Just Be Better.

Usually Todd and I make the resolution every year to “Be Better.”  It usually works pretty well. This year is the same but with a few more concrete goals.  A short, manageable reading list:

• Foodopoly by Wenonah Hauter
• Bringing it to the Table by Wendell Berry with intro by Michael Pollan
• Closing the Food Gap:  Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty by Mark Winne
• Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies:  Migrant Farmworkers in the United States by Seth Holmes, Philippe Bourgois

Why?

I will just say this:  All it takes to make a lively and tense Christmas holiday is for one family member to say “organic food is elitist” and the other one to say “adjust your priorities.”  If the former is a mother and the latter is the co-proprietor of an organic vegetable farm, this makes for lively conversation indeed.

How do you talk about the importance of buying organic in a sensitive and intelligent way? I sure don’t know. My tactic last week was to sputter “cancer!” and “subsidies!” in a wholly unintelligible way. I was emotional, I was unprepared, and I was drinking high-octane IPA beer. 

I have similar conversational shortcomings with customers at market. The word organic gets all muddled up in people’s heads until it is unclear what it even means. “Isn’t everything at the farmers market organic,” people ask. “It’s all natural, right?” “It means it’s non GMO, right?” “If you don’t use ‘synthetic chemicals’ on your plants or soil like your sign says, what kind of chemicals do you use?” In general, people in Chicago at my particular market have at least developed the mantra that “Organic is good” and also that “Monsanto is bad.” But I don’t think there is a real understanding. I myself don’t fully understand the ins and outs of our food economy, but I have resources.

This brings me back to my reading list for 2014.  Given my position as an advocate of CSA and organic farming, I commit to fortifying myself with more facts and learning how to calm defenses and actually talk with people.  I want to be able to inspire curiosity about our food system, not antagonize.

The one thing that everyone can agree on is that something is broken in our world if the people who need nutrition the most cannot afford it.   How can organic food production be a part of the solution?   Many already get the message that we should all EAT MORE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES but where does that leave the organic vs. non-organic debate? 

Simply asking these questions has already made me feel less of a monster and more a diplomat.  I will go from here.  Onward 2014!