In the latest move in America's perpetual, dysfunctional relationship with their food, Congress will attempt (underscore "attempt") to put an already passed country-of-origin labeling law into effect in advance of the law's Republican-crafted delay (I know it sounds confusing). According to a July 2, 2007 story from The New York Times, by Andrew Martin, titled "Labels Lack Food’s Origin Despite Law":
In every American supermarket, labels tell shoppers where their seafood came from. But there are no such labels for meat, produce or nuts.
Behind the contradiction is a lesson in political power in Washington, where lobbyists and members of Congress have managed to hold off the enforcement of a five-year-old law that required country-of-origin labeling on meat and produce as well as fish.
Now, with Democrats in control of Congress and mounting questions about the safety of food imported from China, proponents of the labeling law say they believe that they finally have momentum on their side.
After all, they say, at a time when consumers are ever more concerned about where their food is coming from, why not just tell them on the package?
While it seems tasty to bite into the insanity described in the Times article, basically that Republicans in Congress politically prostituted themselves (could it be true?) by blocking enforcement of a 2002 Farm Bill to satisfy their corporate pimps in the meat and other big food lobbys, we're gonna take a more dangerous culinary curve.
At the time of the Civil War, before the heralding of the Industrial Revolution, about 60% of Americans worked in agriculture. Today, that number is about 2%. Of course, that's not counting the "criminals" from down under who risk their lives just to come here and pick our berries for us. Because, let's face it, who really wants to list their occupation as a "farmer" on their Match.com profile?
To be fair, with the advancement of technology and industry it would be unrealistic to expect that 60% of the population would still work in the fields. Take me, for example. My work takes place on the internet. I fully appreciate that technology has provided me the possibility to work, research, and communicate in this manner. One thing the internet can't do, however, is grow my food. I rely on others to do my "dirty" work for me.
What we lose when we disengage from any particular activity is the personal experience of doing it. And with that, we lose the ability to observe what happens in our experience. We may gain information from technology, but we develop knowledge through experience and observation. And knowledge is essential if we are to exercise discernment, the art which guides us in choosing in each and every deliberation. None of this, by the way, would be necessary for discussion had technology not delivered us the miracle of electronic media. Because what media provides us is a mediated experience of life.
Nowhere is the mediated life experience displayed more vividly and insidiously than through television. Thanks to television, we don't need experience nature, we have The Nature Channel. We don't need cherish Grandma's time-honored recipes, we have The Food Channel. Who needs to go out and play sports when we have ESPN? And who needs to have sex when we've got "Sex in the City"? So much information is projected at us, but we may as well be asleep, because the only experience we're having is that of molding our fat asses to our sofas (is that how they got so fat?)
In his new book, "The Assault on Reason", Al Gore wisely sets the foundation for his argument (that modern Americans have lost their ability to reason, to discern) by discussing the shift from newspapers to television as a means to deliver news and information to the public. According to our last elected president:
Millions of Americans have simply stopped reading newspapers. Afternoon newspapers were the first to go broke. Now, virtually all newspapers are shrinking in profits, advertising, and circulation–and more than a few are even shrinking in their physical size. One day many years ago, a smart young political consultant turned to an older elected official and succinctly described a new reality an America's public discourse: "If it's not on television, it doesn't exist."
The problem with that last statement is, while it's true in a political context, it's totally false in reality. Because, if you're watching something on television, it DOES NOT EXIST for you. Unless, of course, you open up the stupid box and find Emeril actually cooking inside. Bam!
I know what you're asking. How does all this connect with the food labeling law I mentioned at the top of this piece? It's pretty simple. The only reason we need to concern ourselves with the origin of our food, and have our government pretend to protect us, is because we aren't experiencing and observing it for ourselves. When I go to any of the many independent farms that dot the beautiful Hudson Valley, I can "see for myself" where the food comes from. I don't need no stinkin' congressman to tell me that my garlic doesn't come from China.
I'll be the first to admit that my life these days is more disconnected from the origin of my food than I'd like it to be. But I have known, yes, through personal experience the value of agriculture in my life. There's something grounding and wholly elemental to the process of being human that can't be replaced by technology, and a peacefulness that can't be replicated by a pill.
The good news is, that there is an exciting movement of independent, sustainable farms blossoming around the country. Many operate as Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) projects, which you can join as a working member. I frequently read about people who divorce themselves from the confines and constraints of corporate life for an opportunity to create a life of value, meaning, and purpose that only a connection to the land can provide. Plus, a return to locally-grown foods will significantly improve our carbon impact, as we won't be importing "organic" berries from South America, and not employing polluting forms of transport to get them to us.
So here's my request. Over the next few weeks, discover the independent farms local to you, and find a way to connect with some of them. I'll do it, too. Let's experience nature and make magic together.
– Craig Gordon
What the world needs now is love sweet love,
It's the only thing that there's just too little of.
What the world needs now is love sweet love,
no not just for some but for everyone.
– Burt Bacharach
