I received somewhat expected, but nonetheless very sad news this afternoon. My grandfather, a man I only recently had the opportunity to reconnect with, has passed away. It is odd sometimes the way the cards fall.

I love and miss you Grandpa.

A colleague of mine, the ever-generous and thoughtful Steve Poftak, forwarded a few “crappy food” alternative resources to me this morning. The first, a very interesting farm that delivers produce to specific pick-up stations in the Boston-area, would certainly offer a solution to my can’t-get-out-of-the-city-to-get-good-produce conundrum. The second, an editorial in the New York Times from yesterday by Michael Pollan, has some very timely tidbits, which certainly compliment the content of his book (I include a few meaty clips below). And the third is another Pollan article, yet again in the New York Times, and also worthy of a read.

Here are a few clips from Pollan’s editorial in yesterday’s New York Times:

“Americans have begun to ask why the farm bill is subsidizing high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils at a time when rates of diabetes and obesity among children are soaring, or why the farm bill is underwriting factory farming (with subsidized grain) when feedlot wastes are polluting the countryside and, all too often, the meat supply. For the first time, the public health community has raised its voice in support of overturning farm policies that subsidize precisely the wrong kind of calories (added fat and added sugar), helping to make Twinkies cheaper than carrots and Coca-Cola competitive with water. Also for the first time, the international development community has weighed in on the debate, arguing that subsidized American exports are hobbling cotton farmers in Nigeria and corn farmers in Mexico.

“…We would not need all these nutrition programs if the commodity title didn’t do such a good job making junk food and fast food so ubiquitous and cheap. Food stamps are crucial, surely, but they will be spent on processed rather than real food as long as the commodity title makes calories of fat and sugar the best deal in the supermarket. We would not need all these conservation programs if the commodity title, by paying farmers by the bushel, didn’t encourage them to maximize production with agrochemicals and plant their farms with just one crop fence row to fence row.

“And the government would not need to pay feedlots to clean up the water or upgrade their manure pits if subsidized grain didn’t make rearing animals on feedlots more economical than keeping them on farms. Why does the farm bill pay feedlots to install waste treatment systems rather than simply pay ranchers to keep their animals on grass, where the soil would be only too happy to treat their waste at no cost?”

Good stuff, manure processing and all.

TAGS: sustainable | organic | agriculture | consumption | consumer | supermarket | food

As a fair warning, if you do not want to question your eating, food purchasing, and general consumption habits in any way, I would stop reading this post. On the upside, I am in the middle of my research, so this post will be more or less half-baked…

Let’s start with a few resources to check out, in a reasonable order of review:

1. Beef Sold At Sam’s Club Being Recalled — the brief beef article that set me off this morning
2. Cargill Meat Solutions recalls ground beef — the most recent press release (as of this morning) listed on Cargill’s website (note that this release does not pertain to the preceding article, and indeed, the relevant release has yet to be issued — it is, however, related to a relevant but earlier recall)
3. For an added dose of fun, check out Cargill’s In the News page, which contains, “A selection of headlines from sources featuring Cargill and its businesses.” Interestingly, only one article appears this afternoon, trumpeting the work ethic of Cargill’s CEO.
4. Hmmmm…that’s funny, because I found a ton of articles in the news about Cargill running a Google News search (saved in the linked PDF to preserve the list that appeared at the actual time of my search), and somehow managed to miss the ‘work ethic’ article among the slew of beef-quality articles (maybe I’m blind, but here articles 1-10 in the “Cargill” search results: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 — nope, no mention of “work ethic”).



5. Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma — My wife bought me The Omnivore’s Dilemma for my recent birthday, and I have been dying to complete it the past week or so. I was hooked a few pages in, but seem to only find time quite late in the evening to hunker down and flip the pages (unfortunately, I have also discovered that I am not as young as I used to be — no more all-night reading binges for me). That said, the book (so far) is fantastic. It is very well written, well-researched, and captivating to boot. I have always been a bit put off by our system of consumption as it pertains to the treatment of animals (if you have the stomach for it, I would suggest you review this post) but until recently I think I was fairly naive to the full extent that agricultural policies and economics ultimately impact the health and welfare of say a cow, chicken, or ultimately, my children. Pollan has certainly done his part to open my eyes a bit — who knew that bag of organic lettuce was so dangerous?…
6. Supermarket Secrets - Dispatches (part one, and part two) — I watched both segments last night and found them to compliment all of the above quite nicely. Of note, the segments pertain primarily to British agricultural/supermarket issues (with a brief digression to Spain). That said, barring a few variances in regulations between the US and Great Britain, it is fairly safe to assume that one would find similar environments behind the cheap food in US supermarkets (as well as those of most any industrialized nation).

If your head isn’t spinning with a mix of disgust and disillusionment by the time you make it through all of the above resources, I would be very interested in hearing why not.

To be honest, I am struggling with what to make of all of this data and what possible solutions there are to mitigate the negative impact of mass consumption through my own purchasing and consumption habits. Barring a purchasing partnership with a slew of sustainable (note that I did not say “organic” — Pollan’s book has a lot to do with that) farms and the elimination of pleasantries that support companies such as Cargill (hmmm, no more corn syrup, corn-fed livestock, or even most soy-based products…), I am more or less at a loss. Moreover, given where I live (smack in the middle of Boston) purchasing food from sustainable farmers (funny, I haven’t seen any set up a stand in the city anytime recently) is a bit of a hassle. It seems that I can either drive out to the county (spewing exhaust into the environment), take public transportation (more or less producing the same pollutants), or find some way to have it shipped to me (again, with the same relative impact to the environment). Regardless, none of the solutions seem ideal.

In short, I am in that mid-perturbed stage where I do not have many answers but plenty of fodder for cynicism. I’ll do my best to transition to solutions as soon as possible an will be sure to post any that I come up with.

TAGS: Cargill | sustainable | organic | agriculture | consumption | consumer | supermarket | food | animal rights | PETA