The funny thing is, it does not work in the favor of these CEO’s for Americans to eat healthier, otherwise they wouldn’t have these incredible profits.
The truth is the American people are fed the illusion that they have the choice of whether they can have local food, or engineered crap. These CEO crooks would have you and I believe that our tax dollars are going to innovative ways of getting more of the population to eat healthier.
I just find it funny that our Politicians tell us it is a choice to have a healthier happier life, even though we have no real say in the matter. If we did have a choice, these corporate thieves would out on their well-fed asses a long time ago.
25 July 2011, 5:32 pmMark:
“Politics is the entertainment arm of industry.” – Frank Zappa
26 July 2011, 10:27 amC.C.:
*Caution* A very off-topic post…
Stan, are you still with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization? I recall that you are no longer with a certain American communist organization because of the pressure of polemic conformity. I tried to find out for myself whether or not you were still with the FRSO.
Just a small curious digression.
31 July 2011, 8:48 pmStan:
Naw, left that behind a few years ago. As some of the postings here can sort of trace, I dropped the CP because they wouldn’t disengage with the Democrats, they were hostile to feminism, and they were extremely undemocratic in their internal practices. I left FRSO because I just couldn’t sustain my support for something called “marxism-leninism,” and because I was beginning to see the value of relocalization and become suspicious of managerial-administrative structures generally… and again, because there was a failure to grasp the essentials (for me) of feminism (and the younger folks there were embracing the whole pomo ‘feminist’ thing of the so-called ‘sex-positives,’ etc). But more than emerging and detailed ideological differences, my study of the critics of modernism (which continues today with a hard look at Alasdair MacIntyre) led me to reject not only the structures of the left, but many of their goals and the means they had chosen to go after them. In 2008, I was baptized a Christian; and that is pretty much how I would sum up my politics now (as explicated best probably by Yoder in “The Politics of Jesus”). I’m an advocate of friendship, charity that is local and personal, permaculture and other design efforts toward self-reproducing, resilient systems of community self-sufficiency, and I continue to pursue the study of modernism as a epoch and as a philosophical, cultural and material impasse that I think is now a runaway train with no one in charge.
1 August 2011, 7:02 amKim Sky:
Who Will Feed the People?
some friends of mine just got an article published in counterpunch! hip, hip… a detailed analysis of small farming. the first project they referred to which they don’t completely articulate is, they contracted with a large number of home owners in portand to grow their gardens, and keep the extra produce to sell twice a week to set customers. With that success, they rented a seven acre plot of farmland, which was previously used as commercial farmland.
… We are farming on land that was formerly used for grass-seed production, and has been hammered with chemicals and big machines for decades. Over 50% of the cropland in the Willamette Valley is planted in grass-seed, so the lessons we are learning are potentially valuable for future farmers who will be attempting the same in this area.
http://counterpunch.org/sonnenblume08012011.html
2 August 2011, 9:44 amStan:
nice
2 August 2011, 4:37 pmtimothy:
society will realize the need to restructure its’ priorities, when its far too late.
Id be interested to see the history behind large scale food business, since im fairly certain it was the World Wars that changed the way we chose and distributed our foods. Call it a “militarization” of our canning/packaging industries to supply our troops overseas, that eventually blossomed into the corporate food giants we have today.
In the end however, with food a lot of the responsibility and choices come from the individual. I wouldnt blame the ceos, elitists, or ‘bad’ guys on this one. American Society has nobody to blame for our excessive and extravagent need to eat unhealthy food, except for ourselves.
4 August 2011, 2:37 amStan:
Actually, often enough it is the poor who are forced to eat the cheapest, and worst, food. Society is not comprised solely of moneyed adults with knowledge of food issues.
4 August 2011, 4:15 amtimothy:
I know you are right. But why is this so? How are they “forced” to eat food? I think to a certain point, yes, lower class families logically go to unhealthy, processed, cheap food. That makes sense. But to me, its a simple choice, and I think most people have the common knowledge to know that there are healthier options out there than the big greasy big mac, or bag of chips.
To me, Food and health knowledge requires no social class, or specific age. It requires the desire to learn. I mean heck, today’s age of information there really is no excuse, besides the fact that nutrition and health are apart of the public schooling agendas.
Again, I get what you’re saying, there is an issue with mass consumed/produced foods. But I dont see how being poor, makes you eat poorly. I look around at different cultures and diets, and Id say that for most “poorer” societies, they can thrive off of basics. Fish, rice, grains, etc, off of the land they live. I know you cant take that system and logistically pull it off in America, but still there is something to be said about that.
A bowl of rice , and some raw fish, simply isnt as attractive or appealing to an American consumer. They are told they need taste, and conditioned to believe it, even though the possibility of a “less tastier” yet healthier option has been there the whole time. I think thats the biggest issue.
5 August 2011, 7:53 amRobert Karaffa:
@Timothy: Marketing. Lots for Cheap. Super-commodified High Fructose Corn Syrup and Rendered Animal Fat. 2 liter Soda Pop $.79. 97% fat “Bologna” $.89/lb. GMO Corn Chips 1lb. bag $2.00…………….
5 August 2011, 8:58 amRobert Karaffa:
Super cheap white “bread.” And super cheap white buns for super cheap mechanically separated chicken hot dogs. Frozen dinners with an ingredient (chemical) list as long as most dissertations. 4 cheeseburgers and 4 fries for 4.99 HFCS and water “Juice” (with 9 kinds of food coloring) in gallon jugs for .99 look how much you get fer yer dollar!
5 August 2011, 3:49 pmVivian Phillips:
Hi Stan, I agree with you about the runaway train, and maybe the cliche’d advice “all you can do is work on yourself” is finally true.
I would like to hear your opinion on the implications of the U.S.’s downgrading. [I wish someone would rate the downgrading of our civil liberties]. One might think that, on the first day, God said “let there be money”.
And finally, I think I got food poisoning from my local natural food store. Shrimp? It was mild enough that I thought it was rather amusing. I wanted to lose a few pounds anyway.
6 August 2011, 11:35 amViv
Vivian Phillips:
@timothy, there wasn’t much interest in the invention of canning until the Civil War. I was trying to think of one other invention for war that actually benefited humans. Space exploration?
6 August 2011, 11:54 amAlex:
@Timothy,
I’m not American but I’ve been to visit. 2 weeks in Michigan and I perfectly understood why American’s find themselves suffering from obesity and malnutrition. For a start, while I don’t doubt there is some “conditioning” I’d imagine humans have relatively little control over their urges to consume salt, sugar and fat etc. Perhaps its a throwback (not that it needs historical memory in substantial parts of the world) to an age when calories were less ubiquitous and you took what you could find, or something else, but I’m sure you are aware that it’s a perfectly common phenomenon that people struggle to contain their consumption of things they know to be bad for them (“I shouldn’t have had that last chocolate/beer/handful of chips etc.). American culture just happens to have perfected the techniques needed to satisfy the body’s cravings in the most efficient manner.
So when they have little money, little time (both situations eased by meeting the body’s REQUIREMENT to eat by purchasing the kind of food we’re talking about) and the confectionary satisfies some of their bodies deeply felt urges I can only think the opposite to you. How is it that poor people in the United States can be blamed at all for the poor quality of their diet?
Among the many other horrible tropes now infecting my own country (UK) is the belief that our health service should restrict its service to overweight and obese people because they “choose” to be fat and the individual is essentially responsible for making sure they are healthy enough to be the right kind of sick. Needless to say such a policy is leapt upon by the bigots who argue that such a policy is logical for an NHS under strain and that anyone who suffers, anywhere, is totally responsible for it but it is of course yet another foot in the door for the “I’m alright Jack” ideology that performs such miracles in every other area of the world/society it gets its claws into.
6 August 2011, 1:26 pmEric:
FWIW: http://www.healthyguts.net/articles/shopping-on-a-small-budget-living-on-food-stamps-ebt
6 August 2011, 11:46 pmKarl:
I was trying to think of one other invention for war that actually benefited humans. Space exploration?
I hope that’s sarcasm. Space exploration benefits only those who are employed by, or shareholders of, contractors to NASA. And I don’t think monetary benefits are the kind of benefit we should be seeking.
For every supposed technological benefit of space exploration, we could have spent the money directly on that technology, rather than spending the money on “space exploration” and being thankful for the tiny little atomized events of “trickle-down” from space spending.
At a time when many nations are collapsing, spending money on “space exploration” seems wasteful at best, and inhumane in most cases.
16 August 2011, 1:47 pmAlex:
I also suspect (although feel free to tear me apart on this) that thinking about the benefits purely in terms of humans and insisting on thinking of us as entirely separate from the rest of our planet has not been a neutral ideology as the last couple of centuries have seen our environment/planet degrade (and, indeed, the concomitant degeneration of humanity’s conditions as a result). Space Exploration seems like the ultimate expression of that. “Forget the Earth, she’s rubbish now. Our “human” future is in sitting in a box for a few years before we find somewhere else to give us what we need.”
17 August 2011, 4:47 amaskod:
There has been advances in medicine related to war – Nigthingale’s efforts comes to mind. Oh, and blood donations.
Also the wristwatch and the t-shirt.
When it comes to space exploration I file it under mystical explorations. It does not put food on the table, but is part of a long tradition of trying to say something about our place in the universe. Recently listened to a physicist specialised in big bang and all that and he said that any conversation that started with stars and the universe often led to questions about god and our place in the universe.
17 August 2011, 7:38 amSeer:
I don’t proclaim to be any authority on food, but some of the reasons for the existing corporate system are pretty easy to figure out.
First, as Henry Kissinger once quipped, control the food and you control the people. The corporate food system provides a point of control for those in power.
Second, corporate mechanisms are based on volume. In some ways volume production can trim waste, though there are “externalizations” (such is the corporate world!). If you’ve ever had to pitch out food (come on, admit it, you’ve tossed out some veggies that you weren’t able to eat up before their time elapsed) you can understand the difficulty of trying to utilize volumes of food. I can argue that nothing other than time and energy are really wasted, but there are those externalizations that lurk: soil depletion etc. But, the point is that managing food isn’t easy. And trying to produce food is equally difficult (just look at what’s happened to crops and livestock this year- heck, look at your own gardens!). Not to defend the corporate system (NEVER accuse me of this!), but their profits come from reducing food spoilage. Yes, all that wonderful food chemistry (sarcasm!) is a way of minimizing food spoilage: well, they really care about profits, but the more you can reduce spoilage the more profits are possible.
While I support the notion of growing local (I myself am starting to do this), I don’t believe that people understand that there will be increased food “waste,” at least during the transitional period.
The current system WILL die because it’s dependent upon depleting fossil fuels, and, because it’s degenerated(?) into producing sick, pseudo food.
One thing is certain: in the future we’ll be spending a lot more time with our food.
For what it’s worth, I’m a fan of Wendell Berry and Joel Salatin (to name just a couple).
21 August 2011, 8:20 amMoon Man:
“For every supposed technological benefit of space exploration, we could have spent the money directly on that technology, rather than spending the money on “space exploration” and being thankful for the tiny little atomized events of “trickle-down” from space spending.
At a time when many nations are collapsing, spending money on “space exploration” seems wasteful at best, and inhumane in most cases”
Agreed, it would appear as if space exploration and all that comes from it, really is trivial to human existence and life on the planet. Spending money to go find life on Mars? What difference does it make if there was? I wouldn’t really call in “inhumane”, but certainly it is a fraud placed upon the citizens. The space program has been, and forever will be a military/intelligence operation covered by the innocent intellects who have devoted their lives to the program. The race to the moon, is what got people involved, and it’s deception worked really, really well.
Sadly, however to the US government, the space program and more importantly the control of space, is a top priority. Its mind boggling to think about the possibilities of what the government can hide in space, given that they do a pretty decent job of that ON the planet. Ultimately, there really is too much value in controlling space, and the USA isn’t gonna give it up that easily.
25 August 2011, 6:14 amMoon Man:
So, I guess I can take my tinfoil hat off now…
But on topic, the food crisis. I think its atrocious how we can be discussing these matters, and still now that most of us, the ones with the capabilities and privilege are still gonna go reach into the cupboard after this, and be able to fill our stomachs with whatever we want. While this presents a great luxury for most, as progress does, I can not help but to think that the United States shouldn’t be concerned with just THEIR food problems, but moreso the world’s.
Point is, we get to debate the evil ceo’s processed food, vs the organic farmers fresh, while most dealing with the real issues are left debating on food vs nothing at all. Hooray for Human priorities.
25 August 2011, 6:23 amDeAnander:
There are plenty of people who frequent fully stocked grocery stores and buy packaged cr*p food even when they could more cheaply buy basic real food. But not everyone has that degree of choice, and not everyone’s junkfood diet is a result of decisions *they* make, not entirely. The urban poor probably have the narrowest, most engineered and controlled dietary options of all.
There are intersecting structural forces which limit the access of the urban poor to nutritious food. Lots of people are working on this problem from various angles. For example, many of the urban poor are cut off in “islands” surrounded by multilane high-speed highways or expressways which have been constructed right across traditional neighbourhoods by eminent domain. That’s an issue of urban form and local power politics: poor neighbourhoods are considered expendable “sacrifice zones” when the Automobile Lobby demands more roads with more lanes.
If you can’t afford a car, in some cases there’s no way out of the island of habitation; it’s unsafe and/or illegal to cross the expressways on foot. So… many of the urban poor (especially children and the elderly who don’t drive) are more or less prisoners of their local area. Which makes them the perfect “captive market” for predatory food marketing. If it takes an hour’s bus ride to get to a food store with decent produce and another hour back again (and what if you can’t safely leave the kids at home but have to drag them with you?), most struggling moms will shop at the local store no matter how bad it is.
There are pretty well documented patterns of higher (!) prices plus lower quality and less selection in food markets in urban poverty neighbourhoods. Some urban corner markets stock no fresh produce at all; others stock the out-of-date produce from the same market’s outlets in more affluent neighbourhoods (the wilted lettuce and tired fruit). Sometimes marked up, so that the urban poor pay more for that head of wilted lettuce than the soccer moms in the burbs paid for its brethren when they were fresh.
Continuing an intermittent FS theme: some clever folks are using GIS tech to map urban “food deserts” (popular nickname for these islands of poor nutrition and limited choice).
This paper from NIH brings more factors into the discussion: auto-centric culture and white flight which tends to segregate society by class and encourage shopkeepers and chain managers to move their stores to the more affluent periphery, abandoning the urban cores.
In the US, needless to say, a disproportionate percentage of the urban poor are Black; so it’s no surprise that Black community organisers and activists are addressing the food desert issue by promoting and practising urban organic farming.
Urban Farming has many faces, therefore; yes, organic urban farmers supply gourmet greens and other veg to upscale restaurants (the “only the elite eat well” trope). But urban farmers are also dedicating themselves to supplying healthy local food to schools; to selling fresh produce at affordable prices to urban families at and below the poverty line; to providing rewarding, productive work and community for alienated youth; and so on.
Anyway, many things shape people’s food “choices”, just as many things shape people’s choices to do stuff like join the military, engage in prostitution, leave the land and work in a maquiladora, emigrate (legally or not) to a more affluent country, etc. Usually the claim that they do all this spontaneously, from free choice, is most loudly preached by the people who benefit the most from the structures that coerce the poor into these lose/lose survival strategies
but you knew that.
All these problems are solvable.
Some places and people are working on them more seriously than others…
6 September 2011, 12:04 amRichard:
Are any of you familiar with Lierre Keith’s book, The Vegetarian Myth? I just started reading it…. seems right up Stan’s & De’s and others’ alley, though no doubt much of the information is not new to many of you.
7 September 2011, 10:43 amDeAnander:
I have not read LK’s book but am familiar with some of the territory, as explored in, f’rexample, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon (a good read!). Also familiar with Logsdon’s and Salatin’s arguments that farming is essentially incomplete and dependent on external inputs without livestock (mammals and birds being an intrinsic part of most functioning ecosystems), and hence a proportion of farm produce is, logically, animal. I find the argument fairly convincing, and am hoping to catch up with LK eventually. I know some vegans out there are really, really, *really* upset and angry with her
— so she’s hit a nerve, bigtime.
Meanwhile:
8 September 2011, 12:04 amHere’s my favourite story of the summer so far: The Boston Tree Party! What a cool project.
DeAnander:
More on urban farming: Detroit as the New American Frontier.
8 September 2011, 12:51 amRichard:
Thanks for mentioning the Fallon book; I’ll have to look into that.
And, yes, she really seems to have upset a lot of vegans. That link you supplied–wow. “Animal holocaust denier”!
8 September 2011, 9:02 amStan:
Nice to have you back, De.
Okay, here’s my first takeaway:
‘Nuff said. (-8]
8 September 2011, 11:36 amStan:
Here’s the trailer for Urban Roots
http://vimeo.com/22102417
8 September 2011, 3:46 pmDeAnander:
The New Green Revolution
Notes and actual case studies on the success of permaculture/agroforestry and other agroecological techniques.
Can we pleeeeeze stop the echo chamber that keeps insisting industrialised monocropping “increased our food producing capacity tremendously”??? It has reduced it. Reduced it terrifyingly.
9 September 2011, 12:49 amkathy:
De!! brilliant, brilliant commentary. Do you have a specifically feminist angle on all these structural factors of food “choice” that you discuss? Does anyone know of any feminist analysis of food politics?
11 September 2011, 6:33 amDeAnander:
Intriguing question KM!
Some googling was required to find this list of feminist publications in “food studies”.
Most of feminist food analysis has focussed on patriarchal body image standards and strictures, women’s eating disorders, etc. — but I think the connections are starting to be made between western industrial food and the devaluation of women’s work around the world. Since most peasant farmers are women (and most heads-of-households in urban slums and poverty n’hoods are, de facto, women), issues like peasant displacement and food deserts are, de facto, women’s issues (sigh).
11 September 2011, 10:13 amStan:
Just a coupla transient thoughts from my own preoccupation with how war (as a trans-cultural universal) has been formative of domination-masculinity (almost a redundant phrase, representing something that is correspondingly trans-cultural).
Food politics/food praxis theory looks mostly at outcomes (food deserts, crap food, maldistribution, technological dependency), sometimes at the historical development of food systems (meaning material conditions inflected by politics/power). But just as most marxists (who are often pretty good at historical materialism when they can get past their technological optimism) can use research to describe economic evolutions and outcomes, and just as most of the same folks tend to naturalize gender relations in their overall hermeneutic and thereby overlook all the ways that war (which is in my own hypothesis the recursive partner of masculinity) provides a framework for how the whole culture thinks.
The easy comparisons are the “Man conquering Nature” notion and “war on pests, weeds, etc.” I’m thinking now also about the correspondence of the ideas of competition-scarcity-hierarchy-civilization-simulacra vs cooperation-abundance-hetrarchy-wilderness-originality. War and civilization are conjoined twins in history; and war privileged men in ways that perpetuated male power via the organization of male violence.
11 September 2011, 1:10 pmkathy:
thanks Stan and DE. Yes, since women are still the primary caretakers they are at the center of food politics when it comes to land displacement, and austerity measures of all kinds here and internationally. I want an analysis that, in addition to the critique of men and war, connects men’s appropriation of women’s bodies and labor to these food issues.
11 September 2011, 3:01 pmkathy:
I don’t know what I was thinking– Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva are certainly an excellent place to start re what I”m looking for.
11 September 2011, 3:09 pmDeAnander:
KM: also Marilyn Waring who writes persuasively about finance, work, food, and gendered power… about the erasure of women and women’s work from conventional economic theory.
11 September 2011, 11:51 pmRichard:
Kathy’s question is excellent. When I was looking for stuff online about Lierre Keith’s book, I came across a negative Amazon review (pointed to by a vegan site). One thing the reviewer took issue with was Keith’s inclusion of the feminist angle. From my perspective, now hip-deep in feminist history of science, after reading Mies and Shiva, Federici and Bordo, is that when you read enough ecology and feminism and food sources, they ultimately come together in one topic.
12 September 2011, 9:30 amMs Kitty:
re: food politics this trend is not true in our small island village. We have formed a CSA and a local seafood co-op. We are all eating better! I haven’t eaten hardly any processed food in a while. The last time I did, after all of this real food, I have to say, yuck! You can taste the preservatives and staleness. It can be done and the young farmers who are bringing the food love coming here and bringing it, direct from farmer to consumer. They are making money and they especially enjoy hearing our appreciation and sharing recipes.
I know we have a special case, but a friend of mine in Carrboro has started a community garden and the ‘community’ part of it is the best part, she says. And the fresh produce is good too! Start small. Just do it. Support your local farmer’s market or start your own CSA.
2 October 2011, 9:53 amMichael Anderson:
Food image management….tactics. Another reason to eat local (and meatless, if you choose). Remember, too, that many so-called “organic” brands are owned by industrial ag Corpos (corpses) now (greenwashing), and are in the process of being adulterated and disassembled:
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http://motherjones.com/print/145616
LEAKED: Secret Sara Lee Marketing Memo
An internal Sara Lee PR presentation fell into my hands. So what’s your pound cake hiding?
By Tom Philpott | Mon Nov. 28, 2011 2:30 AM PST
I write a lot about the meat industry from the outside looking in. So I was delighted when an inside look at the industry fell into my hands: a real-life meat industry image makeover plan.
A source who wishes to remain anonymous gave me printouts from an internal presentation delivered by an official from Sara Lee. The company is best known for its sickly-sweet pies and cakes, but it has emerged as a major player in the packaged-meats market, with a brand list [1] that includes Ball Park franks, Jimmy Dean sausages, and Hillshire Farm deli meats. (Well, it’s called Hillshire Farm for the time being anyway—as you’ll see below, that may subtly change soon.) Sara Lee has announced plans [2] to split into two parts, one of them focused solely on packaged meat company (a “pure play” meat company, in Wall Street jargon). The plan I received highlights marketing ideas for the emerging meat company.
Below are some highlights. Warning: We are about to enter the strange arena of marketing, where fictional worlds are conjured up out of whole cloth for the sole purpose of moving goods.
From what I can tell, the intention expressed here is to brush up the image of Hillshire Farm and roll out two new premium brands: “Smith & Smith Fine Meats” and “Flat Iron Ranch.” The campaign is “foundational,” the one slide declares, “and demonstrates how the new, purposeful Sara Lee will manifest: Modern. Authentic. Simple.”
From there, we get the new plan for Hillshire Farm(s):
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Just for fun, how many lies can you find in the last paragraph?
2 December 2011, 1:05 pmMichael Anderson:
Water issues now—something to at least be aware of—I’m sure some clever Tapeworm deep in the bowel of the VeryBigCorporationOfAmerika, LLC, is working on this:
http://www.naturalnews.com/029286_rainwater_collection_water.html
“Many of the freedoms we enjoy here in the U.S. are quickly eroding as the nation transforms from the land of the free into the land of the enslaved, but what I’m about to share with you takes the assault on our freedoms to a whole new level. You may not be aware of this, but many Western states, including Utah, Washington and Colorado, have long outlawed individuals from collecting rainwater on their own properties because, according to officials, that rain belongs to someone else.”
13 December 2011, 6:28 ammichele:
@Michael, humankind has been waging this battle for the commons for so very long. The Bolivians have much to teach us from their water wars, and we would be wise to inform ourselves completely about this recent history; if only to empower ourselves.
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/bolivia-archives-31/2583-reflections-from-bolivia-water-wars-climate-wars-and-change-from-below
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=6670
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/South_America/Bolivia_WaterWarVictory.html
https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/pasdirtz/web/topics/BolivianWaterWar.pdf
14 December 2011, 12:16 amReally good links on this site about the world’s water:
http://sonic.net/~rteeter/waterregional.html
Michael Anderson:
Thanks, Michele….I be readin’
14 December 2011, 6:04 pm