Thanks Jon. Excellent stuff Tony Del Plato On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 3:14 PM, Jon Bosak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The New York Times > May 11, 2008 > Op-Ed Contributor > Change We Can Stomach > By DAN BARBER > > TARRYTOWN, N.Y. > > COOKING, like farming, for all its down-home community spirit, is > essentially a solitary craft. But lately it's feeling more like a > lonely burden. Finding guilt-free food for our menus -- food > that's clean, green and humane -- is about as easy as securing a > housing loan. And we're suddenly paying more -- 75 percent more in > the last six years -- to stock our pantries. Around the world, > from Cairo to Port-au-Prince, increases in food prices have > governments facing riots born of shortages and hunger. It's enough > to make you want to toss in the toque. > > But here's the good news: if you're a chef, or an eater who cares > about where your food comes from (and there are a lot of you out > there), we can have a hand in making food for the future downright > delicious. > > Farming has the potential to go through the greatest upheaval > since the Green Revolution, bringing harvests that are more > healthful, sustainable and, yes, even more flavorful. The change > is being pushed along by market forces that influence how our > farmers farm. > > Until now, food production has been controlled by Big Agriculture, > with its macho fixation on "average tonnage" and "record > harvests." But there's a cost to its breadbasket-to-the-world > bragging rights. Like those big Industrial Age factories that once > billowed black smoke, American agriculture is mired in a mind-set > that relies on capital, chemistry and machines. Food production is > dependent on oil, in the form of fertilizers and pesticides, in > the distances produce travels from farm to plate and in the energy > it takes to process it. > > For decades, environmentalists and small farmers have claimed that > this is several kinds of madness. But industrial agriculture has > simply responded that if we're feeding more people more cheaply > using less land, how terrible can our food system be? > > Now that argument no longer holds true. With the price of oil at > more than $120 a barrel (up from less than $30 for most of the > last 50 years), small and midsize nonpolluting farms, the ones > growing the healthiest and best-tasting food, are gaining a > competitive advantage. They aren't as reliant on oil, because they > use fewer large machines and less pesticide and fertilizer. > > In fact, small farms are the most productive on earth. A four-acre > farm in the United States nets, on average, $1,400 per acre; a > 1,364-acre farm nets $39 an acre. Big farms have long compensated > for the disequilibrium with sheer quantity. But their economies of > scale come from mass distribution, and with diesel fuel costing > more than $4 per gallon in many locations, it's no longer > efficient to transport food 1,500 miles from where it's grown. > > The high cost of oil alone will not be enough to reform American > agriculture, however. As long as agricultural companies exploit > the poor and extract labor from them at slave wages, and as long > as they aren't required to pay the price for the pollution they so > brazenly produce, their system will stay afloat. If financially > pinched Americans opt for the cheapest (and the least healthful) > foods rather than cook their own, the food industry will continue > to reach for the lowest common denominator. > > But it is possible to nudge the revolution along -- for instance, > by changing how we measure the value of food. If we stop > calculating the cost per quantity and begin considering the cost > per nutrient value, the demand for higher-quality food would rise. > > Organic fruits and vegetables contain 40 percent more nutrients > than their chemical-fed counterparts. And animals raised on > pasture provide us with meat and dairy products containing more > beta carotene and at least three times as much C.L.A. (conjugated > linoleic acid, shown in animal studies to reduce the risk of > cancer) than those raised on grain. > > Where good nutrition goes, flavor tends to follow. Chefs are the > first to admit that an impossibly sweet, flavor-filled carrot has > nothing to do with our work. It has to do with growing the right > seed in healthy, nutrient-rich soil. > > Increasingly we can see the wisdom of diversified farming > operations, where there are built-in relationships among plants > and animals. A dairy farm can provide manure for a neighboring > potato farm, for example, which can in turn offer potato scraps as > extra feed for the herd. When crops and livestock are judiciously > mixed, agriculture wisely mimics nature. > > To encourage small, diversified farms is not to make a nostalgic > bid to revert to the agrarian ways of our ancestors. It is to look > toward the future, leapfrogging past the age of heavy machinery > and pollution, to farms that take advantage of the sun's free > energy and use the waste of one species as food for another. > > Chefs can help move our food system into the future by continuing > to demand the most flavorful food. Our support of the local food > movement is an important example of this approach, but it's not > enough. As demand for fresh, local food rises, we cannot continue > to rely entirely on farmers' markets. Asking every farmer to > plant, harvest, drive his pickup truck to a market and sell his > goods there is like asking me to cook, take reservations, serve > and wash the dishes. > > We now need to support a system of well-coordinated regional farm > networks, each suited to the food it can best grow. Farmers > organized into marketing networks that can promote their common > brands (like the Organic Valley Family of Farms in the Midwest) > can ease the economic and ecological burden of food production and > transportation. They can also distribute their products to new > markets, including poor communities that have relied mainly on > food from convenience stores. > > Similar networks could also operate in the countries that are now > experiencing food shortages. For years, the United States has > flooded the world with food exports, displacing small farmers and > disrupting domestic markets. As escalating food prices threaten an > additional 100 million people with hunger, a new concept of > humanitarian aid is required. Local farming efforts focused on > conserving natural resources and biodiversity are essential to > improving food security in developing countries, as a report just > published by the International Assessment of Agriculture Science > and Technology for Development has concluded. We must build on > these tenets, providing financial and technical assistance to > small farmers across the world. > > But regional systems will work only if there is enough small-scale > farming going on to make them viable. With a less energy-intensive > food system in place, we will need more muscle power devoted to > food production, and more people on the farm. (The need is > especially urgent when you consider that the average age of > today's American farmer is over 55.) In order to move gracefully > into a post-industrial agriculture economy, we also need to > rethink how we educate the people who will grow our > food. Land-grant universities and agricultural schools, dependent > on financing from agribusiness, focus on maximum extraction from > the land -- take more, sell more, waste more. > > Leave our agricultural future to chefs and anyone who takes food > and cooking seriously. We never bought into the "bigger is better" > mantra, not because it left us too dependent on oil, but because > it never produced anything really good to eat. Truly great cooking > -- not faddish 1.5-pound rib-eye steaks with butter sauce, but > food that has evolved from the world's thriving peasant cuisines > -- is based on the correspondence of good farming to a healthy > environment and good nutrition. It's never been any other way, and > we should be grateful. The future belongs to the gourmet. > > -- > > Dan Barber is the chef and co-owner of Blue Hill and Blue Hill at > Stone Barns. > > _______________________________________________ > For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, > please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ > > RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: > [email protected] > http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins > free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org > -- "The risk it takes to remain tight inside the bud is more painful than the risk it takes to blossom." Anais Nin _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
