Good article. (Also, Marion Nestle, whom the article cites, is worth reading in Food Politics for some hair-raising examples of why the food industry in the States is so screwed up.)
I try to buy from the neighborhood co-op when I can, but it's so damn expensive...ah well.
I need to save that for the next time I'm arguing with TeenBoys about what constitutes "food"--the author's ideas of "stuff in grocery stores intended to be eaten" vs "food" are quite similar to mine, and he explains it quite amusingly yet clearly.
*Lots* of conversations Chez Tygerr go like "I see you didn't bother with breakfast. Did you at least have something for lunch?" "Yeah." "What?" "Um...Doritos and some Skittles. Oh, and milk." *raised parental eyebrow of dubiousness* "...chocolate milk." "Let me be more precise...have you had any actual FOOD today?" "I already said--Doritos. And milk." "Doritos are not food. And *chocolate* milk is *barely* food." (etc.)
Not that common -- the author is a slow foodist (http://www.slowfoodusa.org/), which is as much a fad as anything right now.
I get into arguments with my roomates over things like this. We buy groceries as a group, but some of us have more money to spend than others, and the healthiest foods are always the most expensive. This semester has been better than last semester but...fresh stuff costs.
I recommend potatoes. They're cheap, they keep forever, and they're a pretty good starting point for several thousand recipes, only eighty percent of which require dousing them with butter to make them tasty.
If that wasn't already my underlying philosphy regarding food, it would be now (though I'm deadly curious to know if plants is supposed to refer to just fruits and vegetables, or to the vast majority of all foodstuffs not meat or dairy, i.e. grain and grain products. It's pretty significant).
My only real issue with article comes from a point made at the end, a point I've seen, and been frustrated by, elsewhere: Not everyone can afford to eat well in America, which is shameful, but most of us can: Americans spend, on average, less than 10 percent of their income on food, down from 24 percent in 1947, and less than the citizens of any other nation.
That's because we're paying too much for other shit. Most of my monthly income is earmarked for housing, and transportation is right after that. These are absolute necessities to living independantly and working in the industrial northeast; I cannot grow my own garden. Flip dismissals of the American desire to eat cheap foodstuffs doesn't alter the reality of that.
It's also just plain false to equate higher costs with better value. Potatoes and legumes cost less per pound than Pop-Tarts just about anywhere, and they're a much better thing for you to eat. Certain types of food (meat, dairy, cooking fats) will always be relatively expensive, and that's okay. Other types of food will be relatively expensive, moreso if they can't be easily grown in your region (avocados in Massachusetts can cost about five times what they cost my parents, who live in Texas), and that's annoying, but still okay. I may love eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables that don't grow where I live, but non-regional foods are luxuries, not necessities, and I could choose to limit myself to goods that can grow in the New England climate.
I also think that he misses a critical point in not mentioning cooking as a factor here. The relationships of food to cooking to eating are so complicated and so important that I don't even know where to begin, and I don't think the word even turns up in the article.
I'm deadly curious to know if plants is supposed to refer to just fruits and vegetables, or to the vast majority of all foodstuffs not meat or dairy, i.e. grain and grain products. It's pretty significant).
Teach me to comment after reading only eleven out of twelve pages.
And look, on page twelve, he also tells people to cook!
I think it should have been mentioned about four pages earlier, though.
I never thanked you for pointing me in the direction of this article because I've only just finished reading it today! :D That's what happens to twelve pages of newspaper in six weeks of exams and travelling and stuff. But since I have finished it now, I want to thank you very much indeed. This article (and "What If It's All Been A Big Fat Lie?" which it links to) was very interesting, and has changed the way I view food, making it a little more simple and a little less simple all in one. In a good way though.
I just wish vegetables in Japan weren't so damned expensive! At least I have the very real option of following a "traditional" diet here, since rice, vegetables and miso soup are still the staples, with fish and meat very much used for flavouring more than a core section of the dish, but to eat that way every day at home really does take up a lot of cash, much more than in the UK... : (
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also, it's bugmenot, not bugenot :P
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I try to buy from the neighborhood co-op when I can, but it's so damn expensive...ah well.
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*Lots* of conversations Chez Tygerr go like "I see you didn't bother with breakfast. Did you at least have something for lunch?" "Yeah." "What?" "Um...Doritos and some Skittles. Oh, and milk." *raised parental eyebrow of dubiousness* "...chocolate milk." "Let me be more precise...have you had any actual FOOD today?" "I already said--Doritos. And milk." "Doritos are not food. And *chocolate* milk is *barely* food." (etc.)
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I get into arguments with my roomates over things like this. We buy groceries as a group, but some of us have more money to spend than others, and the healthiest foods are always the most expensive. This semester has been better than last semester but...fresh stuff costs.
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LOL:
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If that wasn't already my underlying philosphy regarding food, it would be now (though I'm deadly curious to know if plants is supposed to refer to just fruits and vegetables, or to the vast majority of all foodstuffs not meat or dairy, i.e. grain and grain products. It's pretty significant).
My only real issue with article comes from a point made at the end, a point I've seen, and been frustrated by, elsewhere: Not everyone can afford to eat well in America, which is shameful, but most of us can: Americans spend, on average, less than 10 percent of their income on food, down from 24 percent in 1947, and less than the citizens of any other nation.
That's because we're paying too much for other shit. Most of my monthly income is earmarked for housing, and transportation is right after that. These are absolute necessities to living independantly and working in the industrial northeast; I cannot grow my own garden. Flip dismissals of the American desire to eat cheap foodstuffs doesn't alter the reality of that.
It's also just plain false to equate higher costs with better value. Potatoes and legumes cost less per pound than Pop-Tarts just about anywhere, and they're a much better thing for you to eat. Certain types of food (meat, dairy, cooking fats) will always be relatively expensive, and that's okay. Other types of food will be relatively expensive, moreso if they can't be easily grown in your region (avocados in Massachusetts can cost about five times what they cost my parents, who live in Texas), and that's annoying, but still okay. I may love eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables that don't grow where I live, but non-regional foods are luxuries, not necessities, and I could choose to limit myself to goods that can grow in the New England climate.
I also think that he misses a critical point in not mentioning cooking as a factor here. The relationships of food to cooking to eating are so complicated and so important that I don't even know where to begin, and I don't think the word even turns up in the article.
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Teach me to comment after reading only eleven out of twelve pages.
And look, on page twelve, he also tells people to cook!
I think it should have been mentioned about four pages earlier, though.
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I just wish vegetables in Japan weren't so damned expensive! At least I have the very real option of following a "traditional" diet here, since rice, vegetables and miso soup are still the staples, with fish and meat very much used for flavouring more than a core section of the dish, but to eat that way every day at home really does take up a lot of cash, much more than in the UK... : (