This class is providing us an exciting opportunity to step blindly into the unknown world of food production. The more we learn the more there is to learn.
We have read about the systemic destruction associated with agribusiness, We have meet and interviewed local farmers, agricultural economist and farmland stewards.
Through these dialogues I am beginning to understand how dire the need to save local organic farmland is. I think what is most important is educating people about where our food comes from, somehow we have begun to take our food for granted, assuming all is well we continue to eat our microwave dinners.
In reading Animal Vegetable, Miracle I am struck by how little I know about gardening. When I was growing up my family had a small vegetable garden we grew the basics, corn, tomatoes, potatoes and peas. It was hard work the soil was clay and full of rocks.
Every spring my sister and I would have the tedious chore of picking out buckets of rocks from the mucky garden that my grandfather would endlessly hoe. My favorite vegetables to forage for were potatoes. I remember the dirt under my fingernails from digging deep down in the cold ground and finally discovering my treasures and yelling “I found them!” Then always making sure that I ate the potatoes I found.
I recently asked my parents why they don’t have a garden in their new house. They laughed, “too much work” they said in unison and “you can get whatever you need at the grocery store”. For them the garden was all part of the rural living experience, my mom is from the Bronx and my dad is from the Jersey Shore. It was my grandparents that were the lifeblood of the garden. They were Irish immigrants and had a deep respect for the land and its ability to provide for its residents.
I worry about the future. My own parents the ones who made me eat my vegetables are content to eat there corn feed beef and South American grown tomatoes.
Although they did enjoy shopping at the Ballard Farmers Market and my dad just saw Food Inc, so there is hope after all.
Food is business.
Food is personal.
You may not be able to because of scheduling, but you're priming yourself very well for the fall Food Class. You really need to have some foundation in food and culture to get the most out of the class--and how it'll (hopefully) shake up all your newly minted assumptions about how the food system should be transformed!
ReplyDeleteErin, your story makes me reflect on how each generation thinks of food differently, which of course has been influenced by technology and media. Though, perhaps a new generation will be seeking goodness and wholeness in foods to promote the same in their lives - all part of our sense of place and ethics of who we are. Keep digging in the dirt and be proud of those dirty fingernails!
ReplyDeleteErin, excellent post! Britt, that class sounds up my alley with all this learning..
ReplyDeleteElise