What Alice Waters is Missing
For decades, Alice Waters has commanded attention for her love of the freshest, most local food. Last week, her crusade was the focal point of national attention, as Michelle Obama finally agreed to plant an extensive vegetable garden at the White House.
If Ms. Waters is serious about changing the national food system for all Americans, she needs to get down and dirty on the economic issues tied to her edible ethos. At present, the food Waters espouses--clean, local and organic--is not sustainable to the American wallet.
Two weeks ago, in honor of Houston's best growing season, I committed to eating only local foods for a full moth. For 30 days I planned to restrict my diet to whatever was grown, raised and slaughtered within 100 miles of my doorstep. My plan was derailed three days--and fifty dollars--later.
Without the use of my own vegetable garden, the only way I could afford to live on strictly local food for the period would be to eat eggs (at $3.50 a dozen) with scant veggies and bulk beans. Normally, I buy staples from a super market and make meals that feature whatever is fresh at local farmers' markets. Without the addition of non-local grains, flour, butter, milk and affordable produce, I was left with esoteric dairy, (raw goat's milk) meat, mushrooms, dried black beans and lettuce--all at an exorbitant cost.
It wasn't a huge surprise: in general, I spend almost as much at the farmers market as I do at the local grocery store each week, and the locally grown produce accounts for less than a quarter of what I eat. Trying to rely purely on my regional food sources was harrowing, though, and illuminated a major flaw in America's food system: for the first time in my life, I understood what it was like to be unable to afford the healthy food I wanted.
Like so many Americans, I have been inspired by Waters' mission and believe that her far-reaching message has improved this country. Nevertheless, her current platform needs an update, or more bluntly, a reality check. When interviewed by Lesley Stahl of 60 Minutes, Waters outlined her noble vision: "I feel that good food should be a right and not a privilege and it needs to be without pesticides and herbicides. And everybody deserves this food. And that's not elitist."
Later, when asked about the exorbitant price of organic grapes, ($4 a pound) Waters said, "We make decisions everyday about what we're going to eat. And some people want to buy Nike shoes -- two pairs, and other people want to eat Bronx grapes, and nourish themselves. I pay a little extra, but this is what I want to do."
The remark was rife with elitism -- the choice that most people face is not between name-brand shoes and grapes. The audience Waters referred to in her comment is probably already capable of choosing organic produce, at least part of the time. But the people for whom this "right" is absent aren't likely to be sporting the latest Zooms or Air Jordans. Or both.
All people deserve good, clean food. But, if even professionals like me cannot afford to eat the way Ms. Waters eats, then it is highly unlikely that poor or even middle class Americans are going live off the organic produce at a local farmers markets.
Ms. Waters should use this moment in the spotlight to strongly encourage political leaders to help subsidize and support regional farmers in their area. She should lobby for the construction of community gardens across the United States, especially in urban areas where farmers markets and fresh food are hard to find. Finally, she should write some of her persistent letters to the CEOs of Whole Foods, Trader Joes and other sustainable food franchises to see if prices can come down significantly, so that everyone can enjoy the sustenance they deserve.
For Ms. Waters to be truly effective in the coming decades, she must address the unsustainable problem of sustainable food prices, or else the momentary excitement over the Obama victory garden will prove little more than a fad for the privileged.
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How do you define elitist?
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Just an anecdote: I buy a lamb (who lived a great life in a big ol pasture) from a local farmer: $100 for the animal, $40 for the processing = $2/lb.
As a kid, I helped my grandparents on their suburban acre hull peas, put up corn, greens . . . the year's supply of veggies, so any little patch you can plant is great. Poor folks used to depend on their gardens and sold some to the neighbors to make a little extra.
I admit that the farmer's market does feel like it sucks the money out of your wallet, but maybe let's get out of the paradigm that we have to go to Whole Foods or some specialty grocer.
This piece is right-on. Sure, if I cut out every "unnecessary" expense and indulgence that make life worth living (taking my kids to see a movie, buying my wife flowers on her birthday, burning a few dollars worth of gas to see a friend who lives a couple of hours away, etc.), I could afford to do all my grocery shopping at Whole Paycheck or at an organic cooperative. Alice Waters should get out of Berkeley a little more often and realize that there are places like here on the East Coast where farmers markets are nowhere to be found from Nov.-June. Of course her retort would probably be that my wife and I should spend the entire fall digging a root cellar to store squash and potatoes, or learning home canning to put up a few hundred jars of fruits and vegetables so my family doesn't get scurvy over the winter. Yeah, right, in between the two of us working full time and raising our three kids we'll get right on that. Not everyone lives in sunny California and hardly anyone is a multi-millionaire restauranteur and cookbook author. But Alice Waters simply can't believe that -- everyone she knows is just like her. Let them eat (whole-grain, gluten-free, no-trans-fats) cake!
I have eaten organic for nine years now and I SAVE money now eating this way. Conventional food has 40% less vitamins and minerals than organic food. To get good nutrition you need to eat almost twice as much food. Conventional food may appear cheaper, but it really isn't. Also, if you eat conventional food, you are leaving the door open to illness and being sick is EXPENSIVE. What little one may save will be spent on healthcare. Since I made the switch I no longer need aspirin, don't get colds or flu, can work more because I'm healthy. This is a no-brainer. Organic is better in every way. Good for my family and good for the planet, bad for Monsanto.
She only lightly touched on it but it probably depends on the locality where one lives. I dunno what the ag rules are for promoting the kind of ag that Alice talks about but from what I have read about Texas and the food I've eaten there, seems to me it still promotes corporate commodity ag with the biggest ag commodity being cattle and broiler chickens (probably raised in confined cages) and commodity grains. I acutally had to drive around to find any surviving citrus groves around McAllen. And the salad bar at the Whole Foods in Austin was a sorry substitute for what they have in Calif. A lot of the food seems to be heavy on the creamy cole slaw and beans bit with heavy dose of MEAT. I'd say Isabel quit whining about Alice and do MORE in your own state to promote the goals that Alice is talking about first.
Amen! It's one thing to demand that everyone eat locally and sustainably but not ok when the vast majority of people can't afford this. There is a dearth of supermarkets in the "hood so the poor always get the short end of the food stick. I used to shop at Whole(paycheck)Foods market but found that with the price of food soaring I can no longer afford it. So now I shop conventionally but as healthfully as possible:
Vegan legumes, whole grains to make my own bread (boutique local breads are Too Costly), conventional veggies and fruits or organic when it's on sale. The price of gas went down but the cost of food stayed high....what's up with that?
It is mind-boggling that Isabel Cowles could have the experience that she has had and still write such absolute hogwash. Alice Waters most certainly not telling poor people that they have to eat entirely local and organic. Cowles created an entirely false, straw-man argument. Cowles' cartoon version of Waters doesn't exist. Waters herself doesn't pretend to eat an all local diet.
Making healthy, sustainable food more available to all is one of the central focuses of the slow foods movement that Waters has been a central voice for. It is astonishing that Cowles claimed that Waters hasn't even addressed the problem. Cowles needs to learn the facts before spreading disinformation next time.
Waters most certainly does advocate putting less of our financial resources into funding global agribusinesses and more into small farmers growing fruits and vegetables, which would make their products more affordable for everyone. Shame on Isabela Cowles for implying otherwise.
Waters' point is that most of us can make better choices than we do. As Waters' points out, if the average American just made a few trips to their local farmer's market a year, the positive impact on small farms across the US would be absolutely enormous.
My spouse and I live on a small farm in rural Appalachia and we are involved in a project employing ideas from Alice Waters, among others, to help people in impoverished urban areas cook free foods from cooperative urban farms.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and am inundated with Alice Waters' propaganda. I'd say Isabel Cowles painted a pretty accurate picture of Alice and her elitist attitude when it comes to food.
And by the way, Ms. Cowles - it is not legal to buy your "esoteric" raw goat's milk at a farmer's market in Texas, so I'm not sure where you shop. You should really look into this and contact your legislators if you think you should have the right to do so. I sure think you should have the right.
I find it interesting that you didn't find my local cheese or a fellow farmer friend's local pasteurized milk at the market. Not sure how that happened. But in the future, please look for Blue Heron Farm or Swede Farm. We do sell those items in Houston and we farm about 45 miles out of town.
As to the price? Well, I get what you're saying, but it is time for Americans to understand the real cost of food. And to stop supporting subsidies for large farms growing corn that is not even edible, but to maybe redirect that money to small, sustainable farms in a vast number of communities across the US. Or not. Just let people get used to what food costs.
On my small, sustainable farm, we put value on the health and welfare of our animals. Raising livestock in a sustainable, healthy way costs more than letting an animal stand in its own feces 24/7 in a CAFO/conventional dairy. So yes, cheese costs more than $5/lb.
I think you can probably afford it, but perhaps you don't value it as much as your $4 latte from Starbucks or your right to drive whatever sized car you like or to have the best home entertainment equipment. This is as much about priorities as anything else. Until people realize that eating is probably the most important thing they do every day, things will not change.
farmette is right on. I found Isabela Cowles article to be be misinformed and even dishonest.
For the past two winters, my wife and I have derived a substantial portion of our diet from one of two Portland farmers markets that operate year round. This was our haul on Feb. 22: bok choy, spinach, collard greens, Chinese broccoli, mushrooms, onion, carrots, apples, kiwi, and ground grassfed buffalo.
This experience has been a revelation regarding possibilties for a more-localized food economy in our area. But I agree that we have a long way to go in developing such economies and making them affordable for everyone. We need more home and community gardens, subsidies for local farmers, a re-emphasis on local canning, and (perhaps) development of local greenhouses that derive much or all of their heat from the sun.
Retired farmers and other rural people who were around when we still had substantially local food systems can serve as “information resources” in this process. So can recent immigrants with a rural background. No doubt some of those immigrants can help us broaden our food horizons with ideas about what they would---or do---grow in our particular climate zones.
Sounds like Earl Butz all over again. "Americans want cheap food". well we got that and the medical bills to go with food laced with HFCS, color dyes, fat and sodium. Three cheers for cheap food! If you spent $50 in three days you need a shopping lesson.
Good point TimtheEnchanted. I really found Cowles article to be unconscionable.
I am often dismayed by the comments I read and hear by those who claim that with limited incomes "healthy organic" foods are just too expensive, yet these same people will think nothing of plunking down $150 for a pair Air Jordan's and then go home with 3 buckets of grease-laden, sodium busting KFC for their overweight, diabetic kids to eat with a large package of Doritos.
it's all about PRIORITIES!...what is more important, good health and food or status symbol materialistic self-indulgence.
I urge everyone who cares about food production and the politics of food in this country, and moreso, those without a clue to mark their calendars and make it a must see the upcoming documentary to be released in June 2009 about how their food choices affect their health and the environment.
here's the link and movie trailer:
Food Inc.
http://robertkennerfilms.com/films/files/detail_current.php
It is not realistic to compare "Americans wanting cheap food" with Europe where healthcare and education are subsidised, so people have more disposable income with which to buy organic and local foods. Poor people aren't buying nikes or nintendo. They are barely staying in their homes and having to buy expesive foods are almost breaking the piggy banks in many a home.
There are few or NO produce markets in the poorest neighborhoods where they are needed most.
People can't afford to ride half a day on the bus just to buy veggies, to suit someone's skewed sense of rightness.
Agreed. I have also noticed that when I go to a market in the poorer areas, there are no organic foods. The owners know that the cost will preclude their purchase by their limited income customers.
Apparently many people can afford to eat at her restaurant since it's been around for many years but check out the menu and see how often you'd be able or willing to do so:
Dinner for 2 this Saturday - $242 including tax and tip but without any wine.
http://www.chezpanisse.com/pgdownmenu.html
So if you can't afford it, you cut back on heat and hot water, or you don't eat for a couple days. See, it's all about CHOICES.
(In the American fantasy, everyone has the same choices.)
Thank you, Yes it IS a fantasy that the playing field is level. Elitism is a vice that many liberals/progressives would do well to make a moral inventory on. Mind you, I am saying this as a progressive, so the fingers I point, point back at me too.
she is also out of touch with modern trends towards decency and compassion. I would hate to thnk of the numbers of innocent animals this woman has been responsible for slaughtering ? It is time for Alice Waters to go vegan or go away
Farm animals would go extinct if humans no longer depended on them for food. As for me, I think it's time for vegans and vegetarians to stop waging a philosophical war against nature.
Alice Waters has encouraged us to look at how we consume food and where it comes from. She's like a religious leader who encourages you to lead a good and honorable life - we may not meet the standard all the time but trying is important.
I live in Iowa where we there are farmers markets available multiple times a week from mid-May thru October. I grow tomatoes and lettuce in my flower beds. Organic chicken is twice as expensive as store-brand chicken so I am more judicious with it's use.
You don't have all the advantages Alice Waters has - just do your best.
I am not a wealthy person, and I eat only organic and whole foods. In my household we can foods in season for the months when they are not available. We make our own beer and bread. We cook only from scratch - no processed foods. We think of the entire state as our local region. We think we are part of the traditional foods movement, or learning to cook like our great-grandparents did. It all amounts to a modest investment of time, but as what nourishes us is the basic foundation of our health what it really amounts to is long term investment in preventative medicine, and it affords us great pleasure in the preparation and flavor. True, the mainstream American lifestyle does not generally encourage the economy of time and cost to interact with food the way that I choose to do, but it is a choice. I think it all comes down to how much one values food and its effects on one's health and well-being. And given the fact that American spend considerably less on food as a percentage of their monthly budgets than they did 40 years ago, it also comes down to economic priorities. I'm going with the good food, and will do without some material possessions and status symbols. The gain far outweighs the loss. Is it elitist to think like this? I'm far from elitist. I thinks its smart, and satisfying...
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