festivore

I participated in a stimulating panel discussion at “Eat Local Now!” - an event sponsored by Sustainable Cascadia and BALLE, the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, on 13 September 2008. These are just a few talking points. Feel free to contact us for further details.

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Here are some of the criticisms of local food that I have encountered while managing a consumer nonprofit and working inside the food & agriculture business for many years. Concerns come from industry, confused and cash-strapped consumers, and even environmentalists.

1.    Small, family farms are too resource intensive, too inefficient.
Discussion: The application of industrial principles to farming creates much greater efficiencies in growing, processing, storing, transporting, and distributed food than small, local farms… and these advantages are increasing as technology advances.
Answers:
(a) Read about Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Virginia – using permaculture, he has created a tremendously efficient farm by harnessing the power of nature.
(b) Banding together as small businesses, we could create our own local economies of scale, with collective processing facilities, distribution systems, and supply chain software to connect farmers and buyers. Some of this is beginning to happen, but businesses need to step into this space.
(c) We need to relearn how to be efficient on the farm without synthetic chemicals, and use modern science to advance natural farming.

2.    Natural farming leads to a lot of food waste.
Discussion: Chemicals prevent insect damage, make foods look “perfect,” preserve them during transport. Packaging allows food to be stored without spoilage. The corporate motto of Tetra Pak, the world’s largest packager of liquid foods in cartons, is “We make food safe and available, everywhere.”
Answers:
(a) Let’s rethink waste. Food waste should be returned to the soil in homes, municipalities, and farms. “There is no waste in nature.”
(b) Also, let’s rethink food. If it’s not grown in living soil, if it’s tainted with hormones and pesticides, if it’s sterilized and chemically preserved in a package, it’s not food.

3.    It costs too much.
Discussion: There is a large disparity in cost between conventional and local/natural/organic food. This is unfair especially to lower income consumers. Local food is “elitist.”
Answers:
(a) Industrial food is cheap partly because we have subsidized it. If we, as a society, provided the same billions of dollars of research, farming subsidies, low-cost water rights, and political influence to local farming that we have given to industrial food systems, local farming could become much more efficient and prices would come down. It is a matter of setting public priorities.
(b) Work together to create our own economies of scale.
(c) Use technology to expand the market for local food.

4.    Eating locally is not much fun in January.
Discussion: How many of us would like to give up coffee, chocolate and bananas? We need variety in our diet to remain healthy, which means foods need to be imported, especially in the off-seasons.
Answers:
(a) Eating seasonally connects us with the land (“terroir”) and is probably healthy for us. Anticipating the next food to come in season is spiritually fulfilling.
(b) Instant gratification is not necessarily a societal value.
(c) It doesn’t take much technology to extend the seasons for many foods around here – e.g., greens all year.
(d) It also depends on your location – people have moved into places where humans are not supposed to be (Las Vegas, the fastest growing city).
(e) Our suggestion is that our food should be “mostly local” but not necessarily 100% local. Artisan foods (say, a lovely Basque sheep cheese) may make perfect sense on a menu as a complement to local produce and meats. Many of these exported hand-crafted products have supported families and communities for many generations, while bringing culinary pleasure to their customers.

5.    Shopping for local, natural foods is too hard.
Discussion: We don’t have much time, and supermarkets are so convenient. It’s very difficult / confusing to figure out what’s local & natural.
Answers:
(a) The food industry spends billions trying to keep us from knowing where our food comes from and how it’s made. Fight for labeling.
(b) Shop at trusted vendors and get to know them.
(c) Kill your TV. Use the extra time to reconnect with your food.
(d) Shop direct with farmers, CSA, Co-ops, family markets, etc.
(e) Keep a garden. This is a good solution to the cost problem, too.

6.    Local farming endangers animal habitat.
Discussion: Intensive agriculture is very land efficient – lots of calories per acre. On a global basis, this allows us to feed our people while preserving land for animal habitat. A switch to local farming would lead to encroachment upon wild areas.
Answers:
(a) Human habitat is endangered. We need to establish public policy for our own protection, too.
(b) The food industry should focus on efficiently growing natural food, mostly locally. Not just getting more calories per acre.
(c) Again, it’s a matter of public priorities. What do we want for our society?

7.    The economic model is unsustainable; local farms can’t compete.
Discussion: Americans spend only 9% of their income on food, compared with 20% in Japan and 17% in Europe. This is mainly because of the acceptance of industrialized and imported of foods. As free trade grows, small family farms are disappearing worldwide, unable to compete with efficient corporate farms.
Answers:
(a) “Don’t eat anything that your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” – Michael Pollan.
(b) Find ways to empower consumers to chose local food.
(c) Large corporations can begin to source more locally. Example: $400 million Wal-Mart program announced in summer 2008.
(d) Rethink free trade in food.
(e) As a society, increase our focus on local farming of real food and make it stronger, every day.

Further Information:

Subscribe to a wonderful weekly podcast produced by Jon Steinman from his base in rural British Columbia  - “Deconstructing Dinner.”  http://kootenaycoopradio.com/deconstructingdinner/

As you approach the table for your next meal, here are some thoughts to consider. These ideas are gleaned from centuries of culinary tradition and natural science, and they embody the festivore’s natural passion to eat well, live long and enjoy life.

Prepare your mind & spirit
Clear your head: the table is no place for stress, anger, worry, or distraction; for festivores, mealtime is a respite from the cares of the day.
Be thankful: consider where the food came from; take a moment to appreciate the farmer, the fisher, the forager, and the cook.
Be mindful: consider the oceans, the land, the animals and the ecosystems that are the source of this food; are you comfortable that this meal was sourced in harmony with nature?
Stay pure; eat real food: remember that your body’s “engine” is a myriad of biochemical pathways and it needs very specific fuels – no pesticides, synthetic hormones, GM foods, chemical modifications & additives have a healthy function in that engine; like sugar in the gas tank, they can cause big trouble.

Set the scene
Consider the setting: as often as possible, choose a natural place (at home, a peaceful patio, an historic place, relaxing restaurant, a garden, a shore, a farm).
Bring in natural elements: plantings, wood, stone, water, fire, iron, copper, flowers, antiques, well-worn furnishings, old things, handmade things, art, soothing sounds.
Go for quality: splurge on tableware, beautiful & comfortable furniture, good music, furnishings, flowers… it’s a great way to respect your food and yourself.

Enjoy!
Eat only what you love: be an adventurous eater (you never know what you might discover), but push aside mediocre foods; festivores vote with their forks… and vote for the good life.
Choose mainly low food: because our bodies are built to thrive on mainly plants, and because nature cannot support all of us constantly munching high on the food chain.
Hydrate: taste the water (cool, not cold) and drink lots of it, before and/or during any eating or drinking.
Eat slowly: take the time to taste, enjoy, reflect on the food – this will naturally lead to taking smaller portions and more variety of color, taste, texture, and preparation… with terrific health benefits.
Use all your senses: admire the presentation of the food, note the aromas, taste with your whole mouth, and don’t deaden your taste buds with too much heat or cold, too much spice, or too much alcohol.
Share: the meal is a great opportunity for reconnecting to share moments, ideas, fun and food (but when you’re dining alone, take full advantage of the opportunity to focus on the food for maximum enjoyment of it!).

Bon appétit!

Here are the comments presented at the panel discussion on “Eating Locally” at Third Place Commons in Seattle on 28 July 2008.

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What is a festivore?

You have heard of omnivores (people who eat everything) and locavores (people who eat local food)… but perhaps you are really a festivore! Festivores are people who love food, love life, and see dining as a celebration of nature’s bountiful harvest. They like their food to be mostly local, seasonal, natural and generally low on the food chain (we call this “low food“). But they are not extremists; they enjoy occasional extravagances and compensate the next day when they do – life is meant to be lived.

Festivores know that dining is also a social event. Over a meal families come together, friendships are celebrated, deals are struck, and romances are kindled. And of course festivores are “green,” so they like their restaurants and food to be eco-friendly and fair.

Festivore highlights restaurants that are “mostly local,” meaning that priority is given to known and trusted local vendors of produce, meats, beverages and supplies.

But realistically, many communities, like Seattle, lack sufficient variety of foods in the winter to support a healthy diet. Rather than ask everyone to leave Seattle and move south, we allow for reasonable supplementation with non-local ingredients… but we still expect our restaurants to pay homage to seasonality, even in winter.

Not every tasty product can be grown locally. Some obvious examples for Northern cities are coffee, chocolate, and bananas. We also recognize that an artisan food (say, a lovely Basque sheep cheese) may make perfect sense on a menu as a complement to local produce and meats. Many of these exported hand-crafted products have supported families and communities for many generations, while bringing culinary pleasure to their customers.

Now, I would like to make a few comments on issues in local food.

Local food is in vogue today, particularly in an age of $4 or $5/gallon fuel, but it is not without controversy, and the argument is not just right vs. left.

Advocates for the poor sometimes view local and organic food as an elitist luxury, inaccessible to families on a limited budget. And importing goods from developing countries effectively transfers wealth from richer to poorer communities, with the attendant social benefits.

Traditional environmentalists sometimes favor industrial food over local, because the same number of people can be fed on a much smaller piece of land using intensive agriculture techniques. Thus, more animal habitat can be preserved.

Even the much-discussed transportation advantage of local food is not without its skeptics. Although industrial food may travel an average of 1500 miles to your plate, there are tremendous efficiencies of production in the industrial food system that are simply unavailable to the local farmer, so his/her net input of resources may be greater overall.

The food industry has developed sophisticated sanitation, packaging, and distribution systems that reduce spoilage, waste, and illness and allow food to be sent safely to the remotest areas. Thus, the corporate motto of Tetra Pak, the world’s largest maker of beverage cartons, is “we make food safe and available, everywhere.”

But there are serious issues in industrial food, in terms of environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

Industrial food production fouls rivers, pollutes the air, tortures the animals that feed us, depletes fossil fuels, reduces biodiversity, and is destructive to living local economies.

Then there is a Fourth Element of sustainability, the impact of products on consumers. Industrial food is a prime cause of global health issues like obesity and chronic disease, as people around the world abandon their traditional diets in favor of new “foods” marketed by industry.

What are the health impacts of the consumption of pesticides, hormones, additives, GM foods, excessive amounts of animal protein and fat, refined sugar and flour? What are the long-term effects of the abandonment of seasonality, the loss of local food species, and confined animal feeding operations? Here in Salmon Nation, what are the consequences of a broken connection to our farmers, fishers and foragers?

What are the risks associated with a single hamburger containing the meat of 100 cows or more? And what are the consequences of the loss of community self-sufficiency in food, water and power in the event of a disaster such as an earthquake?

Is there a path forward, to a food system that is safe, efficient, humane, local and affordable? Or are we doomed to an impersonal, uninteresting and unhealthy global food system just because it’s cheaper?

Here are a few thoughts to consider:

1. In our perspective, industrial food is cheap partly because we have subsidized it. If we, as a society, provided the same billions of dollars of research, farming subsidies, low-cost water rights, and political influence to local farming that we have given to industrial food systems, local farming could become much more efficient and prices would come down. It is a matter of priorities.
2. Banding together as small businesses, we could create our own local economies of scale, with collective processing facilities, distribution systems, and supply chain software to connect farmers and buyers. Some of this is beginning to happen.
3. Larger corporations can begin to source more locally & regionally, strengthening local economies while maintaining efficiencies of scale. It’s not impossible: even Wal-Mart published a “Locally Grown” page on its web site earlier this month as part of a small, but growing company initiative to deal with this issue.
4. As a society, let’s get more educated on the subject of permaculture: learning how to solve human problems by designing innovative approaches to harness nature’s power and complexity. In a future of limited natural resources, local permaculture-based agricultural systems could achieve efficiencies unattainable by industrial means.
5. We can develop political solutions like the Seattle Local Food Action Initiative, in which the city promotes nearby farms, community gardens, farmers markets, produce in food banks, etc. through changes in public policy.
6. Finally, as consumers we can do business directly with our local farmers, giving them the bulk of the profits, by shopping at CSAs, farmers markets, and progressive grocers, and by supporting restaurants and cafeterias who source locally. And of course, you can find these restaurants on festivore.com.

There are many things to admire about Portland and its food and farms. Upon my return from a delicious week there, a few impressions linger happily in my thoughts.

1. More than most American cities, Portland is designed for people: The city is walkable and transit works. Restaurants are clustered into neighborhoods. Sidewalks are being widened. People ride bikes.

2. You don’t need a fortune to start a restaurant: Many of the best places are modest, handmade, evolving. The focus is on straightforward, good food and hospitality. Outside of Downtown and the Pearl District, a big fancy restaurant would be like a Clydesdale at a rodeo.

3. Ingredients rule, & farmers are the stars: Agriculture is nestled close-in to the city, farmers markets abound, kids are being taught where their food comes from, and farmers & chefs actually know each other. Several of Portland’s premier chefs commented that chefs are really just “converters” of nature’s bounty, which comes from the farm and the farmer - love that humility and respect for nature.

Our festivore startup visit to Portland was a smashing success, thanks greatly to Portland festivore team members Joanna Miller, Nancy Bardue and Aly Tibbetts, who organized the week. We got input, advice, insights, inspiration and feedback from some key people in Portland’s good food community…

Stan Amy (New Seasons / Pacific Foods)
Suzanne Bozarth (James John)
Eileen Brady (Celilo / Chinook Book / Eco Metro)
Ericka Carlson (Ecotrust)
Katherine Deumling (Slow Food Portland)
Regina Hauser (Oregon Natural Step)
Debra Sohm Lawson (Portland Chefs Collaborative)
Troy MacLarty (Lovely Hula Hands)
Ivy Manning (Portland food writer and cookbook author)
Joanna Miller (Portland food writer and festivore team)
Brooke Myers (Portland food writer)
Vitaly Paley (Paley’s Place)
Cory Schreiber (Oregon Dept. of Agriculture Food Education Manager, formerly of Wildwood)
John Tabaoda (Navarre)
David Yudkin (HOTLIPS Pizza, HOTLIPS Soda and Portland Chefs Collaborative)

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Memorable bites were enjoyed at Lovely Hula Hands, Carafe, Navarre, Toro Bravo, ten01, Ken’s Artisan Pizza, James John, Country Cat, Por Que No?, Park Kitchen, PokPok Whiskey Soda Lounge and the Portland Farmers Markets.

Check festivore for lots of new Portland content already uploaded and lots more coming…

Dean

We welcome your ideas, comments, criticisms… whatever.

Restaurant recommendations? Other food & lifestyle products?

Please send to info@thefourthelement.org

Thank you!

festivore is beginning a dialog on culinary pleasure, food & agriculture, healthy communities, and natural human habitat. With our recent launch in the US Pacific Northwest, we are starting small. But our intent is to build a global discussion to draw attention to the industrialization of our food and lifestyle, and the natural alternatives we have for healthy, happy living

Please engage!