Column We’re in the middle of the food wars, and food marketers have a new way to fight: making their ads look more like political ads.

There was a time when food didn’t need advertising. Because people grew it, other people bought it, and they took it home and cooked it up into dinner.

But then food products came along, and you know what products need? Marketing. There is in fact even a Food Marketing Institute, also known as an organization that “advocates on behalf of the food retail industry.” You know what that means: lobbying.

Food advertising is everywhere, but recently it’s taken on a new approach.

There’s the McDonald’s ad poking fun at people who like organic kale, and who eat soy products; there’s the Budweiser commercial taking the piss out of craft beer – “proudly a micro beer” – and then of course, there’s the new milk social media campaign which is all about slapping plant-based milks up side the head, #milktruth as they call it.

All three of these campaigns are developed because the brands (or lobby, in the case of milk) behind them understand that change is afoot in the marketplace. People are eating less meat, and hence, fewer burgers. People are buying more craft beer, and that means less of the industrial stuff. People are switching to plant-based milks, and that means the dairy lobby is pissed.

Food ads and marketing are obviously meant to boost sales, and usually that means highlighting all the great aspects of the food product in question. Juicy burgers, tasty, American-made beer, and good ol’, plain milk that’s chock full of health benefits. These ads all do that, but there’s another thread tying all three of these campaigns together: they are all based on putting their opposers down.

If you are already in the anti-McDonald’s burger camp, McDonald’s knows that they probably aren’t going to convince you to eat a burger. But you know what they can do? Convince the person that’s on the fence about burgers, and isn’t sure if they like veggie burgers or not, and a bit annoyed at all those kale-loving foodies, that eating at McDonald’s isn’t just tasty, it’s a statement. It will allow them to distance themselves from this elitist, burger-hating crowd.

Same goes for Budweiser. They’re not out for the lovers of microbrew, they’re out for the people that “just want to drink a beer.” They want that person to know that it’s ok to just want a regular beer, and they’ll give it to you. A good, honest, American beer. None of that geeky stuff included.

It’s the food version of anti-intellectualism. For example in an image posted on Twitter by Milk Life,  a graphic shows a bottle of milk and a carton of almond milk. Under milk, it says “13 syllables” and under almond milk, “80 syllables,” a reference to the ingredients in milk.

Because real milk always keeps it simple. pic.twitter.com/XrlWIDn07o

— Milk (@MilkLife) January 21, 2015

That’s a kind of backwards way of taking a hit at the whole foods industry which often notes the excessive ingredients in certain products. Of course, regardless of whether or not you like drinking almond milk, not every brand of almond milk has that many ingredients in it. Not to mention that real milk shouldn’t have those additives in it to begin with. And have you looked at the ingredient list for chocolate milk lately? This kind of advertising completely oversimplifies the issue (which is of course what good marketing campaigns do), failing to mention all the reasons that make people choose plant-based milks in the first place, factory farms for example.

You know what these ads make me think of? Political ads. Instead of trying to convince potential eaters of all your merits and reasons why you should be elected, you take down your opponent. Hit them hard and where it hurts so that people will vote for you, regardless of whether you have leadership ability or smart policies.

These advertising campaigns are the political ads of the food world, pitting one group against each other.

But if we have one unifying factor, no matter what side of the political spectrum that we’re on, it’s food. Sure, some choose barbecue and some choose bulgur, but at the end of the day we all have to eat on a daily basis, and we all want to live healthy lives. That means that food has the potential to be our common language, not the one that divides us.

If we are going to do anything to combat the efforts of these marketing campaigns, it’s just to make sure that we’re keeping an open, honest dialogue. One that doesn’t push people out, one that doesn’t come off as elitist.

We have to point out all the things that these ads don’t say, because we have to hope that ultimately science and facts will win out over marketing. Because food shouldn’t have to be political. It’s political because the world of agribusiness and industrial food companies have made it so, making real food have to fight for itself against food products.

Related on EcoSalon

McDonald’s New Advertising Proves the Fast Food Chain Really Is Evil: Foodie Underground

Whole Foods Market, Trendy Vegetables and Food Gentrification: Foodie Underground

Are We Superficial About the Food We Eat? Foodie Underground

Image: Budweiser ad

The post Food Marketing: Are Food Ads The New Political Ads? Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

 ColumnFrustrated with the food system? Be empowered to make better choices. Start a food fight.

Feeling overwhelmed by the food system?

That’s normal.

In a world of big business and industrial scale food production it’s hard not to get overwhelmed. Food borne illness outbreaks, stories of animal abuse, widespread soil pollution, foods that purposefully are made to be addictive, skyrocketing obesity rates, high fructose corn syrup in literally nearly everything and fast food chains offering “low fat meals” because it’s a good business option. It’s enough to make anyone want to crawl into a hole and subsist of of grains and greens for the rest of their life.

What can you do about it? Make smart food choices. While we unfortunately have little to no control over what other people put into our food, we do have control over one thing: what we put into our bodies. If you control what you consume, that choice in turn affects the larger system at hand. Because when it comes to food, the most subversive thing you can do is grow and cook your own.

Overwhelmed by the system? Don’t be part of the problem, be a part of the change. Just because we’re fed bad food, doesn’t mean we have to eat it. Throwing up our hands up in surrender solves nothing, we have to fight back.

But doing so is a choice. One that takes commitment. You can’t expect to simply wake up one morning and be eating healthily and ethically. It takes work.

It begins by cutting some things out and adding others in. Less processed food, more leafy greens.

It follows by finding a balance that you can easily maintain.

It requires looking at the labels.

It requires saying no.

It requires sticking to morals.

It requires refusing to eat or drink the stuff we know we shouldn’t be consuming. No one, I repeat no one, ever needs a special Taco Bell soda, no matter what the occasion.

It requires thinking about cost as more than the number on the price tag.

It requires celebrating food instead of looking at eating and cooking as a task.

Those of us that are fortunate to be able to make the choice to eat better and more healthy have the obligation to do so. There are many that are simply subject to what the system gives them, and if the rest of us can’t go out on a limb and make the choices that will make a difference, fight the food fight that needs to be fought, then who will?

We should be enraged at the current state of food and public health. We should be furious at the policy of profit over health. And yet we often just continue down the path of ignorance is bliss because it’s easier to stay comfortable than push ourselves a little. Give up the organic bananas that were shipped across the world. Don’t eat factory farmed meat. Grow something. Anything.

Demand more. Not voting with our fork is a sign of giving up.

We can feel overwhelmed by the food system, but as long as we are not taking the steps to make our personal food consumption better, how can we expect the rest to change?

Related on EcoSalon

How the Food Industry Influences What We Eat

Are Americans Destined to Avoid Good Food Forever?

Hey McDonald’s, Sustainable Meat Doesn’t Make You Responsible

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

The post It’s Time We Put up a Food Fight: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnTo change our food system, eat better and fight obesity we have to think out of the box. Get inspired by these individual and community approaches. 

In a world of agribusiness and fast food it’s very clear that changes from the food system aren’t coming from the top down any time soon. No really, you think Monsanto and McDonald’s are going to team up to encourage children to eat an organic apple instead of a GMO-filled white bread hamburger bun? Doubtful, and if they do, it’s only because eating an apple makes a child want double the amount of hamburgers.

In this food system where big business runs the show, if we want change, we have to make it ourselves. Which is why when it comes to food, community solutions are essential. And the solutions have to be creative.

Take the Food Bank for New York City for example. They’re cashing in on the food truck trend and driving an anti-ice cream truck around the city, also known as their Change One Thing campaign. You won’t find any high fructose corn syrup in this summer vehicle, instead it’s all about promoting healthy eating and encouraging teens to switch out bad eating habits for good ones, even if it’s as simple as one a day. Certainly a start in for those who want to fight obesity.

Meanwhile, Mayor Bloomberg is partnering with architects and designers to rethink urban planning and design spaces that promote movement. Yes, that means walking. Part of the Active Design initiative also involves “Improving access to nutritious foods in communities that need them most.” When we take a look at the positive changes experienced in food deserts when people are given access to healthy, affordable food options, this can only mean good things.

Small scale is also essential; embracing the idea that one step at a time really does make a difference. In Tallahassee, Florida Claire Mitchell and Danielle Krasniqi, the two women behind, Ten-Speed Greens are growing produce on a farm they built on a vacant lot and distributing it via bike. That might sound like a utopic, hipster fantasy, but remember that this is good ol’ Tallahassee, not Portlandia. Change can take place anywhere.

And then there are the multitude of innovative independent projects and operations that never cease to inspire. An aquaponic shipping container farmer? You could put a farm anywhere. A tarp that simplifies gardening and even encourages schools to launch their own gardens? It’s good to start children early. A program that lets people trade compost for fresh vegetables? Genius.

The solutions are there. We just have to keep supporting them. One food truck, one organic piece of produce and one urban garden at a time.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: paul bica

The post Improving the Food System and Fighting Obesity, Creatively: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnThe moral obligation to eat better.

When we talk about food, the topic of economics inevitably follows suite. The whole eating-well-is-a-luxury conversation. It is a comment I have heard many times, especially in response to writing about healthy eating. “Not everyone can eat like that” is a common outcry in response to stories of whole grains and organic fruits and vegetables. It’s true; an industrialized and global agriculture system has externalized many costs, like health. And ultimately, it made unhealthy, non-local, processed food the cheapest. This means that there are many people in an economic situation that doesn’t allow them a choice; irresponsibly priced food, as Michael Pollan once put it, is their only option.

But many of us do have a choice.

We’ll buy premium gas, but we’ll buy the cheapest carrots. We’ll invest in a $100 -a-month fitness studio, but we’ll down a chemically enhanced sports drink afterwards. We’ll cut out carbs and starches in an attempt to eat better, but we’ll continue to eat eggs from god-knows-where.

Although the individual effects of these choices may be minimal, at least in the short term, because food is linked to so many things, the ultimate cost is much much greater. Buying factory raised chicken isn’t just about the health of that one chicken, it’s about the health of the land that the factory is on, the people that work there, and the wages that the fast food worker was paid to serve it to you.

We want to create a better world to live in, and if we have the luxury to choose what you eat, shouldn’t you have a moral obligation to do so?

I was thinking about this recently as I read through a friend’s musings on the same topic. Emily runs a site devoted to locavorism, regularly visits local producers at markets and is committed to buying natural foods that are grown with care. And she too deals with the problems of readers complaining about the problem of locally grown food being simply too high. As she puts it:

“We all make choices on where and how to spend our money and I think that food is one thing that is worth paying for. I don’t own a lot of shoes, or much clothing- I don’t spend a ton of money on things that make me look better, but good food makes me feel great in an invaluable way that I love to share with the people I care about.”

I’ll second that point. Feel free to check out my bank statement before commenting on my eating habits. It is because I personally put a value on eating well. It’s a choice that I have intentionally made.

She goes on to point out:

“Local farmers aren’t getting rich off of the “locavore” movement. Despite comparatively elevated prices at the market, these farmers live simple lives and constantly feel economic pressure. Farmers are already hard pressed to tend their land with small teams of workers, to transport their goods to the city, and to pay rent for a place in the open-air markets.”

Emily’s right, and she touches on a point that we should all spend some time thinking about.

We live in a world of speed; fast and cheap have become the norm. And just like buying a cheap t-shirt in the name of fast fashion on one side of the world can have the ultimate effect of hundreds of deaths at a textile factory on the other side, cheap food comes at an extreme cost.

Be serious with yourself: it’s not the broccoli that is $1 more expensive that is going to break the bank. Ultimately that dollar that you save by buying the cheaper version of produce may put an extra dollar in your pocket, but it doesn’t have the same benefit for a lot of other things: the farmer, the environment, the community.

What we eat isn’t just a matter of choice, it’s a matter of morals.

We make plenty of decisions in our everyday  choices based on morals. How we treat other people, how we react to situations.

When you’re broke, why don’t you rob a bank? Because your morals tell you otherwise. Yet when you’re hungry, you stop at the grocery store and pick up the first thing that will satiate that hunger, no matter where it comes from or who made it. If we expect change in the food system, we have to demand it, and that means making a choice every time we eat.

This may be preaching to the choir, but the choir has room to change too.

If you’re going to remember to take your reusable bag to the grocery store, then remember not to fill it with processed foods.

If you’re shopping for fruit in the organic section, then don’t choose fruit that comes from a continent away.

If you’re going to lament the suicides of farmers linked to the global control of seeds by Monsanto, then don’t buy from global companies that block GMO labeling efforts. Ever.

We can all make an improvement in what and how we eat. Even if you can only make a small step, it’s still a step, and it’s the power of choice. The power to choose a different path forward, one that supports local food systems, food equity and a world where we can eat whole foods that are good for us.

And if you expect real change, that choice isn’t an option.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: DC Central Kitchen

The post Foodie Underground: Fast Food, Fast Fashion… It’s All About Choice appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnWhy eating locally isn’t just smart. It’s the socially just thing to do.

We all know the benefits of locavorism: eat food that comes from close to where you live and you not only support the local economy, but you have better access to the people that produce your food.

But unfortunately, the infrastructure of growing local food hasn’t necessarily caught up with the increase in demand and awareness, and while the popularity of farmers markets may be on the rise, that doesn’t mean that the lives of farmers are getting any easier.

An NPR story last week highlighted the difficulties that some of these small-scale, independent farmers face. Farming in Illinois, Amy Cloud and her husband produce all those things we crave to put in our weekend farmers market basket: kale, broccoli, onions, Swiss chard. But while we’re busy sauteing a luxurious assortment of greens for dinner and pondering what organic, artisan cheese to pair with it, the Clouds are working hard to simple scrape by, living off a combined annual income of $25,000 – $30,000.

As Cloud told NPR, “Both my husband and I live off of an income that any normal person would consider to be just enough for one person, certainly not for a whole couple. We don’t have health insurance.”

Why does this discrepancy still exist and how do we fix it?

That is a complicated question with a multifaceted answer, but let’s start with this simple fact: we live in a globalized system where processed food and profit margins reign, no matter the cost to the environment, the local economy or an individual’s health. This is a world of Monsantos, and no matter where you turn, it’s hard – even impossible – to live a lifestyle where you are 100 percent removed from the powers of big agribusiness.

No matter how conscious we are, we consume more and more processed foods and chemicals, from high fructose corn syrup to residual pesticides. On the health side, food companies are fully aware of the effects that this has, but again, profits win out over public health. As former Executive Vice President at Kraft Foods stated in a New York Times Op-ed: “… executives who run these companies like to say they don’t create demand, they try only to satisfy it. “We’re just giving people what they want. We’re not putting a gun to their heads,” the refrain goes.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Over the years, relentless efforts were made to increase the number of “eating occasions” people indulged in and the amount of food they consumed at each.

To think that we have a certain level of choice when we head to the grocery store is to live in a dream world; we are inundated with products that are meant to create an addiction, and many of those products require cheaply produced ingredients like corn. Corporate agribusiness has a tight grip on the food system, and in it, there’s certainly no room for the independent farmer.

To exist in a world where independent farming can succeed, we have to therefore think about an entire restructuring of the system, from individual consumer habits, to how grocery stores operate to the transportation of goods, and that’s why it’s going to take more than just expanding farmers markets across the country. The solution is a combination of changing personal habits and change that comes from the top down. We need a system that better supports independent agriculture; one that aims to protect food culture instead of slowly losing it.

We can all vote with our forks, but to do so, we have to really do it, not just some of the time. “Buy local” shouldn’t just be a mantra for your apples and kale, it should be a mantra for everything. Until we as consumers start really demanding locally produced goods from independent sources, we won’t get the amount of government support that we need to ensure that these products continue to exist on the shelves, and we will continue to go down a path where we have less and less say over what we are eating.

There are many things that are part of our everyday consumption habits that are difficult to change. (If you find a local farmer in North America growing coffee beans, please tell me about it.) But there’s a lot that we can change, and if we are in an economic position to shop locally, we have the obligation to do so. Not just for our own health, but for the health of our local economies and our neighbors.

If we want to keep eating freshly grown kale, we better do something to ensure that the farmers down the road can continue to grow it, and that starts with buying from them every single time. Not just once a week, but changing our shopping habits so that we really are consuming locally every chance that we get. Only when we start showing that we are serious about our demands will industry follow suit. Support local not because it’s a trend, but because it’s the socially just thing to do.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: ianmalcm

The post Foodie Underground: Food, Farmers and Choice appeared first on EcoSalon.

Can digital platforms open up the booming farmers market category for easier access to local foods and goods?

Using online services to live a more local lifestyle is a concept that seems like a paradox – it’s the worldwide web after all – but in the food realm, the digital world is helping to bring more local producers and consumers together.

Much like some grocery stores have implemented online shopping capabilities for their customers, farmers markets are the next frontier. In fact, when it comes to supporting a more local economy, the digital space can be an excellent platform for facilitating exchanges between producers and customers.

Many farmers markets are implementing online platforms which allow their customers to shop from home; this is an ideal set up for smaller scale co-ops that allow members to peruse the selection online, make an order and then collect it at the designated pick up. Even in my small hometown in Western Washington my parents shop local goods online thanks to the platform that their co-op Fresh Food Revolution uses, Local Food Marketplace, which hosts online farmers markets, CSAs, wholesalers, and buying clubs across the US. Local farmers use it to update what they have available, co-op members make their orders, and pick up day is Wednesday afternoon, and you better be sure to put it on your calendar.

It goes without saying that we live busy lives, and the ability to have a bit more flexibility when it comes to grocery shopping is a good thing. Farmigo is tapping into that exact idea. One of the key missions of the online platform is to “bring better quality food to everyone across the nation by giving them access to local, sustainable food directly from farmer.” Working with over 300 farms in 25 states, Farmigo accomplishes this by providing an online marketplace where farmers can better manage their CSA programs, and in turn have allowed farmers to directly interact with large companies like Google and Twitter.

Farmigo also recently launched its community-based initiative, tapping into the power of individuals who want to bring more local food to their own communities. The website allows for coordinating an online farmers market specifically for the community in question, and then a community center becomes the delivery site for local farms to deliver food that has traveled fewer than 100 miles. Shoppers order online and pick up their food within 48 hours of its harvest. Currently Farmigo has community initiatives going in California and New York.

Based in the Bay Area in California, GoodEggs is born out of a similar concept: create a hub to bring people and food closer together. Customers shop on the online marketplace, which features not only local produce, but harder to find products like locally baked gluten free muffins, granola and homemade soups. Think of it as the best of an underground market except with the ease of clicking and then picking up your entire purchase at one pick up location. What may have once been a hole-in-the-wall operation that people would only know about via word of mouth, these are the kind of digital tools that help farmers and food makers sell directly, in turn reaching a wider market.

But these digital applications aren’t just serving the individual consumer. If you want to change the food industry you have to attack it from all levels. FoodHub is doing just that by connecting professional food buyers, wholesale producers, distributors and industry suppliers in one community. Which means when the restaurateur wants a locally grown bunch of kale for the month’s salad special, he or she has a website that will tell them exactly where to get it.

Selling in an online space is also good for the farmers, not only because it expands their market, but because it lets them know how much they are going to sell, eliminating waste. Pitch a tent at farmers market over the weekend and you have to do some serious calculating for how many heads of cabbage and rutabagas to bring. An online system streamlines that process, which means farmers know exactly how much they are selling and where it’s going.

All these tools do however beg the question: while online platforms give us better access, are they discouraging us from engaging. The “Bowling Alone” social phenomenon is much discussed in political science circles, the idea that with the rise of internet and technology we spend more time alone than in community settings and in turn political involvement. The point of a farmers market after all isn’t just to get access to local food, it’s to engage in a discussion, and in a world where we already separate ourselves from society because of online channels, it’s important to keep in mind that even if we can make our purchases online, it shouldn’t stop us from interacting with the people that are producing what we’re buying. Conversation is just as much part of buying local as the actual products are – that’s something you simply don’t get when you shop at big box stores.

Ultimately, we can hope that platforms like these will not only provide greater access to good and local food, but also inspire us to engage more, talking about what we eat with those around us and seeking out new producers within our communities, all of which is part of the process of creating a more sustainable food system.

Images: Anna Brones

The post Going Local Online: The Rise of the Online Farmers Market appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnA new year, a new commitment to food and community.

The end of 2012 was a whirlwind. In the world of current affairs, December wasn’t what you would call an uplifting month. It seemed that everything and everyone was in transition, trying to get in one last gasp of air before the end of the year. It was easy to feel overwhelmed. It was on the heels of this that I went to visit my friend Sara for a night of good food and conversation; a night of foodies so to say.

Sara is the kind of friend that immediately upon arrival points and says, “the tea and chocolate is in that cabinet,” upon which you open the pantry door to find a multitude of mason jars with whole grains and more kinds of black tea than a tea shop. In the morning your coffee is already poured. We get along well to say the least.

We had a lot to talk about. New projects and ventures. Recent cooking endeavors. What we wanted for the new year. All those topics that are best had at the end of a long week and over a meal of comfort food.

As her boyfriend cooked up a risotto with green beans and shallots (news flash: risotto is basically an upscale macaroni and cheese, with the same comfort food benefits that you need in the dark of winter), the conversation inevitably turned to politics and community. When you’re making food, it often does.

The environment? Yeah, we need to work on that.

Women’s rights? Yes, more of that too please.

Food justice? Where do we even begin?

When it comes to change, we often look to our political leaders, quickly getting upset when change doesn’t go the way we want it to. We get frustrated when things don’t go our way, upset when tragedy strikes and angry at the current state of affairs. What is the way to change that? Build community. Interact with our friends and neighbors. Help someone who doesn’t have a meal.

Food brings us together, and as Sara pointed out, there’s a true benefit to what she called, “kitchen table connections.”

“It’s not macro or micro, but kitchen table,” she said. This idea of the kitchen table as a place not only for conversation, but for affecting change, stuck with me.

Just like the town hall was once a meeting place and epicenter of community building, maybe in our over digitized, high-paced world, the kitchen table is the place for us to reconnect. Not just a place to think about what we’re eating, but also who we’re eating it with.

So many things in this world are beyond our control. What is in our control? Making our community better. Having perspective. Helping a friend. Celebrating the present. Respecting others. Showing kindness. These are things that we can all do–and we should all be doing more of.

In the new year, it’s time for renewal. A reconnection to living well, but also sharing that with others. For me, the kitchen table is the place to start. A place where we focus not only on food, and where it comes from, but being in the moment and truly connecting with those around us. We eat and we celebrate. We eat and we mourn. We eat and we live. The kitchen table is the hub of life, the place where good ideas begin and plans are put into place.

That’s what the Foodie Underground column is going to be about this year: bringing our attention back to good food, from good places, with good people. Food isn’t just about nutrition and ingredients: it’s an all encompassing experience that activates our senses and forces us to interact. Be it a new food trend or just another way to make a simple meal at home, this year is for thinking about how food ties us to community, and how we can continue to build that momentum to truly affect positive change.

Host a dinner party. Plan a picnic. Take a friend to a local farm for a goat cheese tasting. Whatever you do, remember that food is a catalyst for conversation and community. Let’s do more of it.

So welcome back dear Foodie Underground reader, it’s a new year, and I am excited to get the conversation and kitchen table connections going.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: miss.libertine

The post Foodie Underground: Kitchen Table Connections appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnWhy we have to get past thinking about the Big O.

“I now feel completely vindicated for NOT buying organic foods.”

Well, great.

The internet was abuzz with the recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that found little evidence that organic foods are more nutritious than conventional grown food, and I found myself getting severely agitated by comments like the above posted in social media circles. Granted, I spend a lot of time thinking about food, but simple statements like the aforementioned prove to me that we are entirely removed from the food process and what we are eating. We are oversimplifying a complex issue.

We love it when studies prove to us that our decisions are right. Want to justify a habit? You can probably find a study that does just that. Coffee is good for you, no bad for you, no good for you.

In an information based society, there is no surprise that we’re drawn in by headlines. But if we are going to base our eating values on a headline and the first paragraph of an article, we should question the importance we are putting on our well-being and that of the planet.

Here’s the issue with a meta-study: it only focuses on one element. When it comes to organic food, this specific study, as with many others, doesn’t paint a full picture.

“This study disputes how significant the differences in antioxidant and nutrient levels are between organic and conventional food. But that’s not central to the discussion of why organic is important, which has a lot more to do with how the soil is managed and the exposure to pesticides, not just in the eater’s diet but to the farmworker,” said author Michael Pollan in an interview with KQED.

We have to take a step back and take a look at the bigger picture. The study did find that conventional produce has a 30% higher chance of pesticide contamination compared to organic foods, and as the Guardian pointed out, “it should be noted that there are currently no long-term studies of the health outcomes for people consuming organic versus conventionally produced food.”

Beyond that, as Pollan emphasizes, there is an environmental cost to everything that we put in our bodies. Food cannot be reduced to single elements. It’s not just about antioxidants or carbohydrates or omega 3s. Food is a process, a compilation of nutrition, environment and experience.

“Organic” has certainly become a buzz word. Slap the big O on anything and you’re sure to attract a certain demographic. In a controversial op-ed, The New York Times writer Roger Cohen called the organic ideology “an elitist, pseudoscientific indulgence shot through with hype.”

He is partly right.

There is a challenge to feeding the planet, and it’s not going to be solved by $4 organic asparagus from Whole Foods; that’s about the same as the average amount as a food stamp recipient is allotted per day. However, if we are talking about building sustainable food systems that solve hunger, we have to think about the whole approach. And if we’re in the socio-economic group that has the money and time to think about what we’re eating, we have no excuse not to be doing so.

In the modern age, if you are able to comfortably put food on the table, it is inexcusable to not think about what you are eating. This issue isn’t about organic vs. conventional, it is about building a food system that is focused on good food. A food system that puts a value on local small-scale businesses and not just agribusiness. A food system that normalizes appreciating good food instead of making it pretentious.

“Is it organic?” is only one of many questions that we should all be asking when we’re standing with a grocery basket in our hands. “Where does it come from?” “What pesticides were used?” “How are the people that produce it treated?” “What synthetic chemicals are part of this meal?” The list goes on.

There is not one simple solution to eating better. If you think that filling your basket with foods just because they have a specific label on them means you’re doing the right thing, think again. Take a holistic approach – one that thinks about food in a new way. How it affects you. How it affects your community. How it affects the planet.

If we are going to move the food system forward, in a progressive and sustainable manner, we have to be asking the hard questions, and that takes more than just reading a headline.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

The post Foodie Underground: Should We Care About Organic? appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now. 

Summery cocktails? Yes please. Here are 12 perfect summer drinks that only require having four different bottles of booze on hand. Easy! [Via LearnVest]

On the Road isn’t the only book you should be reading if you’re road tripping. Here’s a list of the 9 literary essentials. [Via Adventure Journal]

Because it’s Shark Week and you have always wanted to know: do menstruating women attract sharks? [Via Mother Jones]

Air fresheners can be full of chemicals and super toxic. Try these natural alternatives, as simple as taking out the trash and opening a window. [Via Organic Authority]

Vintage mascara looked a little different than it does today. 9 photos of the beauty product from when it didn’t come in a tube but was a brush in a box. [Via Buzzfeed]

A new solution to pollution in cities? An artist in Italy paints a mural that is able to clean the air of photochemicals, like smog. [Via PSFK]

Renaissance women were more feminist than you might think. [Via Science 2.0]

Don’t put an egg on it; eating eggs can be as bad for you as smoking according to a new report. [Via Ecorazzi]

Cities are great and all, but they are making natural disasters deadlier. [Via Atlantic Cities]

Here’s a shocker: kids who don’t get junk food in school don’t gain as much weight. Now proven by science. [Via Food Politics]

Image: zaqi

The post Link Love: A Mural That Cleans the Air, Why Eating Eggs is Worse Than Smoking and Whether or Not Menstruating Women Attract Sharks appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnTake that obsession with food porn and sea salt and do something with it.

“I just had a Portland moment and only you will appreciate,” my friend said, calling from Tuscon in the middle of a Sunday.

“Ok, what?”

“Well, so we walked into this cute coffee shop and the first thing I thought to myself ‘I wonder where they roast their beans?'” she paused. “Who am I?”

At first thought I saw nothing wrong with this situation. Good coffee shops tend to sell good coffee, and if they’re really good, they’re probably running a coffee roasting operation in the back. Nothing weird there.

But at second thought, I realized what she meant. Most people, even those in coffee-centric cities, are probably more concerned with what coffee drink they’re going to buy than where the beans were roasted. We’re in the minority.

This call came less than six hours after brewing a morning French press on a quick one night girls’ camping trip. I had ground the beans before leaving home to ensure that we had good coffee on the trail. As we’ve already discussed, coffee is exponentially more delicious when brewed after a night in a tent.

“What kind of coffee is that?” one of my girlfriends asked.

“Water Avenue,” I responded.

“Have you tried Oblique?” she offered up

“Have you tried Extracto?” chimed in the third of our trio.

Here we were by the side of a stream in the middle of the forest discussing craft coffee roasters, and although we left it at that, I am certain that the conversation could have continued, naming off a handful of other small coffee roasting companies in the city that are neighborhood favorites and garner cult-like followings.

The rest of the world thinks Portlandia is guided by Stumptown, but the rest of us know better than to put all of our coffee desires into one basket, even when we’re not extreme coffee aficionados. Most of us just want a good, strong cup, and like being able to purchase beans that are roasted on site. When we travel it’s not surprising that we seek out the same thing.

Back to the phone call a few hours later.

“This coffee thing has gotten me thinking,” continued the friend calling from Tuscon. “I realized this weekend how many times I thought “food porn!” and it’s getting a little out of control. Am I a foodie now? I think you should write about that in your column. When did you realize that you were a foodie? What was your defining moment?”

Good question.

What is it that makes you a foodie?

Is it when you’re sitting on your couch post-run eating a semi-failed batch of No Bake Chocolate Energy Bars with Sea Salt that you made the day before because you just felt the need to tweak a recipe? Is it when your friends ask you to plan dinner? Is it when you look at your phone and realize that 75% of your photos involve food or drinks? Is it when you took your own syrup with you to a restaurant because you knew you wouldn’t be happy with what they had to offer? Is it when you’re in the backcountry drinking specialty coffee because you refuse to bring instant?

It could be all of those things, or a long list of others, but does a defining foodie moment even matter? Why is it that having an appreciation for good food is all of a sudden an indicator for something larger?

As human beings, we have a need to define ourselves. We’re born with a tribe mentality, and because food brings us together more than many other things do, if we like good food we seek out those that do the same.

But unfortunately the word “foodie” also has a negative connotation to it. It’s stuffy, implies the obsession with a certain type of menu and a little pretentious. I in fact, hate calling myself a “foodie.” “Food-obsessed,” “food crazed” or “food freak” sure, but “foodie” just has an odd ring to it.

However, we have yet to find a better word for the phenomenon and it has come to define a cultural trend and shift. A trend of people that have started thinking about food. Although we might smirk at craft coffee obsessions and the need to check out every hole-in-the-wall operation that claims to be farm-to-table, we are thinking about the value of food, the time that goes into it and the people that are behind producing it.

Or are we?

A Mother Jones article last week cited that only 13.5% of food workers earn a living wage.

Americans love to talk about food—how asparagus is best prepared, which preservatives to avoid, which types of fish are in peril, where to find the best tacos or most delectable peach pies. Most of us spend far less time contemplating the people that pick, slaughter, sort, process, and deliver the products of this 1.8 trillion dollar industry—a group of workers that makes up one-sixth of the country’s workforce.

Herein lies the problem. We are obsessed with food, talking about it, taking pictures of it, and making our own judgements on the establishments that serve it, and even so we are still disconnected from the entire process. This thing that is at the core of all of our daily routines and we still don’t really know where our food comes from, who’s producing it and how much those people are getting paid.

That is frightening.

All this talk of and obsession with food doesn’t amount to anything if it doesn’t lead to change. Be that change in public health, workers’ rights, or corporate social responsibility, there’s a lot that needs to happen. Which means that voting with your fork does make a difference. Not once or twice a week, but every single day.

Having a vested interest in food has to be more than a trend, it has to be a movement. If we’re in the position to be making smart choices about every item that we eat, we should be. That means no food from China, even when it comes from a store with a fancy name, always thinking about if we’re eating the most sustainably sourced product, even when we’re tired and lazy, and choosing brands that are committed to working directly with independent farmers, even if doing so takes a little more research.

Maybe our defining foodie moments aren’t when we realized we were food obsessed, but when we realized we were making choices that made ourselves, our communities and our planets healthier. And that is something that anyone can do.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

The post Foodie Underground: Are You Part of a Movement? appeared first on EcoSalon.