Good Health is About Taking Time?

Jo Hunter Adams

Thoughts from Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food"

One thought I took away from Michael Pollan's "In defense of Food" was the notion that health is directly proportional to the time one invests in the act of preparing food and eating. The impression I took away from this book was also that culture-bound food ("Italian", "Japanese", "French") is better than non culture-bound food.

There are many cases that support his line of thinking, and there's clearly reason to support Americans moving away from restaurants and fast-food car eating. This approach may well result in better health and lower weight.

However, I was thinking about this idea with respect to South Africans, other Africans, and people in the United States southern States. In South Africa, a lot of weight issues may be related not to "eating out", but to "eating in". We get fat on braais and beer, not fast food. The stereotypical view of a South African farmer is someone pretty overweight. Although I'm not extremely familiar with the American South, there seems to be a segment of rural America that is very overweight yet, I believe, live a much slower life, and do take time to enjoy good food. For these groups of people, I think there may be something else at play-- yet it's understandably difficult to say that our cultural foods should be eaten in smaller portions.

Thoughts?

Other Book-related Posts
(1) Collapse: Haiti and the Dominican Republic
(2) Collapse: The Rwandan Genocide
(3) Collapse: Introduction
(4) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Huh, what's a Locavore?
(5) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: How Much Energy was used for that Carrot: Vegetarianism and Energy
(6) Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: Local Abundance and Variety
(7) Botany of Desire: Stories of Potatoes
(8) Thoughts from "In Defense of Food" By Michael Pollan (Part 1)

Choosing Milk

Garelick Farms is a milk that's available at most supermarkets in Boston, and it emphasizes that it is local without claiming to be organic. It's not as expensive as organic, but not as cheap as name brand (Market Basket brand goes for $2.99/gallon). Since it's a bit more expensive without necessarily being better, I've never bought it. I recently saw a small store near us selling Garelick 1% for $2.99/gallon (the regular price at Shaw's is $4.99), and so I decided to try and see what they were like by researching them online. There's no increase in transportation cost to pick it up because the little store is on the way to the library.

The Garelick farms website didn't help me terribly. It's a beautiful website but it was hard to tell how their dairy cows live, etc. It may well vary, because Garelick Farms is a huge number of different farms, rather than just one farm.

It was also not 100% clear how far the milk travels compared to other milk, because I'm not sure how far my Market Basket brand milk travels. However, if Market Basket is comparable with the US average, it could travel as far as 1500 miles. At least at this level, Garelick Farms is preferable because this milk is produced in farms around New England. I did find that they recycle their bottles and use trucks with maximum fuel efficiency.

So I went ahead and bought Garelick Farms milk. It tastes good, and I think it's definitely a step up from buying the supermarket brand. I think is a very small step and there are many more steps that need to come next.

Coming Soon
How to Make Pizza with the help of a Breadmaker
How to Make Foccacia with the help of a Breadmaker
How to Make Very Good Brownies Quickly
Preparing for Spring: Making a Temporary Greenhouse

The Food Project

As we're close to the beginning of spring, I wanted to introduce you to a great group in Massachusetts called "The Food Project". They have a farm in Lexington, as well as several urban farms, and apart from having a CSA system, they also teach young people about growing food, create square foot gardens in urban neighborhoods, and donate food to soup kitchens in the area. I've been really impressed with their commitment to excellence in what they do. Here I quote from their website.

The Food Project

“There is another way to live and think: it’s called agrarianism. It is not so much a philosophy as a practice, an attitude, a loyalty and a passion—all based in close connection with the land. It results in a sound local economy in which producers and consumers are neighbors and in which nature herself becomes the standard for work and production.” --Wendell Berry

"Our mission is to grow a thoughtful and productive community of youth and adults from diverse backgrounds who work together to build a sustainable food system. We produce healthy food for residents of the city and suburbs and provide youth leadership opportunities. Most importantly, we strive to inspire and support others to create change in their own communities.

Since 1991, The Food Project has built a national model of engaging young people in personal and social change through sustainable agriculture. Each year, we work with over a hundred teens and thousands of volunteers to farm on 31 acres in rural Lincoln, MA and on several lots in urban Boston. We consider our hallmark to be our focus on identifying and transforming a new generation of leaders by placing teens in unusually responsible roles, with deeply meaningful work.

Each season, we grow nearly a quarter-million pounds of food without chemical pesticides, donating half to local shelters. We sell the remainder of our produce through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) crop “shares” and farmers’ markets. We market our own Farm-Fresh Salsa, holiday pies, and other value added products. Locally, we also partner with urban gardeners to help them remediate their lead-contaminated soil and grow healthier food.

Nearly half of The Food Project’s work is as a resource center for organizations and individuals worldwide. We provide unique capacity building for organizations and educators who learn from The Food Project’s expertise through materials, youth training and professional development opportunities. Even projects completely unrelated to farming can draw on our methods for building inspired, diverse and productive youth communities."

Urban Gardening

(1) The Rooftop Garden
(2) Freezing Herbs
(3) Amazing Purple Peppers
(4) Our First Tomatoes