Now, the work begins.

In her comment on my previous posting, Hattie, of Hattie's Web, passed this along from President-elect Obama:  "...now the work begins."

One of the arenas requiring work is our agricultural industry and governmental policies affecting it.  Fred First has posted a thoughtful piece, Sun-Food Agenda:  Future's Food Footprint.  From Fred's posting:

"Below (from an interview with Time mag) is a snippet of Obama’s wholistic expression of hope for healthier foods, buildings, cities, transportation. What he grasps–in a way unfamiliar among our generation’s politicos–is the paradigm shift (read: change) that will be necessary to the very survival of our species. Whether he can make the kind of Manhattan Project for the Sun-Food Agenda (and in other sectors as well) happen in four years remains to be seen. But we can start. We can hope. We can work to be the faithful stewards Mr. Berry and Mr. Pollan encourage us to be. Yes we can.

'There is no better potential driver that pervades all aspects of our economy than a new energy economy. I was just reading an article in the New York Times by Michael Pollen [sic] about food and the fact that our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil.

'As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it’s creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in commodity prices, and are partly responsible for the explosion in our healthcare costs because they’re contributing to type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease, obesity, all the things that are driving our huge explosion in healthcare costs.

'That’s just one sector of the economy. You think about the same thing is true on transportation. The same thing is true on how we construct our buildings. The same is true across the board.' "

That is one insightful posting, Fred!  I would add that, one of the reasons for the production of monocultures is the requirement imposed by the large food industry organizations, that the raw ingredients supplied to them be uniform.  How often have we read of the requirements that fast food chains levy on their suppliers so that a "Big Burger" purchased in Des Moine IA tastes/looks/smells the same, and has the same mouth feel as, a "Big Burger" purchased in Florida or Timbuktu?

In traveling, I've always enjoyed finding restaurants/cafes/cantinas that feature local cuisine.  However, it is obvious that the mega-fast-food-joints don't find that this is what they can make money producing.  How do you want your food?  Consistent or varied?  Personally, I often find it too inconvenient to seek out the exception so, like millions of others, I fall back on the tried-and-true.  Shame on me.

Comments

[Kay Dennison]

I agree. I avoid the big chains and do my best to support the small business owner. The food is better and I think healthier.

[Rain]

Huge changes ahead if we want to be healthier and have more people able to work and get better lives for themselves. It's exciting but it sure won't be easy. We have drifted a long time as a people. We have let corporations put things in our food (like corn syrup, dairy products, wheat) that weren't necessary and have made us fatter but we didn't pay attention. He can't change it all right away but we have to start somewhere.

[Cop Car]

Thanks for your input, Kay and Rain.
1) In writing about "Big Burger", I introduced a total non sequitor. Apologies. What I should have written is "Big Fries".
2) In checking out the offerings of the various food places, I have come to the conclusion that, outside a plain garden salad (no olives, no croutons, no cheese, no dressing), I cannot find anything that really falls into my low-fat, low-sugar, low-salt requirements. Even Jason's Deli, which features "healthful foods" overloads everything with salt. The only thing that I can, reasonably, eat there (other than a side of steamed veggies) is their chicken salad plate; and, with it, I must only eat 1/2 of it at one meal! Most salad bars don't offer a large variety of unadulterated veggies.
3) My biggest complaint has to do with meat. It is difficult, these days, to find unadulterated (non-salty-fluid-injected) meats; and, even the non-injected meats are from animals that were (mostly) raised with hormones and/or antibiotic injections, while living.

[Rain]

You need to find a grower like us near your home, cop car. Our beef is sold directly to the buyers. They buy a quarter or a half, make arrangements for how they want it cut up at the small packing house, who also does the kill right on our place. The animals are totally grassfed and much healthier. I bet you could find such growers near you. Check farm papers, maybe even Craig's List. A lot of people do not know that the grassfed beef has the same Omega 3s that salmon has. If more people start buying direct from the grower, more will be grown. the hormones that some animals get can't be good for us either.

[Cop Car]

Rain--You are absolutely correct that I could do something other than just whine about the issue. At times, in the past, I have done just as you suggest; but, with just Hunky Husband and me to feed, we no longer even keep a freezer and the neerest lockers are a distance away. A couple of times I've bought meat from the nearest locker (which features locally grown, no hormones, etc, meat--and, wild game); but it's been indistinguishable from super market meat. (Are "they" telling the truth...are they being told the truth? How does one know?) We have a high-priced meat market right here, in town, that carries better meats than are at the super markets. In its case, HH has just never cared for its meat!!! I, personally, love their skinny chickens. (I would also love to grow my own!)

Perhaps the real issue is that HH doesn't feel as I do about foods, nor does he have dietary restrictions, nor does he like the taste of unadulterated foods. Since we married in 1958, he has always expressed a preference for canned vegetables, over fresh or frozen. What do I do with a guy like that?! (Love him to pieces but think that he is out of his ever-lovin' mind?!!)

P.S. In years past, I have stood there supervising (or just answering the butcher's questions as to what we wanted) the cutting of a half of beef. I'll never forget my disappointment in the taste of a half of beef that I bought (from a processor) in Seattle...and we had a whole half to eat before we were rid of it. I was too young to stand up to the locker that sold the beef to me. Later, I realized that the beef had been aged too long! I think that we gave some of it away when we left Seattle (it turned out that we were only there for 15 months.) As I got a little age on me, I became a more picky consumer. Ideally, I like beef that has fed on grass up to its last week or two...then corn-fed.

[fred1st]

Thanks for the linkage, CC, and some additional words on the topic of ag's future. I think I hear change in the wind.