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Beyond organic
Moving towards local, sustainable farming is the best way to save our health and planet, writes Barry Shelby
s there such a thing as a perfect
meal‘.’ And if so. what
determines that‘.’ liasy preparation‘.’ ()rganic ingredients‘.’ Meat free‘.’ Something that is tasty and nutritious‘.’ Welcome to the omnivore's dil§emma —- or at least one of the many aspects of it. You see. when you have the brain the size of ours and the option of eating just about anything that doesn‘t make you ill (and in some cases even when it does). the conundrum that humans face is profound. Most times. without giving it a second thought. however. we make choices about what we eat — and often the culture makes them for us. But are they the correct options‘.’
Michael l’ollan's excellent book might as well be called ‘the omnivore's anxiety‘. Because. if you start to analyse food and the way the developed world literally manulactures it. it's a wonder that we're not all in therapy over our diet. Curiously. the Anglo- American preoccupation with tinding the ideal one — whether it is the Palm Beach or the Atkins — doesn't help: the same population has some of the unhealthiest people in the world. These eating regimens are reactions and fail to address the structural problems of industrialised agriculture.
Mass produced food is not only probably killing us slowly but also doing the same to the planet as well. The real cost of inexpensive food. which we have succeeded in producing. is borne by the environment. And by us. too. Cheaper food means bigger portions. and we apparently will eat 30% percent more than what's needed when faced with super- si/ed meals. whether from McDonalds or your dear old gran.
40 me LIST 3-10 Aug 2006
New books searching questions about the food on our plates
Organic food is no longer the Holy Grail. either. At least not when you consider that the movement has been taken over increasingly by big business and follows too many of the practices that organic growing was meant to replace — ie. keeping it local. rotating crops et al. Samuel Fromartz‘s book (not yet published in the UK) fills out the story that Pollan only has room to touch on. US government regulations have completely diluted what the word ‘organic‘
EAT&DR|NK
the opposite of the perfect meal: the imperfect meal and how millions of Americans consume it (as do millions of Brits. no doubt). propping up a food industry that is obscene in its wastefulness.
And the bad news all starts with a seemingly innocent crop: mai/e. lf liurope once had butter mountains. they were (irampian sized next to the Kilimaniaros and K2s of corn that US farms grow. Over—production drives the prices obtained by farmers through the floor. but the US government pays them to grow more. Corn. the commodity. feeds a vast industrial machine. Take a few examples. (‘orn oil is turned into sweeteners that flavour just about every processed food you can think of. Biofuels come from corn. The crop sustains cattle. which by nature should eat grass rather seeds. to
THE BAD NEWS BEGINS WITH A SEEMINGLY INNOCENT CROP
means on food labels. And where the US has gone. Britain. too often. follows.
But Pollan thinks he may have found a perfect meal in our ‘fast- food world.’ It entails a wild boar he shoots in the northern California countryside. combined with mushrooms foraged in the Sierra Nevada. as well as some fresh fruit and veg out of his (and other people‘s gardens). ln free- flowing. humorous but detailed prose we are led through the process of a ‘perfect meal'. Of course. none of us are ever going to do this in real life.
So the really telling side of his story are those chapters that describe sensible. sustainable farming and those that deal with
produce milk and meat - both of
which are cheap these days.
So what‘.’ Well. corn-fed rather than grass-fed beef is higher in cholesterol and lower in health- benefiting omega-3 oils (which can come from grass feeds). Then there are the effects of corn on the cows‘ rumen. the first chamber in their stomach designed expressly to digest grass. Cows normally have low acid levels in their digestive tracks. which allows for the dreaded e-coli bacteria to breed. By contrast. human stomachs are more acidic and thus generally have little difficulty knocking down e-coli. But. the strict corn diet is slowly raising the acidity of old Bessie's guts and the bacteria are becoming resistant
“‘4‘ ' v'. .‘. ‘
e which could signal problems for our defence mechanisms.
So beef is the enemy'.’ Not really. Pollan finds a Virginian. mildly Bible-thumping farmer who raises it (and plenty more besides) using grass as the basic feed. l'nlike corn. a crop that demands when grown in huge amounts lots of artificial nitrate fertilisers (which can poison water supplies). grass needs little but water and sunshine. Manage cows and chickens on acres of grass. allowing them to trim the meadow but never over—forage. feeding the soil with the poo they drop. and you have a sustainable system that needs few inputs.
These cows and steers live happier. healthier lives. They are not kept conlined and dosed with the drugs that corn-fed cattle must receive. In the end. grass-fed beef may be better for Us than farmed salmon. which because its corn- rich diet has a modicum of the beneficial oils in wild fish. For all the advances of science in agriculture after the second world war. it seems some basic agrarian methods work better. ()ur modern victories down on the ranch appear increasingly pyrrhic.
You are what you eat. is the old saw. In fact. you are truly what what you cat cats.
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: the Search for a Perfect Meal
in a Fast Food World, Michael Pollan (Bloomsbury) Organic Inc: Natural Foods and How They Grow, Samuel Fromartz (Harcourt/US)