I've been reading Barbara Kingsolver's new book: "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" about her family taking a year to eat mindfully, choosing to consume food available locally or in their gardens, and things that have been grown themselves and preserved, rather than just picking up what is available from the local grocery store ...It is a powerful read - enjoyable, informative and provocative in the best possible ways ... along with suggestions for gardening there are recipes, serving types, and more than just a little social commentary about how and what we eat ... Like the book "Don't Eat this Book" Kingsolver's work offers a strong critique of modern food consumption ...
Today I read an article online over at CommonDreams.org about the response, or more accurately - the LACK of response from the G8 Nations to the need for a Food Policy - the ironic image of the leaders sitting down to an 8 course, 18 dish gourmet meal on the heels of their announcement that they should reduce unnecessary food consumption is sadly laughable, but typical of our societal blindness ... our actions and our words are disconnected ...
An article linked by a friend's Facebook profile today reminds us that the transportation of ALL the food globally not only has the impact from the over consumption of fossil fuels to move those tomatoes across a continent, or those bananas around the world ... there is a GREAT DEAL of PLASTIC involved in our lifestyle choices as well ... the plastic wrapping on the organic California tomatoes has to end up somewhere ... and the plastic that held the pallets of canned pineapple from Taiwan together while being offloaded on the docks all has to go somewhere, and research is showing it is ending up in the oceans where it wreaks havoc in the environment ...
Yet we blithely continue on pretending everything is okay, and our tiny contribution multiplied a BILLION fold does NOTHING to the planet ...
Oh, were it the case ...
Reading Kingsolver's book has caused me pause. I am even more committed to creating a garden in my backyard next year - a garden that WILL be filled with veggies to be eaten, preserved and stored for the subsequent seasons ... moreover, I will in the coming days endeavour to be a conscientious shopper, paying attention to the source for my fruits, veggies, meats and other food products with the same zealous concern and commitment that is poured into my coffee mug each morning ... It is inconsistent for our coffee to be organic fair trade, while our eggs and tomatoes are the products of an industrial food complex that robs us of too much ...
I believe we are on the verge of a food revolution ... we will no longer believe it is OKAY to have strawberries in December because they can be flown in from somewhere, but we will begin to return to our figurative and literal roots ... we will again begin to enjoy food grown in season, and food that is grown locally ... The era of cheap shipping, and tasteless pseudo-food is quickly waning ... soon backyard victory gardens will return, and we will ALL be mindful consumers, savouring locally grown, freshly picked foods over the plastic-like crap our multi-nationals have convinced us to consume ...
Maybe the prophets of old were right when they mused about people sitting under their vineyards and savouring the fruits of their own labours ... as they say - all things old become new again ... and food should be foremost amongst them ...
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