Against organic

By Jason Byassee

Shannon Jung’s Sharing Food: Christian Practices for Enjoyment (Fortress) reminds me anew of the importance of eating in a sustainable way. The U.S. produces 500 unnecessary calories for every man, woman and child in this country every day, yet we have some 35 million people who are "food-insecure," that is, hungry.

In the first ten hours of 2004 the U.S. spent more on weaponry than it would on food aid to the global poor all year. Americans’ insistence on having out-of-season produce is one of our biggest causes of dependence on Middle Eastern oil—driving those enormous tankers from the southern hemisphere helps keep geopolitics in the Middle East nasty. Organic food can be a worse offender energy-wise than the ordinary, chemically-dependent stuff. Clearly something is wrong with how we eat.

Jung’s quite right with his answer: Christians need to take a more sensuous approach to food—feast more, delight in eating, slow down, share with friends and strangers and pray prayers like this: “Blest be God, who is our bread! Let all the world be clothed and fed!” Hit the farmer’s market, avoid Wal-Mart’s groceries, and feast well.

So why am I hesitant to go from agreeing intellectually to changing the way our house eats practically? It has something to do with the crowd that shops in places where healthier fare is on offer. The health food store is just out of the question: even if I could stand the country club liberals munching on sushi and foie gras (even if it weren’t banned in Chicago) the cash register makes it impossible. The local farmer’s market is better: farmers selling their own produce is hard to beat. It’s just that everyone there is so proud of being there—so superior to Wal-Mart, so much better than the store, so local and healthy, only a pinch more money and you’re saving the world. It’s the earnestness, the zeal, the moral rectitude that can feel insufferable. I prefer the workaday lot at the local bargain store, shoppers who’re just trying to stretch a dime to the company of those convinced of their own righteousness—all the while sipping Starbucks.

I’m perfectly willing to admit this is lame moral and practical reasoning! Food locally grown and in-season certainly tastes better, and I’m occasionally worried about the meat I eat from the bargain place, not only because of important recent books and movies (like Fast Food Nation and Supersize Me), but because I occasionally find myself munching on bone amidst the ground beef. I’m also aware that many foods are “cheap” only because of government policy that heavily subsidizes products like beef and corn (which makes for plentiful corn syrup for junk food), and that such foods are costly in other ways, like our obesity epidemic. It’s all true, intellectually.

It just seems to me that eating more sustainably has an image problem, and until Bubba does it too, it’s going to stay in the rarefied air of baked brie and latte, and fail to save the world.

Comments

[Will]

I completely agree, Jason. In addition to the currently trendy aspect of organic, I also fear that it is largely a label controlled by the USDA, an agency which is, quite ironically, also responsible for much of the overproduction.

The two concepts I have been focusing on more lately are "local" and "organic." These ideas have the potential to bring in "Bubba," to borrow your concept. They also help in the process of building an infrastructure for a time when petroleum becomes less affordable.

[Will]

One other thought - food is so deeply ingrained in our understanding of the gospel. Here is a post I wrote in December about this idea:

http://willzhead.typepad.com/willzhead/2006/12/the_gospel_and_.html

[Jason Byassee]

Thanks Will, I do think locally-grown stuff, especially at farmer's markets, can draw Bubba in better. Even so the pride at eating more sustainably can be off-putting. It's the Augustinian in me, I suppose, that says pride at doing the right thing can be worse than humility or self-forgetfulness in doing the wrong thing.

[Mennonite mama]

Jason: I can't help but notice the irony that you're refusing organic because you're feeling superior to those who feel superior to those who refuse organic. ;-)

Do what you think is right, and don't worry about the smugness of people who agree with you.

(I confess that I buy for convenience more often than I buy for health and sustainability. But I'm trying to do better.)

Chicagoans who want to buy local without putting up with smug Starbucks-sippers can try freshpicks.com for home delivery.

[Jason Byassee]

A fair comment! I don't think the feeling is defensible--Alisdair MacIntyre is right to deride moral enquiry based on feelings as "emotivism." My stronger point is to say that eating sustainably has an image problem. This may fade as more attention is shone on the way we presently eat--as our slaughtering and agribusiness practices are shown in all their ugliness. Then Bubba will go to the farmer's market...

[Debra Bendis]

I agree that these days "organic" often seems to have been created by marketing people who want to sell expensive and previously unavailable food items.

Yet I think the word organic is still about food that we all want---chemical-free, hormone-free and fresh. It's the consumer dollar that will take this hope and effect change that will eventually benefit all of us. Bubba's kids, for example, may be eating better in school cafeterias because of pressure from organic food advocates.

One way I keep a focus when trying to balance budget/quality in food choices is to have a garden. This is the simple but profound beginning of "locally grown." Mennonite Mama's food site sounds wonderful, but Wi.and Mi. farms are still regional in my mind, not local. Local is where I live, in my case the (yes) earnest hippy type downtown or the ex-dairy farmer 2 miles west who now sells vegetables. I visit the source of my organic food and put my dollars into strengthening the community fabric. Then I brace myself for the grocery store experience.

[Mennonite mama]

Oh for a garden!

Where I live we finally put down artificial turf after trying for eight years to grow grass in our tiny yard, which is shaded by surrounding apartment buildings and shared by eight children from three families.

But I have a plan to bring the country to my children and my children to the country:

(1) I'm going to ask a neighbor with a more fertile yard for a plot to garden with my children.

(2) I'm going to try to arrange a long-weekend visit to one of the farming families in the community-supported-agriculture (CSA) program that members of our congregation participate in. I would be so happy if this could become an annual tradition.

[Cristy Marchis]

OK, you can very justly say that Whole Foods has an air of smugness. But, they do have the best prices on bulk whole grains, which makes a trip once in awhile worthwhile.

But, if you join a farm share, all pride soon dissipates as you fumble over figuring out how to prepare all that fresh & sometimes unusual produce! It involves so much washing, chopping, steaming, sauteeing, etc. that anyone who is merely "pretentious" about healthy food & supporting local farms will quickly build up a supply of wilted greens, and then probably drop out. I regularly buy direct-from-farm, and I'd love to have you drop by & meet my fellow customers sometime. There are a few SUV-driving elitists, but most are just regular folk trying to feed their families the highest quality food for the lowest price; and if the community and environment are enriched, so much the better. How is that so different than the Wal-Mart crowd?

Eating sustainably may have an image problem, but aren't we called not to "judge a book by its cover" so to speak? Word of mouth, in other words testimony, can be one of the best ways to combat a poor image. So the only way I can see it changing (aside from a commercialized, nationwide campaign which would defeat many of the goals of "buying local"), is for people, like me!, to tell others how great it is to eat local & how it can be done economically, and maybe a few will jump on board. C'mon, give it a chance, get over yourself!

[Jason Byassee]

Cristy is my neighbor and our families are friends--it seems to me I just got invited to a farm somewhere. Cool. I bet Bubba's there even.
Two comments from friends who read the post but didn't comment themselves: one said that if commercialization ruins things I should quit being a Christian. A glancing blow, but a blow nonetheless. Another said he used to feel the same way about wanting to shop with real people--until he realized that by that criterion he should watch Fox News. Direct hit!

[Chris Franks]

I think part of the 'image problem' you identify is about class: eating healthy and caring for the environment can seem elitist because many folks can't afford it. Bad food is often cheaper. But there's a paradox here: what could be more inefficient and costly than shipping food 1500 miles that could have been grown in the backyard? Surely some government policies are keeping those prices low, but local food's efficiency will only translate into low cost when the local network of interdependent producers and consumers grows to a critical mass, and that will only happen if the Byassee household joins in! :-)