Inconvenient Shopping #5: Produce Problems
I live in a rather tony wine country town. Not like Tony Bennett. He’s goofy. Or Tony Danza. I hear he’s real mean. More like “wanna-be Carmel-By-The-Sea”.
Therefore, it’s a given that we have a rather tony local alterna-market at which I can buy my organic pasta, fish, fruit, nuts and underwear (this last being the most significant, of course). In fact, we have two such markets. Not bad for a town of 10,000 denizens.
However.
However, despite the seeming concern over ‘organic’ and ‘local’ produce I find that both markets present rather inconsistent offerings. For instance, I went to add a bit o’ fruit to my lunch yesterday and found that nearly all of the apples on display were from Chile. The pears? From Argentina. Both fruits were marked ORGANIC and bore the price to match . . . but. . .
Here’s where things get confusing. And when things become confusing for me, they become automatically inconvenient.
An organic apple from Chile seems like an oxymoron to me. If an apple has to fly 5000 miles to my market shelf, how organic, how sustainable, can it be? Last time I checked, JET FUEL wasn’t organic! And doesn’t produce from South America have to be sprayed before it’s allowed in the United States? Am I not better off purchasing non-organic fruit that was harvested locally? These aren’t rhetorical questions, mind you. I’m really curious about the best way to buy sustainable sustenance, one that allows not only the upper class but everyone to make an informed and progressive decision. Don’t go attaching political inferences to the word ‘progressive’ mind you. Creating a healthy future is a nonpartisan issue!
My friend Phil, co-owner of one of the world’s most ethical coffee roasters, Flying Goat Coffee, has given me the best advice so far: Don’t go looking for apples and pears when they’re out of season. Seems like a no-brainer. Seems like good advice. Pretty inconvenient, but something I can get behind. What about you? Think you can stick to in season produce? We should think about getting used to it, as jet fuel prices are only going to continue to climb, rendering ’round the world produce a thing of the past in the not-so-distant future. Good news for local farmers!
For the Song ‘o the Day it’s too damned hard to resist ‘Bonita Applebum’. Come on, you know you want to hear it. Almost went with Jets to Brazil’s “Milk and Apples”. [audio:bonita.mp3]
[tags]apples, bonita-applebum, flying-goat, healdsburg, organic-produce[/tags]
Tags: Inconveniences
Around here we have a Farmer’s Co-op where you pay X amount for Spring - Fall and each week they give you a bag or two of in season fruits and veggies grown by local farmers. It’s not a great deal price wise, but you eat what’s in season (very important) and you eat healthy.
*[unfortunately they don't have this near me; my boss uses this service and she's had no issue what-so-ever living within the seasonal constraints]
But, to most people (at least those I know), organic is a concern about what they put into their body and has nothing to do with environmental saftey.
Kirk -
We have a decent farmer’s market on the weekends but as you mention, it’s a real expensive way to go. Yet, I have to wonder if it’s REALLY expensive or if we’re merely accustomed to cheap, subsidized foodstuffs.
When it comes to making food or services more expensive, a big obstacle seems to be the cry of ‘regressive tax’ or ‘unfair to the poor’ and I think it’s worth paying attention to this. I wonder how much of a percentage of a typical consumer’s food purchases are nutrient-based vs. fillers, sugars, et cetera. If we learn to rid ourselves of wasteful foods, even with higher produce prices, perhaps we’ll still get more food for the buck. Regardless, our habits need to change - for health, wealth, and environment.
As for living within seasonal constraints, this is a tough one for many. The famous chef, Nigella (spelling?) said in a recent book that such constraints are absolutely absurd and that we should enjoy the fruits of living in the jet age. With idiots like this grabbing the megaphone, the battle will be pitched!
This is a must read, if you haven\’t already:
New York Time Article: Unhappy Meals
Of course, you\’ll need to sign in but it\’s an amazing article and what we eat. More fruits/veggies, less meat, eat seasonal, yakkity yak.
Towards the end, he basically says that it is expensive to eat healthy, and if you spend the same amount of money on good food as you did on bad food, then you\’ll not only be eating better, but you\’ll be eating less which can be just as important.
It\’s just so damn easy to eat bad, that\’s our (as in my family) problem. Both parents working in jobs that require more than 40 hours/week, two kids, house and cars that need work; it\’s a lot to then hunt down fresh, seasonal food that is prepaired well and is delicious.
This is a great and important subject.
Kirk -
That is an AMAZING article. Quite long, but worth the read. Essentially, it talks about how damned difficult it is for the American consumer to make heads or tails out of health claims, and why. The WHY is fascinating, educational and critical for all of us to know.
Yes, it\’s so easy to eat bad. Tell me about it. My sugar jones is a daily event and one I can\’t kick. Shopping for healthy food for a family can be an excruciating exercise until one gets in the habit. And that\’s really key - getting in the habit of eating well. Once it all clicks, it gets a lot easier. We tend to think the variety of our food choices will diminish, but I haven\’t noticed this. Between the potato gruel and the rock soup, I\’m happy as a deep-fried clam.
Another thing from the article that is fascinating but also adds to confusion is how foods interact with each other (limestone makes corn more digestible in tortillas, for example). Learning how best to mix ingredients is daunting, to say the least. Yet, cultures have figured this out without electron microscope analysis of enzyme functions - it\’s just a matter of really paying attention to what you eat and how it affects you. The more tuned in one\’s system becomes (try staying off sugar, alcohol, coffee and processed foods for a month and you\’ll notice a huge difference), the easier it is to spot the subtle interactions.
Have you seen this yet?
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul01/jet0701.htm
I’ve seen info on this. Sorry I can’t turn that into a link for some reason. My site is being iffy.
The biggest hurdle with biofuels is that aside from the fact they drive up food costs, due to the intensification of farming needed to produce the huge volumes of sawgrass, cane, corn or what have you, and all the machinery associated with harvesting, processing and delivery, they tend have the potential to produce MORE global warming in the end. Best case scenario they reduce emissions, but only slightly - certainly not in the neighborhood of the 90% we’re going to need.
Look, I don’t want to be a naysayer, and everything I say could be total bullshit as I don’t know this stuff firsthand, I just scour sources looking for likely accurate answers. Maybe biofuels in jets is the answer. . .but given what I think I know, it doesn’t seem right.
(I’m going to scoop up these comments and put them over in the jet fuel post.)
Well, as long as we are being honest, I should say I don’t know much about biofuel either. I mean, I work at a GM truck engine plant; I’d be the last to know about advances in efficient fuel technology…lol…no really.
But I do know that biodiesel isn’t just about crops; there are other alternatives to producing fuel which is much more kind to the process and even includes using up food wastes. However, I’m sure it has its downfalls as well.
Maybe I should just buy a hang-glider.
We have a cool company in Vancouver that sources organic and local groceries and delivers: https://www.spud.ca/index.cfm
I just order what I want online and they deliver Thursdays. The bill also shows miles travelled for all your goods… the less miles, the more discounts. Pretty sweet.
Neat company . . . love the miles traveled bit, that\’s something I\’d love to see in the major markets. They buy 50% of their product locally - hopefully the \’miles traveled\’ feature will naturally compel them to do even more. Pretty awesome. Wish we had that here. . .
They have moved down into Seattle now, so you never know…