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market-farming - Re: Fast Food

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  • From: Joan Vibert <joan AT windwalker-farm.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Fast Food
  • Date: Sun, 08 Jul 2001 13:36:03 -0500


This fast-food - valuing food discussion has really hit my hot-button. I
thought about this morning as I picked green beans.

We had a CSA for several years and I know personally that many of our
subscribers didn't cook the fresh, wonderful vegetables they took home, in
spite of the hands full of pages of recipes we put together for them. They
composted the veggies and took their kids to McD's for breakfast, lunch and
dinner.

Somehow, I think, advertising has made it highly desirable to be too busy to
cook - its like a measure of self-importance that they just can't find time
to cook - so they either eat out or buy prepared crap and think they are
cooking. My husband, Jim, is a furniture maker and also makes beautiful
cabinets for upper scale kitchens - the kind you see in magazines with five
year old Viking ranges that have never been turned on. Everything goes
through the microwave or they don't eat it!

I think this whole issue goes back to the need to make it desirable to have
family meals again. All this quick crap came about because of "busy
schedules", which is a bunch of hooey.

We had a combined family of seven children with all of the soccer games,
swim meets, etc. that the kids were involved with and it was understood that
we sat down every evening as a family for dinner, even if it meant we didn't
eat until 8:30. We talked at the table, everyone had a chance to
participate and many evening we were still talking and laughing while we
cleaned up together at 10 p.m. The kids also hung out in the kitchen while
dinner was being prepared and pitched in as required. While all this was
going on I had my own publishing business which I ran out of the basement -
so I was a working mom.

But today kids are so scheduled and the parents are so busy making the money
they need to pay for the SUV and trophy house that I know for a fact that
literally most of their family communicating is done by cell phone. Jim
sees this all the time in the houses where he does work.

We need a meal ethic in our culture. An ethic that shows families (of all
kinds) that a meal prepared together and eaten together can be more fun than
going to Applebees. That by doing this we are establishing healthy eating
habits, good parenting, good communication and valuing our time together.
Not to mention saving money by not buying prepared frozen crap or eating it
out.

It does all go together - the obesity, the health problems we see in our
culture, the notion that families have to have two incomes to have the
"things" they need. If you will notice - very seldom do you see a scene of
families preparing and eating food together in movies (I don't know about tv
- we don't watch it but I doubt that its shown there either). This is where
our culture is created, like it or not, by the visions put into our brains
by the media.

So we need to figure out a way to give the culture a new vision - one that
says its desirable to Eat Real Food At Home Together! I've been thinking
about this for several years now because I think its the single most
difficult hurdle we have as growers - the notion that its sort of "a waste
of time" to cook or possible even a little low-class, I don't know.

I feel much better - I'm going to go make lunch with real food!

joan
windwalker farm
ottawa, kansas

p.s. In spite of what she says Marie is not obese.
Del wrote:
> It would be a worthwhile discussion here to cooperatively design some plans
> for promoting fresh food at our markets, in our communities and in our
> schools. And not just for farmers' markets and CSA's but for the general
> good.
This is a great idea Del - we've definitely got the thinking power among
this group to tackle this. - joan





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