Good Food is Everybody's Business
Yes, it’s Spring – and produce season is ostensibly months away. I say that with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek because we can buy hot weather fruit and vegetables year round thanks to the “miracle” of modern transportation.
What if you can’t afford nine-dollar tomatoes? That was the question award-winning journalist Tracie McMillan couldn’t escape as she watched the debate about America’s meals unfold, one that urges us to pay food’s true cost—which is to say, pay more. So in 2009 McMillan embarked on a groundbreaking undercover journey to see what it takes to eat well in America. For nearly a year, she worked, ate, and lived alongside the working poor to examine how Americans eat when price matters.
Urban Roots is a documentary about farming within the city limits of Detroit, and as such, it’s a handy way to get an education on the subject in something like 90 minutes. Dedicated Detroiters are working tirelessly to fulfill their vision for locally-grown, sustainably farmed food in a city where people – as in much of the county – have found themselves cut off from real food and limited to the lifeless offerings of fast food chains and grocery stores stocked with processed food.
There is a new wave of interest in good food, food you can trust, and food production on all scales. The literature of food and farming go back a long way, and there is a rich literature of food production just beginning to be explored. Here is a selection of books from the GoodFood World library touching on the heart and soul of farming for your late winter reading.
How did white bread, once an icon of American progress, become “white trash”? In this lively history of bakers, dietary crusaders, and social reformers, Aaron Bobrow-Strain shows us that what we think about the humble, puffy loaf says a lot about who we are and what we want our society to look like. White Bread teaches us that when Americans debate what one should eat, they are also wrestling with larger questions of race, class, immigration, and gender.
Looking back, this last month has been a little roller-coaster ride. Ian and I have taken on a number of new challenges, some individual and some joint. I took on a new job while he took on more practice hours in preparation for his recital. I launched a new website and we started saving our food scraps for compost. As I mentally ticked off the events of the last few weeks, it was clear that we weren’t wasting time. In between each hiccup we celebrated little successes, and even our low points left us with lessons learned.
After a hard day’s shearing was accomplished, all the beautiful fleeces were stacked under a window near the front of the barn. The price of wool was very low, due to the prevalence of polyester clothing, and also to a large influx of imported wool from Australia. At a price of thirty three cents a pound, I did not intend to sell the wool at that time, but would add it to the last year’s clip, which was stored in my sister Merle’s dry basement. Hopefully, the price of wool would rise to a decent level before her basement overflowed, so the wool was awaiting transport to her farm the next morning. Mother Nature however, had other ideas!
Knowing where your food comes from – and getting to know your farmer – is a critical step in knowing what’s IN your food. Once you’ve decided to take the plunge and sign up for a CSA, how do you know who’s real? Success breeds competition and sometimes that competition is fudging it. Some of those CSAs you’re looking at are not REAL CSAs.
