How do you compromise your ethics? How do you eat SLOW (Seasonal, Local, Organic, Whole) or SOLE (Seasonal, Organic, Local, Ethical) when you can only hit a few of the tenets?
Everyone over the age of 4 (except politicians) knows that you cannot have it all your way, every time.
But we’re talking about the future of the planet and the lives of our loved ones here. We’re talking about happy animals, and the health of the soil.
I’ve written about this before, in the context of easing yourself into the lifestyle. But for those of us already deep into it, the daily compromises pile up. It makes me literally sick to my stomach to use plastic bags, and when the person ahead of me at the grocery store gets 10 plastic bags for 5 items I want to scream. There are foods that I’ve entirely given up because I really can’t bring myself to participate in the current food system. Delving into the Dark Days Challenge you start to understand how reliant we are (and I don’t say that as a criticism) on the world wide web that is the modern food system.
So you have to look at those six precepts: Seasonal; Sustainable, Local, Organic, Whole, and Ethical. And draw a line. Where will you not compromise.
Seasonal
I am the best at staying seasonal. I grew up when you could only get peaches in August, so it’s natural for me to understand the concept. I continue to struggle with my children who think nothing of buying strawberries for Christmas. I can’t do it. If I want summer fruit in winter, I damn well better have preserved it while the sun was high. I simply will not eat “fresh” squash in May or “fresh” grapes in January. I don’t eat salad all winter. I don’t need to–the kale and chard stay fresh in the garden until January. What I can’t harvest, I preserve. Even if you don’t garden, staying seasonal is not really much of a challenge at all.
Whole
This one is also easy for me since I love to cook. I simply do not buy foods with more than one ingredient, except pasta and bread. (These turn up again and again as problem foods.) This means I now make pickles, all sauces, jams, and most baked goods including crackers. I tried bread-making for about 6 months, but found it suits our lives better to buy it a local mom-and-pop baker. I also eat in restaurants and order pizza, although again, I don’t go to the chains, but only to the locally-owned ones. I like to think that “whole” is the line that I won’t cross, but, in fact, there are places that I have compromised on this.
Whole Foods Market is a giant misnomer to me, because if you’ve walked into a Whole Foods lately, you’ll note that it’s full of prepared foods.
To me, whole food means learn to cook.
Local
I believe in local. Given a dilemma–Local or any other of those five words, I’ll choose local. And by this I don’t just mean grown, or produced, locally. If I can get it from a local farmer, I will. If I can’t get it from a local farmer, I will buy it from a locally-, preferably family-owned, store. Because here’s the thing. Am I trying to live like the ancient Potowatomie (my local Native American tribe), or am I trying to live in the modern world. I believe in the modern world. I don’t mind tracking down our native wild rice, but I also like basmati rice for some dishes, and arborio for risotto. I like salt, which I cannot get from local sources. I like salmon. Chocolate. Coffee.
And the truth is, humans have always traded for these things across long, long distances. There is archeological evidence of trade in dietary necessities like salt, exotic foodstuffs and luxury items from 150,000 years ago!
Organic
One of our Dark Days participants ran hard up against this one, calling us the “organic police.” But many people, including me, striving for a more ethical diet don’t always trust the “organic” label; there is a good argument that the certification system has been compromised. Second, local farmers often use organic practices, but haven’t been certified because it’s punitively expensive, being geared to factory farming (Michael Pollan calls it Industrial Organic). And when it comes right down to it, for me SLOW and SOLE is not just about personal health, it’s about healthy, sustainable communities. I can do more for my community buying non-organic Louisiana rice from the neighborhood grocer than by going to Walmart for something from Guam that happens to have an organic label.
I’d rather my food was whole and local than get bent out of shape over some small farmer using Round-up to spot-kill weeds.
Ethical
While I understand the politics behind this word, I think this is the one that is the hardest for an individual family to impact. It is impossible to know the ethical implications of the food or other items you are purchasing, or to sort through the rumors. Years ago someone published an ethical shopping guide to steer you away from companies with poor ethical practices. First of all, it turned out that a lot of really bad companies had created all these brands to reach people like me who wouldn’t, for instance, buy products, howsoever organic, if I knew they were owned by Phillip Morris. And when they got outed, they just buried the relationship a little deeper. You can’t win this game. Unless you want every shopping trip to turn into a graduate thesis, easier to stop asking questions and focus on Local and Whole. Stop buying your meat at Safeway; find a local CSA, chicken farmer, or rancher and a lot of your ethical issues go away.
Sustainable
I like this term better than ethical to get to the same place. If you shop and eat, and in fact just live, sustainably, you stop having to worry about every other one of these words. By definition, focusing on sustainable practices means you’re buying whole foods, cooking them yourself, reducing food miles, and supporting local economies. If you’re trying to live sustainably, you’re not buying things you don’t need, you’re avoiding plastic and over-packaged goods; you’re cooking, and walking, you know your neighbor and your farmer.
Be mindful of how you consume, without letting dogma consume you.
We think pretty much the same but you summed it up better than I did!
Excellent delivery of what I’m sure a lot of us have been thinking. Participating in the Dark Days challenge, for me, is about becoming more mindful about what I put on the table rather than about following every single ‘rule’.
There are always two things that kind of irritate me. One is the, I can do it so why can’t you attitude. When in actuality, it may not be so. For instance buy locally. We’d starve to death. You have to have someone to buy from. We live in the grasslands and the soil is such that growing a garden of any size means growing on top the existing soil, not in it. You could make clay pots from our soil and yes, I’ve tested it. It is clay, clay, and clay. Too have a nice garden I haul in two to three 20 foot trailer loads of manure or two stock trucks along with sawdust and what ever other organic materials I can get ahold of and I can always use more.There are few gardens around here beyond a small little plot and few of those. Our UPS driver says mine is huge in comparison to others. So buying local, doesn’t happen.
Here, it freezes hard in the winter and our winters are very long. If you want salads or anything green not canned or frozen, you have to buy them, I’ve tried growing a variety of lettuce upstairs in the window and downstairs under grow lights but so far, my efforts have failed. Spindly to the max is the result. Yet, I can grow herbs and I start my own plants for my garden under grow lights, the same ones that don’t seem to like lettuce.
Our hope is to put up another greenhouse this coming summer or next and do the cloth hoop covers inside as to extend our season. Still there will be months of nothing but canned and frozen goods if it wasn’t for the store. So as for seasonal, whole, local, organic, and ethical. Our choices are greatly limited. Locally, we have a very small grocery store as we are in the booneys. The next closest town is 40 miles and 70 to 80 in the other directions.
So please keep in mind that though it is relatively simple for you to do, some of the rest of us are working our tails off just to grow a short season garden, raise chickens for fresh eggs, raise the majority of our own meat, and care for goats for milk. Many of the choices you take for granted aren’t even offered to us.
Holly, we’ve been having a discussion among the NDiN writers about how difficult it is for rural, and even suburban, people to go local. While urbanites have to stretch the definition when it comes to where it’s grown (as in 200 miles away = local), every other aspect of local is easy for us. But so many of my rural friends live an hour or more from the nearest grocery store, especially as the WalMarts of the world have basically killed all the local shops that used to inhabit small town Main Streets.
What I say is, do the best you can. We know the “ideal.” But the *real* ideal is to live in a way that has the least impact in whatever circumstance you find yourself, and to honor everyone’s effort.
As a rural dweller who has a 2 hr round trip to the nearest local farmer’s market, I’ve talked to a few people who were flabbergasted when they moved down to this area and couldn’t find a local farmer selling fresh eggs. They thought rural farming community meant fresh organic vegetables/meat/dairy at every farm.
It also takes a lot of time and effort to develop your local food system, but it’s well worth the investment. I took many hours of searching for me to find local grain, until I found them we didn’t eat bread, or we purchased flour from King Arthur.
Once you do start to find these little places here and there you’ll notice that those people are your best resources for finding new places and sources for other ingredients. If you can find your way into your local food community you’ll notice it will grow wider every time to talk to someone.
One of the best things about eating locally is that you get to meet so many new people, most of whom are like-minded souls. You’ll find not just healthy food for your body, but great emotional nourishment for your soul as well with the relationships you’ll build.
I like the way you explain all these nuances. It is about figuring out the priorities. I also first go local and try to buy from small mom and pop businesses. When I started really looking for local, I expected places like Whole Foods and Balducci’s to be good sources for me. Not so at all. That was a shocker. This Dark Days Challenge has been so eye opening!
This is a great write-up; it really helps me think about how I define these terms.
Well said Xan… I’m fairly new to this, and while it’s hard at first, it’s rewarding. I’ve also noticed how our kids are getting involved with the Dark Days challenge… our 5 year old was ticked when we didn’t go to the “farm” (the winter farmer’s market we are so blessed to have) as he calls it last week because they were closed for the holidays! I love that he thinks it’s so fun to go there, and at the same time we’re teaching him to think differently than the accepted “norm” in our area!
Indeed…. i was just having a conversation with my folks about how 15 minutes away in the city is completely different than 15 minute saway in the country. Growing up, it took 15 minutes to drive to the post office to get the mail. In Austin, 15 minutes could get you all the way to Round Rock if there wasn’t traffic…. a completely different animal. Perhaps if we focus more on ‘how much waste was created in the movement of this ingredient from growth to consumption’ instead of how ‘local’ it is, we might get a better picture. I’m going crazy here in this apartment without my garden! i used to get dinner from 4 feet away, now i have to shop at a store until the farmer’s market opens. I definitely focus on seasonal vs the other things – to live in tune with the seasons is just a great way to be and makes you mor ein tune with the rest of the planet and your own body. As far as the rest of it: the point is to do your best with what you have acessible. There are plenty of people who have great local ingredients in their grasp, but they only know how to shop at Walmart. Our point here is to challenge you to think outside of the box, not to frustrate or aggravate you. If you’re trying, you’re doing mor ethan some.
Hello Xan!! Happy New Year!!
I have actually been thinking about this for quite some time, and thought about doing a post on this, just yesterday, but i’m glad I didn’t. It wouldn’t have nearly been as good or as in-depth as yours. Thanks for the post!
I’ve come to the realization that so many times, MY ideals don’t always match up with the “label” of a thing… and so I’m convinced that the thing that solves the problems (not having access to local, not being able to afford certified organic, not having access to a farmer with eggs, knowing if my version of ethical is what I’m buying…) is simple. KNOW YOUR FARMER. This doesn’t even mean you have to be able to MEET them… but take some time. Google that company that says their eggs are free range. See what THEIR version of free range IS. Ask your farmer’s market vendors about their practices. Once in a while, knowing your farmer might mean growing your own. The key is to know.
and, @Holly, you might be pleasantly surprised to find that low tunnel row covers can extend growing through the winter. I don’t know where you are, but I have friends in very cold places that grow greens all winter long. Don’t give up the search to find foods and farmers that fit into your life! The ideals are something to strive for, and then you find the place that you can fit. If it’s not as close to the ideals you have, fight to get closer to them. Let the stores you shop at know what you want. I have found that this has earned me a few items in larger stores that might not have been there if I hadn’t asked for them.
While I appreciate this excellent post, I also believe that — collectively — we’re overlooking a host of issues that influence one’s access to nourishing foods, one’s ability, in other words, to even participate in a challenge like Dark Days.
More specifically, I’m referring to issues of race/ethnicity, class, gender, ability, and the like. I’ve written a post about this matrix in relation to the Dark Days Challenge, but my post is by no means comprehensive. You can read it here:
http://finickyfarmer.blogspot.com/2011/12/interrogating-privileges-of-eating.html
Rather than acting in an insular fashion (i.e., only focusing on one’s household), shouldn’t the Dark Days Challenge spur us on to thinking about *everyone’s* access to nourishing, local foods? Shouldn’t we also work to diminish the institutionalized privileges that enable us — a relative minority — to enjoy delicious and wholesome food such that all may enjoy?
You bring up some interesting points, and I think that it’s an interesting way to deepen this Challenge next time around–perhaps by making at least one week of the period about bringing the challenge into your community.
That said, however, I take some exception with the tone of your blog post.
The personal is political. Small actions can have big results. Not just charity, but everything starts at home.
Many people are comfortable as advocates and activists. Many are not. There must be ways for a movement like this to reach every type of participant–those are have the ability to reach into the larger community (like me, as one of my jobs is in food activism), and others who don’t have the interest, the access, or the courage to act outside of their own families.
Too many people are scared off by the idea that eating sustainably means buying $9-a-gallon raw milk, or shopping only at farmers markets. It is press, blogs and essays that focus in on those which make us look like elites, rather than like households trying to make a difference in their own lives. Saying that the sustainable food movement as a whole, or the Dark Days Challenge specifically, is a “privileged” activity simply makes those who self-identify as non-privileged roll up their eyes, assume it’s not their reality, and walk away.
I also know for a fact that many people in this challenge, as well as several of our writers, face many of the barriers that you lament, and are in no way “privileged.”
I have no problem with someone changing their habits toward sustainable living just for themselves or their families. I have no problem with activists working in the larger world. I do have a problem with carpetbaggers who swoop into communities not their own, expecting to fix problems that don’t affect them, and to the use of language (“privileged” “elites” “lucky for me” “insular”) imposed on us by those who oppose and seek to discredit us.
As an urban white middle class woman, I don’t think I have any goddamned business trying to teach some black welfare grandma, or ninth generation farm family, or newly immigrated Mexican mother, how to feed their loved ones. I do however, as a white middle class woman, have access to press and political power that poor people of color, and isolated rural people, may not.
It’s also important not to overlay something like this that people are trying to do to make their own lives better with subtle accusations of bias and bigotry.
I don’t know if you followed the link in the blog on the idea that jumping in with both feet isn’t an option for everyone. http://washhands-settable.blogspot.com/2010/03/how-to-eat-sustainably.html talks about overcoming or sidestepping some of the barriers of geography, community, interest and ability.
Xan, I appreciate the fullness and frankness of your response. I really do. As I’ve read and re-read your post, I think that there is much on which we agree.
First off, I’m glad that you find carpetbagging as offensive as I do. I never advocated for that position. Rather, I believe in working with existing organizations/structures in a supporting role (e.g., helping raise funds for a winter market in Dorchester). It seems as if you do too. Awesome.
We also seem to agree that “white middle class wom[e]n have access to press and political power that poor people of color and isolated rural people may not.” Same boat, there!
But, like many folks, I call that privilege — even if neither one of us has a trust fund! And I also think that it’s disingenuous to suggest that having access to clean water and awesomely nourishing foods is not a privilege. It totally is, Xan. Especially in this sad, sad world.
So I’m not quite sure why my attempt — to urge all of us (myself absolutely included) to think about our privilege and how we could put our little bits to even greater use — was met with such anger. Asking folks to examine privilege — to think about institutionalized -isms — is not the same as accusing them of “bias and bigotry.”
Clearly, talking about the possibility of talking about these issues is loaded, and (to my knowledge), it’s not really happened on this particular blog. Still, I think that it’s important to have these conversations as a community — and not as one that’s so fearful of criticism. By writing about privilege, I am not aiming to “oppose [or] seek to discredit” the excellent work here. It’s not “us” versus “them” or “me” versus “you,” Xan.
Rather, it’s just me with some ideas about how — together — we can do things a little better. And while the personal is political, a community is more powerful than an individual. A community is better-equipped to overcome the institutionalized -isms (nationally and globally) that maintain systems of privilege. And I believe that *this* community can work collaboratively and imaginatively towards a future in which more people have access to the same great meals we enjoy — that’s why I am a part of it.
Emily, thank you! An interesting aspect of my background is that I’ve spent most of my “professional” career as a fundraiser, and one of the lessons I’ve learned is that people have a charitable impulse, or they don’t. People have the ability and desire to get involved, or they don’t. People volunteer, or they don’t.
This is not to judge these characteristics. I’ve found them to be as solid and innate, and out of one’s control as eye color.
Further, people are extremely touchy about being called on this. Everyone wants to think of themselves as charitable, and everyone wants to think of their motivations as noble, but viewed from the outside people are often motivated by selfish and insular needs (this is going to be on topic, I promise). Again, I’m not judging this. It is what it is.
In terms of calls to action, therefore, I feel that use of incendiary or critical language is off-putting. I think it is understood that people reading this blog are privileged–for one thing we have computers, and easy internet access, and plenty to eat. And yes, I suppose my access to clean water makes me privileged in the context of the wider world, but frankly I’m well aware of that, as one of our “privileged” writers here just spent nearly a year hauling water when her well went dry in a drought.
I suppose I was angered, not by your point, but by the tone of criticism seemingly against, and certainly within a community that, more than most of the people I’m in contact with daily, “gets it.” Language has a lot of power. You don’t need to resort to name-calling to get people to understand.
We actually pulled this discussion into our contributors group, where I mentioned that while I disagreed with your tone, I liked the idea of adding that level to the Challenge–to have, for instance, a special week where we take the Dark Days into the community.
On further thought, and with the idea of growing the community, I would actually like to challenge *you* to set this up, through the Finicky Farmer, as another challenge. It’s one I haven’t seen anywhere– not “real” food, or “unprocessed” food, or “one food” (all challenges I’ve seen), but rather the Community Challenge–spend a month making a difference in food safety, knowledge or security.
I will be the first to sign on.
Xan, I love your break down. There are so many things I can relate to, but could never put it into words the way you have. I think the same on some of your topics, on others I have my own thoughts and ways. Finding grain and flour is my challenge. I am slowly making headway (I think). I completely agree with you on Whole Foods. I like to cook (not always elaborately – just healthy and not out of a box) mainly simple meals. I can make pasta but the flour has traveled a long ways to get to me or I can buy it in a box (and I do) but that still has traveled many miles to get to me. I still chose to have pasta in my life and rice and chickpeas – I buy them more mindfully now than in the past. And do I buy the grain from the local farmer down the road who might be real close to organic (not sure yet, still working on the details there) or do I buy it from a company several hundred miles away to get organic.I got another lead on flour today, so I hope it pans out. All of these categories fit into each of our lives differently. We all have our own lives to lead and our own opinions and I am glad we have those choices to make. I really enjoy reading your point of view, it makes me really think about the choices I make. It doesn’t mean I am going to jump ship on what I think or do, but it does open my eyes on some things that I haven’t thought about or look in a way I might not have looked. Thanks!
Xan, I appreciate this response, and I’d be delighted to further the conversations/actions that I’ve, in fact, already started on my blog in response to the issue I raised. Please see the following link:
http://finickyfarmer.blogspot.com/2011/12/continuing-conversations-eating-locally.html
Several Dark Days Challenge participants who live near the Boston area (myself included) donated funds to support the creation of a Dorchester Winter Market. This market met its fundraising goal, ensuring healthy, local produce for community members during the hard days of Boston winters.
Raising money, however, is not necessarily a project, but it is a start. And it was a small way in which individuals who were not necessarily part of that community, but wanted to support food justice, could act as allies.
As an alternative to fundraising, I’ve also blogged briefly about working with Community Servings, Greater Boston’s nutritious, home-delivered meals for the terminally ill. Please see the following:
http://finickyfarmer.blogspot.com/2011/12/volunteer-opportunity-community.html
I’d gladly organize a “Community Servings” Dark Days volunteer night, and I think that’d be a fun way to interact with nearby bloggers in person as we work towards equitable access to food. And, as I’ve stated before in my posts, I’m open to ideas — particularly from members of “food desert” communities themselves.
That said, I have to be frank about my frustrations with this email exchange. I asked folks to consider talking about race/ethnicity/class/gender/ability; I challenged myself and others, as participants in Dark Days, to think more deeply and act more thoughtfully about such issues. Throughout my personal blog posts and email exchanges, I used a language of “we” and “our” — communal language, that is — even as I urged us to interrogate systems of privilege.
But I *never* “name-called.” I never resorted to “incendiary” language, and I think that it’s deeply unfair for you to misrepresent both my personal blog posts and this exchange as such.
I will, as I mentioned above, continue to work on this project because I want to support the awesome work begun by others in neighboring communities.
Emily, I sincerely appreciate your reaching out and explaining your use of language. You clearly hit some buttons with me. It is a minefield that bloggers need to navigate. When I have inadvertently offended someone with language on any of my blogs, I always go back to look very closely at the language I used. Unfortunately, while we have control of our language, we don’t have control of peoples’ reactions to it. I hope that the exchange has made people (including me) aware of your really excellent blog, and I look forward to meeting all these challenges together.
Xan, I’m glad that we had this conversation despite its moments of difficulty
I’m proud of us for hanging in there due to our shared commitment to equitable food access.
I’m pretty psyched to work on a Community Challenge project with DD participants; I’m working on a post right now. And I look forward to working with you (and others!) on food justice issues and to your input in this particular project. Thank you, truly.
I enjoyed this post and admire your openness in addressing your personal choices. I also think there’s one aspect of ethical consumption that is often overlooked in discussions of buying local, organic, sustainable etc: fair labor practices. Even small farms often hire seasonal workers. Since farm laborers, migrant or permanent, are not covered under most federal employee rights acts, treatment, payment and living conditions vary hugely between farms. One benefit of knowing your farmer is that you can ask and observe exactly whether your farmer treats their employees humanely and with respect, and it is so so important that we do so.
I have to say, I’ve been reading articles about CSA’s taking foodstamps, and I have a friend who was on WIC (might still be), and they were able to get good food as well as seeds to plant, or even food bearing plants. It’s bad, no doubt, but it’s not completely unattainable to get some decent food out there.
I also think that if people asked their local grocer (and in cities there are grocers) if their meat is local etc their grocer would eventually look into it if enough people asked routinely.
Thoughtful post, Xan! We’ve certainly become even more aware of our food since we lost our garden to the drought and are having to buy more of our food from “the system”. I was shocked the other day to see that a bag of Texas onions–sporting the GO TEXAN label–had been packaged in Florida!!!
It’s difficult to imagine how it could even be cost effective for these alliums (likely grown in the county south of us) to be shipped half way across the continent just to be placed in mesh bags and shipped back to us. The very act of it seems silly. Suddenly it’s crystal clear: the Texas Department of Agriculture doesn’t give a flip about the local food movement, it’s all about Texas pride!
Yeah, that’s it. I’m supposed to be proud that I’m eating a Texas onion. Never mind where it was packaged, how much unnecessary fossil fuel was used, or that local unemployment is high. Ugh.