Author Archives: ari3

What is Your Relationship With Food?

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Throughout my life, my relationship with food has changed drastically. I would try different meals, suddenly finding them delicious and adding them to my palette. I worked on an organic orchard for two summers, so my view on where food comes from and the painstaking hours it takes to procure was enhanced. Everyone has a relationship with food, but lately, the general population has found fast, quick meals to be ideal. My project for this class was investigating “slow food” and all it pertains to. Slow food is a movement that promotes traditional, homestyle cooking with everyone gathering down to enjoy a meal as a collective unit (family, friends, etc.). When I first started this project, I didn’t realize the implications of what slow food hopes to do, but as I read into it more, I was impressed. Slow food hopes to connect us to our food and make eating less of a task to check off a checklist. But what really is “eating”?

A farmer’s market, an ideal promoted and endorsed by Slow Food for its linkage to your food.

In his article, The Pleasures of Eating, Wendell Berry investigates how the notion of “eating” in our society has changed, as well as the decline of American farming and rural life. I feel like this article and the ideals portrayed in it really connect to my action project. Our goal as a group was to investigate how slow food wants people to focus more on familial customs, homecooked meals, and such. It roots its beliefs in preserving the culture behind cooking, seeing it as not just something to “feed your faces” (as my mother would say), but as a way of sharing the history of your people through the sensation of taste. The Pleasures of Eating share in this sentiment, as seen by the title. Berry states that, “The industrial eater no longer knows or imagines the connections between eating and the land, and is therefore passive and uncritical—in short, a victim” (Berry, 2009). This is the kind of thing the Slow Food Movement wants to change. You should know where your food comes from, which is why they promote farmer’s markets (so you can converse with your growers).

Other known benefits of slow food and embracing the culture of eating is that reduced mono-culture enhances the environment by promoting healthy soil and diffuses the reliance on factory farms.

I want to end this with a quote from the founder of Slow Food, Carlo Petrini:

“Slow food has the aim of defending our extraordinary food heritage, the expression of territories, and cultures alike” (Petrini, 2013).

References:

Berry, Wendell. (2009). The Pleasures of Eating, 11-15. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/alexi/Downloads/Berry,%20Pleasures%20of%20Eating%20(1).pdf

Petrini, Carlo. (2013) Slow Food and Terra Madre, Video. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqdzvQ2wpO0&t=162s

 

Was Thomas Malthus Right?

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In response to “Is this Hunger?” by Regular Joe

 

While reading his response to the “Hunger” contemplative practice, I noticed a pattern. “Regular Joe” thought about his own hunger, relayed it to the rest of the framework of world hunger, and tried to find solutions to the problem. This is a logical process for most (Identify problem with yourself –> expand to larger view –> look for a mend or solution).

To put it lightly, this process works for a lot of things, but world hunger is a different beast. It consumes the lives of tens of millions each year, most of which we don’t see because of our privilege. America is blessed with wealth, while other countries aren’t so lucky, so it is hard for us to think of hunger in a larger context.

A frame from Interstellar, a movie hypothesizing the future of agriculture.

To fight hunger in the present and in the future, I think we have to look to the past. In his claims, Thomas Malthus believed that human population/demand for food would far surpass supply of food in the coming decades or centuries. And while this could be a danger in the future, right now, Malthus was vastly mistaken overall. He saw around him a way of food production that was sloppy and downright slow by today’s standards, so no wonder he made this claim. But humanity, harnessing innovation, created numerous processes to optimize food growth, such as high-scale irrigation, crop rotation, genetically modified organisms, etc. These are some of the processes Regular Joe references in his response to “Hunger”, but I want to look at the future landscape of agriculture.

 

“Humanity is condemned by the tendency of population to grow geometrically while food production would increase only arithmetically”

-Thomas Malthus

 

To me, I look at the future of food production similarly to what I watched in the movie Interstellar, by Christopher Nolan. In this movie (taken place hundreds of years from now), the world has transitioned most of their citizens to agriculture-based careers, rather than accountants, athletes, movie-stars, etc. Because of the growing population, more food had to be produced, in areas that were optimal for food growth. I see the optimal growing zones on earth shifting more towards the poles (because of global warming) but I see humanity making the most out of it, squeezing all they can (agriculture-wise) out of their new situation.

References

Photo: https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2471590/how-interstellar-turned-christopher-nolan-into-an-actual-corn-farmer

Quote: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-malthus-predicted-1798-food-shortages/

To Maximize Your Food Choices or Not: That is the Question

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Thinking about food choices now more than ever, I find myself at a crossroads ethically. I wanted to connect my two favorite contemplative practices (Hunger and Exotic Foods) because I wanted to discuss them both, but I didn’t know how. I realized seeing as though they’re closely linked, I could find a bridge.

I noticed, as I went downstairs the day after listening to the Exotic Foods contemplative practice, how much diversity I saw in my kitchen. I saw pineapples, pears, snap peas, coffee beans, etc. I saw in that kitchen a link to countless different countries, which really amazed me. I had produce from all around the world. But as I should’ve been in awe I felt in my bones, it was a lot of regret and shame.

Over-exploitation has been a big topic in our class and I wanted to investigate more. I looked over the Conventional Supply Chain vs. the Free Trade Supply Chain and saw how utilizing middle men (while it was getting more people paid domestically) was hurting already-underprivileged farmers. If you use a Conventional Supply Chain, it takes more money away from the producers of exotic foods, which leads into the hunger aspect. Thousands of farmers, because they are being slighted financially, are unable to feed their families. Argentina, for example (a large exporter of foreign foods) reported that thousands of their inhabitants are undernourished or malnourished, even though “Argentina is one of the largest exporters of exotic fruits/foods” (BBC, 2011). With the main driver of this phenomenon being generation of revenue by exporting foods to more well-off countries, I didn’t know how to react.

Argentinian Farmer growing food for foreign export, while his own country harbors a malnutrition problem.

The act of a contemplative practice, to me at least, it thinking about something in a way that you never have. Trying to enrich your mind, if you will. By expanding your scope of thinking to overseas interests, you become more in touch with the food in your kitchen and start to think about things on a deeper level.

Photo: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/policy/trade/article222257655.html

In-Text Citation: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-12973543

Urban Gardens Combat COVID-19 Virus

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When you think of the concept behind “community” or “urban” gardens, a few words/concepts come to mind. “Community-driven”, “efficient”, “cramped”, and “sustainable” to name a few. Because of the COVID-19 outbreak, however, some of the best aspects of community gardens (traits that make them unique compared to other farming operations) are the reasons why they are failing.

Urban farms and gardens all over the country are feeling the burden that the COVID-19 virus has on the community. Farms such as the Red Hook and Brooklyn Grange farms in New York are facing huge obstacles related to the virus. Because of the compact nature of urban farms (trying to make the most of a small area of land), farms have to limit the amount of people working at a time to 1 or 2, in hopes of keeping everyone virus-free.

Additionally, the yield might not be as abundant as previous years, because of the outbreak. Less workers on the farms means less crops to distribute amongst the community. This means that impoverished families who normally depend on urban farms as a food source are in dire need of a replacement. To combat this, the farms are shifting their focus to mainly calorie-dense crops and utilizing less of the “high-labor crops”. Efficient use of an already-efficient urban farm system is what will (hopefully) keep communities dependent on urban agriculture afloat.

 

Danny Woo Community Gardens, Seattle WA. A more local example of a community farm likely affected by COVID-19.

This epidemic has really shone a light on two aspects of society. Firstly, it has highlighted how food is viewed to certain members of society. I know, personally, when I visited the Danny Woo Community Garden in Seattle, I learned about how integrated the garden was in the community. People depend on the garden for sustenance and community-building. I can only hope, through all of this, Danny Woo is going to pull through. Finally, the COVID-19 outbreak has demonstrated how essential farmers are in our world. Their contributions are finally being recognized because of this, the growers of our nation need to be upheld and appreciated.

 

Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Woo_International_District_Community_Garden

Article: https://thefern.org/ag_insider/virus-is-changing-how-urban-farms-operate-and-even-what-they-grow/