Guest Post–The Food Movement

My boyfriend Chris is a lot more eloquent than I am when it comes to writing about things that are important to him. After we went to see Michael Pollan on Tuesday, he had some big opinions, all of which I agree with him 100%. Here is his two cents.

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It’s easy to see why Michael Pollan is so popular among his fans.  He is funny, he writes incredibly well, he is passionate, he’s charismatic and knows how to connect with his audience.  I received “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” for Christmas one year (one of many in my family to get that exact gift) and read each of his subsequent books (although I felt “Food Rules” was a money play, as it’s not small enough to fit in your pocket and doesn’t really offer anything new).  His premise is simple.  We are what we eat, and the food we eat is what it eats.  Whatever the cow eats, whatever the carrot eats as it grows, becomes the cow and the carrot and we eat that.  So to be healthy (whatever that really means) we need to have a healthy agriculture in which our food eats real food, and thus in turn, we eat real food.  Pretty easy to understand.  But more important is the focus on food, instead of nutrients.  Part of Pollan’s argument is that we are a culture that is now obsessed with nutrients.  Go into any grocery store and you will see products that don’t advertise food, but health benefits in the form of fiber, anti-oxidants, Omega 3s, and so on.  That isn’t real food.  A piece of fish, an apple, a carrot, that is real food.  But apples, fish and carrots don’t have marketing campaigns with millions of dollars behind them, they don’t have commercials.  They don’t fit into the “American” way of eating.  Pollan’s words and the words of others like him, have spawned a movement toward eating real food, a movement that has been blended into battles over organic foods, local foods, raw foods, meatless foods and the like.  It’s important to distinguish that they are not one and the same.  Michael Pollan’s diet doesn’t advocate eating fake meat (what could be more processed in fact) but it doesn’t advocate the meat found in Lunchable’s either.  In my opinion, the debate needs to be taken at its core and that is how do we eat real food.

The people at the talk Tuesday night all know how to eat real food.  They’ve read Michael Pollan’s book, they probably shop at a food co-op, they’ve watched documentaries on Netflix about food.  My concern over the food movement has been that it’s incredibly elitist.  Michael Pollan concedes this point, but aptly suggests that many movements start among the elite who have the time and money to take up causes (although it didn’t really work out for the Child Saving movement, but that’s a totally non-related issue).  I wanted to raise this, but luckily local chef Ric Orlando (who I adore) raised his hand and pointed out the fact that 99% of the audience was white and Pollan added that 99% looked incredibly healthy.  He admitted that he rarely talks to any group that has obese people in it.  There’s the rub.  All these talks, these celebrity chefs, are catering to the same demographic.  The ones who have already made the choice to read the book and who likely were living quite a similar lifestyle even before it became the sexy movement to be a part of.  The question Ric Orlando raised and I posed on the Table Hopping Blog, is how do we take the movement beyond the already converted, and really made strides in our society toward healthy and real food?

Pollan mentioned that nutrition science isn’t exactly where we think it might be.  He likened it in fact to surgery in the 1600s, a great idea, but not quite reliable.  He also made many references to “Western” and “American” culture and how different we are from other cultures who either eat differently than we do and are therefore healthier, or cultures who eat relatively similar foods and are STILL healthier.  So this got me thinking, what the hell is it about the “Western” or “American” culture that makes us so vulnerable to this type of diet?  Because in order to change food behavior, we have to understand food behavior.  Basically, I’m not convinced that we know enough about why people behave the way they do, to really make much of an impact at this point.  Look at all the anecdotal evidence for people making decisions that if you gave it any thought, do not make sense.  Cigarettes are bad, yet people smoke.  Axe body spray can’t possibly get you laid, yet teenage boys buy it.  Kids shouldn’t eat candy for breakfast, but we buy Reese’s Puffs for them.  People at the talk seemed to view current food culture as this evil American monstrosity that pulled a fast one when we weren’t looking.  But the food companies are fueled by our dollars.  We’ve bought into everything they are selling.  Pollan describes how certain nutrients are demonized and then others are put on a pedestal.  Look at carbs and look at Omega 3s.  BUT, precedent (or history) tells us that it is very likely that Omega 3s (which Pollan advocates taking) might be a nutrient fad.  Who really knows?

My point is two-fold.  First, in order to really change food culture to a movement towards real food, we need more exploration into why we behave the way we do towards food AND the food industry.  This may involve a deeper psychological and cultural examination that Pollan intended, but we can’t pretend like decision-making is as cut and dry as “read my book, here’s why I’m right, follow my lead.”  I want to know more about this “American/Western” culture that everyone is talking about and how it relates to food, before we assume we can simply fight it by shopping organically.

Second, if we decide that real food is the answer, or organic food is the answer, we need to find out how to involve/give it to people who don’t go to Michael Pollan talks.  If a food trend is important enough to last long enough to be more than 10 years (the time frame Pollan suggested that we look at when evaluating if the movement is simply something for the elite) then everyone deserves to be part of it.  The gaps in diet in this country are a reflection of the class inequalities in this country.  There is no denying that.  The discussion about food is a discussion about quality of life.  If healthy food isn’t accessible for certain populations, it’s likely that health care isn’t accessible for certain populations, it’s likely that affordable and safe housing isn’t accessible for the same populations.  There are so many groups fighting for equality right now, so many movements.  If we want to move beyond the Whole Food/Co-Op book club meetings, and REALLY change the culture of food, then we HAVE to change the culture of inequality and accessibility.  It’s great that so many people with money/time/power are embracing the food movement.  But I hope we can see beyond food, to the larger picture, the larger issue.  And that issue isn’t an anti-corporation issue (a moniker that I completely despise hearing when it’s thrown around with emotion) or an anti-wealth issue, but an issue of equality.  Here’s what I hope we can accomplish.  I hope people who read Michael Pollan can enjoy their real foods, but move beyond a movement of telling others what farmer’s market they shopped at, what they bought, and what they cooked, to a life of helping others shop at farmer’s markets, helping others make decisions about what to buy and helping others cook.  And here’s how we do it.

In “Freakanomics” Steven Dubner tells us that it doesn’t really matter if you buy your kids Baby Einstein books or any other learning aid.  What matters is that you are the TYPE of parent who buys that for your child.  Basically, the argument is that the outcomes of children are largely determined by who their parents are and they will follow in their footsteps.  Michael Pollan tells us to be the type of person who takes a multivitamin.  Basically, be the type of person who reads a Michael Pollan book.  The rates of childhood obesity and their projects are horrifying.  Therefore, the mission is simple.  We want the type of parents, who read Michael Pollan books.  How do we do that?  By supporting initiatives like this.

It’s not just about food, it’s about accessibility.  It’s about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all.