We have a vision for how our food and farming industries could have developed and it is a far cry from what they are now. Mike and I share a passion for revitalizing and reforming the way people interact with and think about their food. There is so much to change, but in order to get to where we want to be, we need to know where we are. That is what we expect to learn with this local diet. At the end of this year we, and you, will know what is grown here, what should be added to our local industry, and better know how to access those things.
In order for our world to be where it should be in its relationship with food we need more farmers and more food producers. We need to break down the massive producers into more local sectors. Buying from your neighbor creates a more stable food chain, economy, and a healthier environment. I understand that in this modern world not every household is going to have a housewife who bakes fresh bread, milks the cow, and tends the garden like it used to be, but we can get the same freshness that came along with that lifestyle. Some of you never want to be part of raising your own food. That is fine, but do support a healthy food system. And for those of you who do want to raise your own food, or raise food enough for others...thank you.
Our Diet
The rules and regulations of our diet:
- All new groceries that come into this home have to be grown and/or made within 100 miles of us.
- If we travel somewhere we can eat out, but need to make at least one of our meals, while there, local.
- We can use the spice rack that we have in our home. We will not buy anymore herbs, unless local, but we can receive herbs from our friends over seas.
- There may be a serious issue with leaving coffee and chocolate behind, so...for the safety of ourselves, our marriage, our child, and those we might encounter...we may indulge in such things as long as they are Fair Trade, Organic, and Sustainably harvested.
- If others invite us out to eat or over to eat, we will go and eat what is served. We will, also, leave a Wichita Food Co-op card or sticker at every home or restaurant we attend. Just a friendly suggestion :)
- We are allowed tea. We will try to get local teas, but if this option is unavailable, we will go the Fair Trade, Organic, Sustainable route.
- Elijah is allowed to make his own rules.
Why we feel this diet is important.
We have already explained a little bit about why we are doing this diet, but let's get into the real guts and glory of the issues at hand...
Why local?
A great deal of the money that is paid for our food is paid for the petroleum it takes to ship, process, and package it. Why do we grow sunflowers in Kansas, send them on a semi or train to Indiana to turn them into oil, then send the oil to Montana to package it, and then send the final product back to the shelves of Kansas to sell? Does this seem to make sense to anyone? It makes sense to the corporate owners of our food supply who control the way the final product comes to be. And it makes sense for the small farmer who cannot afford to get all of the licenses and pay all the fees it would cost to do the packaging himself. This is what happens when things become too centralized. We begin to see monocropping, and crazy production chains like the one described. Buying local gives farmers in our area the incentive to choose smaller, more diverse crops, more sustainable growing practices, and gives the agriculture world a whole new market to expand on. If we had local processing and packaging plants all over the world, our food chain and the environment would look a lot different.
By buying local you give farmers a chance to earn what they deserve. No longer are they subject to what Wall Street says corn or soybeans are worth. The farmer tells you what he needs for that food in order for him to live a healthy life, and in order for him to continue to produce food for you. Is there any fairer form of trade? This is a good way to combat the migrant workers' injustice and promote good working conditions and fair pay.
The local pollens in honey have been shown to have beneficial side-effects for allergy sufferers. Why wouldn't it be the same for the rest of our food? It makes sense to me that our bodies would take easiest to foods grown near them.
If for no other reason, to cut petroleum consumption. This reason needs no explanation. The news says it all. We need to do what we can to decrease the demand.
What about things that don't grow here?
We love bananas, coconuts, chocolate, etc. as much as the next guy, gal and turtle. I don't believe we have to stop consuming these things all together. We just need to start doing it responsibly. The farmers who grow these things need to practice natural, sustainable practices. This may mean that we don't have year-round everything. Sad stuff. I think we will learn to love novelty again. It is a bit scary, but we can do it. Say it with me now..."We can do it!" Good job.
As of right now there are activists and huge organization trying to pass labels and guidelines to dictate more certifications. "Fair-Trade Certified" is a great starting point. As of right now it is all we have. What I am looking for is a way of international co-opping. Picture a tropical climate sister city. We do fair and reciprocated trade. We get a crate of produce from them and send a crate back. Why not? It ensures that we know where our food is coming from, how it is being grown, and it cuts out some of the middle men.
Basically, what I am saying about buying things non-locally is care about what goes into getting that to you. Caring is the first step. Education is the second, action the third, and activism the fourth. Before you know it we will all be pirched on our soap boxes preaching to the choir, and then we can stop and enjoy the peace. :)
Genetic Modifications
As many of you know there is a lot of tampering going on with nature. One of the most prominent ways to tamper is to get into the DNA of a seed and change its characteristics to make it do what you want it to do. I totally understand why this seemed like such a good idea at first, when things looked bad for farmers and they were experiencing drought, pests, etc. As this practice has become so mainstream we are seeing why this may not be the best idea.
The corn and soybeans that have been modified rely on massive amounts of fertilizers and pesticides to produce their current yields. These chemicals then wash into our rivers and oceans making them unlivable for wildlife.
Having the same genetic code for an entire species of plants takes away the immunity that biodiversity provides. In the '60s people were eating a different kind of banana than they are eating now. That species of banana became extinct because of a virus that ate away at the trees. So, people fell in love with a new species of banana that was supposedly immune to the virus. Now the virus has adapted and headed after our modern banana and is taking all of those trees out. You see...the way that we get such uniform produce is by cloning the trees that provide us with the desired traits of our food. When you clone for things like beauty, size, and storage things like disease resistance goes under the radar until we have a problem. The wonderful ignorance of humans allows us to believe that when we see a problem arise it is our duty to further the tinkering and fix it. Perhaps there is a better way to do this. Our tomato's genes have been infused with genes of a fish to extend their shelf life. Our grains have been stripped of all their nutrients simply to have the nutrients added back in through a process of enriching. There is a lot of exposure to high temperatures going on in both of these processes that mutate our food. Our food enters our bodies, and mutates our cells. All the while we have "no explanation" for why things like cancer, e. coli, and salmonela plague us.
