Food For Thought

This week's newspaper column: (Read it in the Hatteisburg American)

Most Americans are very sure they know exactly where their food comes from: the Grocery Store.

That’s right. We drive to the supermarket when convenient and fill ever-larger shopping carts with seemingly endless varieties of familiar and exotic edible offerings. And why not? It’s easy and predictable. Today’s corporate agribusinesses have become so very efficient at factory farming, processing, and the logistics of moving things from place to place that it’s no wonder most citizens are disconnected from the source of one of our most essential necessities of life - food.

Of course, much of what is on grocery shelves isn’t exactly food, or at least not simply food as we would recognize it growing on the earth. Most groceries might be more accurately described as a “food-like products.” Look at the list of ingredients on the packaging and you will find dyes, hydrogenated oils, and chemical preservatives - which humans would never consider eating otherwise - inserted for the sake appearance or for extending shelf life of food that was grown half a continent, if not half a world, away.

The result? A high calorie, low nutrition American diet that is, in part, responsible for record levels of obesity and ill-health.

It wasn’t always this way. Up until the mid-twentieth century, most of the food we ate was grown within a one-day driving distance. The pre-World War II landscape was full of family farms. Outside every city, town, and burg was farmland, with much of the crop going to feed local appetites. If you did not grow up on a farm, you certainly knew someone who did. People were connected to the source of their food, and fresh seasonal produce always graced the dinner table.

Now I’m not saying we should get rid of grocery stores; they are quite essential. But there are many sustainable reasons to eat locally grown food.

Let’s take a quick tally. 1) Locally grown food uses less fossil fuel getting to market, 2) fresh fruits and vegetables are healthier than packaged foods, and 3) buying locally grown food supports your local economy possibly keeping your would-be deadbeat friends employed.

My favorite reason to eat locally grown foods is the taste. Go to a farmers’ market and load up on freshly picked tomatoes, bite into a raw crisp green bean, take home some succulent zuccinni and eggplant to stir-fry – you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more delicious meal.

It’s hard to have a conversation about eating locally without addressing the reality that fruits and vegetables are seasonal by nature. But instead of thinking about what isn’t available at some point in the year, get excited about what is in season. In summer, celebrate watermelons and tomatoes. In winter, enjoy cabbage and broccoli.

So a little food for thought: What local food can you incorporate into your diet?

The Vickie Johnson Challenge

This Week's newspaper column - read it in the Hattiesburg American:

Plastic shopping bags are everywhere.

Once I came home from the grocery store only to realize that my lonely two items had been packaged in three bags. I’m not kidding.

Most of those plastic bags get discarded and are immediately carted off to landfills. The vast majority of bags that do not make it to the dump wind up lying on the side of the road, floating in bodies of water, or blowin’ in the wind (apologies to Bob Dylan) as litter.

What about recycling? Many stores and municipalities are starting to offer plastic bag recycling bins, but according to the Worldwatch Institute, of the 100 billion plastic shopping bags Americans throw away each year, less than 1 percent of them are recycled into second-generation products such as building materials or more plastic bags.

The times, they are a-changin’, but for now, what’s a sustainable citizen to do?
One earth-friendly solution comes in the form of the reusable shopping bag. Usually made of some natural cotton or hemp fiber, or of a more durable (and generally recyclable) plastic, these “bags for life” can reduce an individual’s consumption by several hundred bags a year.

Last week I judged an Earth Day Eco-Art show where the winning artist, Meredith Kresge, wove plastic shopping bags – hundreds of them - into one bushel-sized satchel. Not only was the finished piece a beautifully crafted work of art, this collection of would-be trash gained new life as a sturdy all-purpose carry-all proving that the imagination is the only limitation to creative reuse.

If you want to see a smile, take several bags of bags to the farmers’ market and hand them out to the venders. I’ve yet to find anyone less than enthusiastic about taking them. Every bag reused is one that needs not be manufactured or purchased.
And lately, my wife Vickie Johnson started taking along an extra bag when we walk our dog Frank, and she fills it up with litter. Yes, those trash-filled bags do make their way to the landfill, but in the process, the neighborhood stays cleaner making our walks that much more pleasant.

Too many times, the attitude about litter is “I didn’t put it there, so I’m not picking it up.” To that, Vickie’s attitude is ‘who cares, it needs to be picked up.’
So I hereby issue the Vickie Johnson Challenge. Whenever you take a walk around your neighborhood or workplace, grab a plastic shopping bag and fill it up with trash along the way. If everyone, including me, made this a common practice, the world we inhabit would be a much cleaner place.

Lest you think picking up trash is beneath you, Vickie holds a Ph.D. and she doesn’t get hung up on the idea, she just does it.

And the benefit (in addition to flexibility gained by the extra stretching): a cleaner, greener environment for all to enjoy.

Food For Thought

This week's newspaper column:

It may be time to change from fossil fuel back to solar power – down on the farm.

Since World War II, American farming has morphed from small family farms, where the planting and husbandry of diverse crops and animals was the norm, to monoculture mega-farms where one crop per year grows fencerow to fencerow.

The federal government facilitated this transition with subsidies to single-crop farmers at the expense of diversity. Old MacDonald, bowing to financial pressure, threw out all the verses and just planted corn.

There’s no doubt that food prices have been reduced as a result of this policy, but at what cost? Most of Old MacDonald’s fellow farmers are now out of a job, and our high-fat, empty-calorie, highly-processed food supply is responsible for a multitude of health problems. Obesity - contributing to an increase in chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, and cancer – is a byproduct of our modern-day food supply.

On the traditional farm where natural methods are employed, animal waste replenishes nutrients in the soil necessary for growing vitamin and mineral-rich crops eliminating the need for petroleum-based fertilizers. Crop rotation and year-round planting keep the insect population in check so large amounts of pesticides are unnecessary. Diversity of plant and animal life, aided by photosynthesis (or solar power, if you will) is what American writer and farmer Wendell Berry referred to as nature’s “elegant solution.

Ironically, removing animals from the farm and the absence of crop diversity turned this elegant solution into two inelegant problems - depleted fertility of the land, and pollution and disease generated from the waste and unsanitary conditions in the feedlot.

Once-cheap fossil fuel fertilizers and pesticides are now as essential to farming as the tractor. So as the price of oil rises, so does the cost of food. And with the ushering in of large-scale centralized farming, food is now routinely shipped cross-country further exacerbating our dependence on fossil fuels.

As recently as the late 1800’s, more than half of the US population lived and worked on farms. Today, less than one percent of our population is involved with farming. To put that in perspective, more people are locked up in jails in this country than call themselves farmers. Traditional farm belts are losing population as children of farm families move away to find “a better job.”

Natural farming is certainly more complex, labor intensive and time-consuming than the current way of doing things. Ending Washington’s subsidy of unsustainable farming practices would be a start. What if, instead of promoting fossil fuel-based farming, we supported solar-based farming by training millions of “Young MacDonalds” how to farm the land naturally?

The benefit: a boom in green-collar jobs, a healthier food supply, less dependence on foreign oil, lower medical costs, and a greater appreciation for the land. Maybe it’s time to move from agribusiness back to agriculture.

Farmer Meets Market

The Thursday evening farmers market is one of a growing number of markets in the area, all with their own character and personality. This market has a decidedly organic feel.

This market came about, from what I understand, because of the personal initiative of Chris Cagle, owner of the organic grocery store and cafe across the street. I call Chris a socio-economic entrepreneur, meaning what he does creates economic AND social (or cultural) capital simultaneously.




Tom, an organic farmer makes the short drive every Thursday with his seasonal fare. Lettuce, unfortunately, is gone for the season here, and his lettuce is superb - almost too beautiful to eat, until you taste it. But he had plenty of squash and zuccini and I scooped some up. Got a ripe plump watermelon from the guy next to him. They're just in.

It's a fairly new market (located in a park downtown that I helped design several years ago) and catching on fast. It's not just a place to buy veggys and art, its a place where social connection happens naturally, where a deep sense of "neighborhood" prospers.

And what a delight to hear a really great local bluegrass band - the Simpson County Ramblers. Perfect addition to the "texture." They kept changing instruments. Nice soulful sound, good bounce, great timing, some original compositions - they really enjoyed playing music and playing together. Love that bluegrass!

Earlier I posted a photo of some beautiful eggplants from another market, an indoor venue open Saturday and Wednesday morning. It has a completely different cast of characters and produce and crafts.

And Saturday morning, in the same park, another group (from the University) organizes a market, again with a different group of vendors and artists.

Variety, community, fresh locally grown fruits and vegetables, locally crafted art all promote a rich cultural experience. Go ahead, take a bite of that juicy ripe peach.

Local Bounty

Here's a partial display of dividends from a local farmer's market. The fresh vegetables so beautifully captivated the spirit of early summer that they won out over wildflowers for our evening table bouquet.

Donna threw in a few extra peppers - banana, jalapeño, and a spicy breed of light green bell pepper, I cannot remember the name - as she weighed up two varieties of purple eggplant and some plump home-grown tomatoes. Another vendor's table offered up white eggplant; I couldn't resist. Fresh corn, baby cucumbers, onions and bell peppers rounded out the morning's take, all grown within 25 miles of home.

And of course, Mrs. Douglass, the grande dame of the market, talked me into buying another one of her propagated plants, this time an aloe vera. "It's summertime," she said. "You always need an aloe vera plant for sunburn. And you can wipe it on a little cut and it'll go away." Sage words of wisdom: no charge.