Comments on: The Revolution Will Not Be (Petrochemically) Fertilized

By: tommy

tommy — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:04:42 +0000

Unless you grow it in your own backyard you never know what your getting or where it came from. Are the food poisoning epidemics are just the start of what is to come. I guess we will see.

By: Bill McCann

Bill McCann — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:06:09 +0000

Kerry
I just wanted to thank you for the thoughtful words about all of us and the food that we consume. At the same time I would like to take issue with Bethany’s comment.
I live right here at ground zero of our industrial agriculture system: the great San Joaquin Valley. Rich folks, middle class folks, and poor folks are all suffering a bit from kitchen illiteracy these days, but the poor seem to be more afflicted than most. With school lunch programs dependant on industrial agricultural castoffs from the government, donated food from similar sources, and effective advertizing by the same industry that benifits from the government programs; these folks don’t have much of a chance. We need a sea change of new thinking that comes from neither the right or the left, but is just sensible in it’s focus.

By: Not much convenience in “convenience foods” « Interesting finds

Not much convenience in “convenience foods” « Interesting finds — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:35:01 +0000

[...] all the responses to the new data showing we’re getting sicker and fatter, I was most struck by Kerry Trueman’s comment at Civil Eats that what we are really suffering from is “kitchen illiteracy.” Now, that’s the kind of [...]

By: Bethany

Bethany — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:58:52 +0000

While I agree in part with the general tone of this post, there is something that deeply angers me about the first few lines of the author’s argument and their larger implications. Kitchen illiteracy and nature deficiency disorder are certainly problems and are absolutely linked to larger issues in health and agriculture, but the “food movement” is missing the entire point (and becoming seriously classist) if we place these above diabetes and obesity.

Diabetes and diet related diseases are statistically related closely to genetics, environment, and poverty. Placing them simply within kitchen ignorance from is offensive not only because it downplays the serious health effects of such diseases and the real suffering of people who experience them, but also assumes that they are caused by ignorance, by people not knowing what is good for them, not truly understanding “good” and “slow” food.

While I would never presume that ignorance is completely unrelated to such illnesses (they are complex and stem from a wide variety of causes), foods that contain high amounts of poor carbohydrates are significantly cheaper and more available to people on low or fixed incomes. They are often easier to prepare and consume. It strikes me as naive and divisive to assume that as Americans, especially those who are sick with diet related diseases, don’t care or are deeply ignorant of food. Within the “food movement” we must avoid the limiting of the movement ideologically and practically to any set of ideals, lest we leave behind or ignore those who consume or appreciate food differently than ourselves.

There can be no one solution, and no one end goal of making the food system in this country more just and sustainable. As Wendell Berry says, “In the face of conflict, the peaceable person may find several solutions, the violent person only one.”