Occupy Our Food Supply

March 06, 2012

Why is food so important? Why do I keep bringing it up? Sooo many reasons. Food is more than sustenance it is an experience. It can help us lead healthy lives. We celebrate with food, gather the family around food, and make it the center of social events. We should be conscious about our food, where it comes from and how we experience it. Many diets claim that conscious eating and being aware of how food looks, smells, tastes and feels in your mouth will help you gain satisfaction from your eating experience and therefore eat less. But think about it, eating takes up a great deal of our time. We have to do it several times a day. Why not enjoy the process?

Fresh strawberries at the market.

This is how I opened up my workshop on the importance of eating local last week. I took part in the Occupy Our Food Supply movement on February 27 by presenting a workshop on campus. I prepared a plate of local foods for each participant and walked them through a mindful eating exercise to the sound of classical music. We drew many connections to local foods, health, community, and the world.

Where does your food come from? It is inherently linked to community. Someone has grown and cared for you food. It may have been processed and packaged but no matter how it gets to you, it has possibly passed through many hands. Whose hands were they? Food is a life and death matter. Where and how we get our food can create jobs, take jobs away, help or hurt foreign economies, contribute to world hunger or put food on someone's table, harm the environment or improve the environment and ultimately nourish our bodies or contaminate them.

Buying local foods helps local economies. When you go to the farmers market you have the opportunity to shake hands with the person that is contributing to the nourishment of your body and your family. Food is so intimate. Wouldn't it be nice to thank the person who is making your meal possible?

I enjoy food most when I can share it. Knowing that the food I am serving is fresh and healthy gives me a sense of pride and satisfaction. I take pleasure in caring for others and I do that most often through my cooking. In Telluride I belonged to a CSA. My friends often commented on how delicious food from my table always tasted. When they asked me why my food was so good I would respond because I cook with fresh, local food. I am sure that the fact that my food was picked the same week that it was cooked had something to do with the intense flavors. It didn't require fancies sauces to burst with flavor, just fresh herbs.

Living in Costa Rica provides a rich culinary experience. My Saturday market outings are something to be anticipated. I enjoy talking to the farmers and finding out where their farms are, who works on them and how big they are. Some farmers have shown me pictures of their fields with great pride. When I come home from the market I unpack and process my food. Each item is washed and stored with great care so that when I am ready to cook all I have to do is open my fridge or select and item from a basked on the counter. I am certain I have never eaten so healthy in my life.

Eating local foods in some areas is challenging but not impossible. I managed to do it in winter in Telluride! CSA's and farmers markets are popping up all across the United States. Sometimes it costs more and sometimes it costs less to eat local but think about what it costs our farmers when we don't. Small farms provide twice as many jobs as corporate food industries. Imagine that. In a time when the environmental issues are almost at their tipping point it makes sense not to ship food across the country in refrigerated containers or around the world for that matter. Yes, we must make some sacrifices in variety but choose consciously. I am not saying give up the grocery store all together but do you really need strawberries in winter?