I'm currently reading the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and it's a tremendous read. About 7 or 8 years ago I was turned onto the diet book French Women Don't Get Fat , which opened my eyes to seasonal eating. I lost the most weight I had ever lost at any one time. Not only that, but i felt healthy and vibrant, like i could rock the world. I kept it up almost a year before "life" happened and my diet turned processed again. I still try to eat mostly vegan. I've never been much of a meat eater. Now though, I'm looking more into lowering my own personal carbon print as opposed to my jean size. I want to leave a larger social/spiritual print.
I live in California in a hipster area. I suppose if all of us could we'd all be, if not vegans, local seasonal eaters. I love the thought of buying food straight from the farm less than 20 miles away or if I wished to eat meat, it would come from a farm that I could visit and watch the cow graze. This is how we are meant to be. Meant to live. But the sad truth is it seems as though we have become a society of instant gratification. Our food culture is no exception: "If I want a pineapple in December damn it I'm gonna have a pineapple. I don't feel like waiting until March." We don't think anymore about how pleasurable something is if we wait all year to get it and finally receive it; or put hard work into actually growing something ourselves. We can get everything we want at a click of a button. No wonder we are all depressed. Bored and depressed and eating synthetic food. It sounds like a Brave New World because it is.
I was walking through the "cool kid" part of my town, looking at the different restaurant menus and I thought to myself, "when the hell did organic fruits, kale, spinach, free range eggs, etc, etc, become 'artisan?' I am supposed to be eating this at every meal." In my area local organic products cost a ton. When did we decide that we as a people were ok with this? Can you imagine if Italians raised the price on tomatoes at the market saying "no, no, these items are artisan now, they cost more?" Italians would take to the streets. I've been to Italy I've seen their protests. Why are we just ok with this? The machine, or whatever overcharging us for taking control of our health.
Kingsolver saw it in her book as well: "...this cuisine is widely presumed to be the property of the elite." She then goes on to mention that poverty is the real problem behind hunger in the world and not lack. It shouldn't be this way. Nutrition is a basic human need and right. And Facebook likes and chain emails/posts aren't going to fix this. Not even this blog will. Change can't happen through your phone away from the action. The powers that be bank on our couch potato-y-ness, believe me, look at the glitter problems they dangle on the national new for us to worry about instead (oh yeah, don't call a pregnant Kardashian fat that's sexest and body dismorphism blah blah blah).We as a people need to take action. We need to tell our representatives we don't want gmo's, we need to eat locally, visit farmers market and stop the pretension that is coming with natural food. So your food is made from organic material, yeah, every damn restaurant in town should be too. Please don't turn an unwaxed apple that's been grown on a tree in season into a friggin Lexus that is only meant to be eaten by Zoe Deshanel. No one is going to fight for our right to thrive as the 99% we have to be responsible for ourselves.
For love and food inspiration check out Ms. Dara Dubinet's youtube channel.
Peace and Strength
J
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