Was recently reading The Lorax to a kid I nanny for, and was struck by how disgusted I felt reading this book published *43* years ago, teaching the same lesson of overconsumption & greed to generations of children while the adults in their lives fail to act.
Diving into amateur gardening over the past few years, and especially growing from seeds, has made me extremely, painfully aware of how much work goes into the growth of a single serving of edible food, and how disgusting food waste is in turn.
So many thoughts about food that’s supposed to be good for us; why does my local organic grocer (on the East Coast US) prioritize stocking organically grown garlic and bell peppers year round, even when it means shipping thousands of miles and across oceans from Argentina, Chile, Holland, & Israel? It’s better for our bodies, but the emissions involved are killing our environment.
(Sorry for the word jumble! I really, really appreciate your thinking out loud about these topics and sharing them with us. 🙏🏻)
Angela, please don’t apologize! This is necessary—I wonder often what it would look like for supermarkets to prioritize regional food ways, how people would react to only what’s seasonal being available. What would it mean to produce at scale the grain and other things we need but not overproduce to the point of overworking the land.
It’s so hard that we need these lessons over and over, that we learn as children but forget as adults because we are forced to in order to survive. Thank you for sharing this!
I see you wrestling to find a footing. I too look for respite in the moral storm that is boiling up, a storm that fed climate change and is fed by it. When I was younger and hopeful, I thought everything could be understood and therefore bound. Now that I am older, everything is incomprehensible, my own storm as incomprensible to me as the changing climate is to scientists. I can see and feel the effects, begin to grasp the reasons, predict potential outcomes, try to change my footprint, moral as well as carbon, but cannot seem to grasp any of it. I question who I am, my place, but don't understand anything, not the whys, the reasons, the hows. But my anchor is others. I am not a writer so it is hard to explain, but I just wanted to say I see you.
Thanks. Working as a technical writer/editor for scientists, all work to be read by scientists, pretty much killed my writing. I never really recovered.
I often think about how the world as it is -- that I see so many problems with -- is in fact the same world that's allowed me to work remotely, starting when I was stranded in a tiny town with no journalism jobs after having my first kid. For previous generations there was a much more stark "work or stay home" divide. If I didn't have the internet, my phone, etc, I wouldn't be the same person I am today. The costs of all of this are so high, though. Thank you for writing this essay, as nauseating as the research is!
Oooh, I hope you might write about this! I would love more of your perspective.
And yes, I wrote this in hopes of more empathy for ourselves—how do we keep the good and end the bad? I don’t know! But I think it’s nice to start with understanding how we are inextricable from the world as it is. The distance of things like “no ethical consumption under capitalism” is an illusion.
Once again, your newsletter has left me in awe and I can only say, wow. Wow. WOW. All of it. I love your words and thoughts on food, cooking, and colonialism. So much to think about here! Thank you 💜
Alicia I came back to reread your essay - I find it stunning. I love how this piece takes us into an hourglass form - from wider, airy ideas to where you are to quinoa and wider ideas around food colonization, to the last phrase on "so is this whole world". Thank you for this - breathtaking.
Quinoa is an interesting example of everything that can go wrong in our global food system. Interestingly, I was reading today about teff and how the Ethiopian government protected the farmers of this tiny grain (the next so-called superfood by some marketers) by outlawing the export of teff - their reaction to domestic fears of export-driven shortages like those that occurred in parts of South America after the quinoa craze. The government has lifted the ban, but exports remain strictly controlled. This is a breath of fresh air, even though it angers many proponents of the 'free market.' Teff, of course, is a mainstay in the Ethiopian and Eritrean diet, so a shortage of supply would have been disastrous...just as it was to the poor Bolivian farmers and to the people of Bolivia who depended on quinoa in their diet. I completely agree with Ms. Berens and her quote, "The problem is in mass consumption with little regard for how the crops are produced, how they function within the society of origin, or for folks who grow and depend on the ingredient as a daily diet staple."
Thank you for sharing your perspectives. As always, I appreciate going through the ensuing thought calisthenics.
The colonialization of food has been going on for a hundred years or more. The book “For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History” by Sarah Rose is a fascinating representation. Even if you’re not a tea drinker, the story and evolution of how the British traded and took tea from China is a well written account.
Was recently reading The Lorax to a kid I nanny for, and was struck by how disgusted I felt reading this book published *43* years ago, teaching the same lesson of overconsumption & greed to generations of children while the adults in their lives fail to act.
Diving into amateur gardening over the past few years, and especially growing from seeds, has made me extremely, painfully aware of how much work goes into the growth of a single serving of edible food, and how disgusting food waste is in turn.
So many thoughts about food that’s supposed to be good for us; why does my local organic grocer (on the East Coast US) prioritize stocking organically grown garlic and bell peppers year round, even when it means shipping thousands of miles and across oceans from Argentina, Chile, Holland, & Israel? It’s better for our bodies, but the emissions involved are killing our environment.
(Sorry for the word jumble! I really, really appreciate your thinking out loud about these topics and sharing them with us. 🙏🏻)
Angela, please don’t apologize! This is necessary—I wonder often what it would look like for supermarkets to prioritize regional food ways, how people would react to only what’s seasonal being available. What would it mean to produce at scale the grain and other things we need but not overproduce to the point of overworking the land.
It’s so hard that we need these lessons over and over, that we learn as children but forget as adults because we are forced to in order to survive. Thank you for sharing this!
I see you wrestling to find a footing. I too look for respite in the moral storm that is boiling up, a storm that fed climate change and is fed by it. When I was younger and hopeful, I thought everything could be understood and therefore bound. Now that I am older, everything is incomprehensible, my own storm as incomprensible to me as the changing climate is to scientists. I can see and feel the effects, begin to grasp the reasons, predict potential outcomes, try to change my footprint, moral as well as carbon, but cannot seem to grasp any of it. I question who I am, my place, but don't understand anything, not the whys, the reasons, the hows. But my anchor is others. I am not a writer so it is hard to explain, but I just wanted to say I see you.
Beautifully written (for not being a writer)😉
Thanks. Working as a technical writer/editor for scientists, all work to be read by scientists, pretty much killed my writing. I never really recovered.
I get that. But to this reader, your recovery seems to be in process 😊
I often think about how the world as it is -- that I see so many problems with -- is in fact the same world that's allowed me to work remotely, starting when I was stranded in a tiny town with no journalism jobs after having my first kid. For previous generations there was a much more stark "work or stay home" divide. If I didn't have the internet, my phone, etc, I wouldn't be the same person I am today. The costs of all of this are so high, though. Thank you for writing this essay, as nauseating as the research is!
Oooh, I hope you might write about this! I would love more of your perspective.
And yes, I wrote this in hopes of more empathy for ourselves—how do we keep the good and end the bad? I don’t know! But I think it’s nice to start with understanding how we are inextricable from the world as it is. The distance of things like “no ethical consumption under capitalism” is an illusion.
thank you for the encouragement! this topic is probably worth some more of my time, I tend to avoid what feels to me like memoir lol
Once again, your newsletter has left me in awe and I can only say, wow. Wow. WOW. All of it. I love your words and thoughts on food, cooking, and colonialism. So much to think about here! Thank you 💜
Thank you for getting me, Denise! ❤️
same!!
Alicia I came back to reread your essay - I find it stunning. I love how this piece takes us into an hourglass form - from wider, airy ideas to where you are to quinoa and wider ideas around food colonization, to the last phrase on "so is this whole world". Thank you for this - breathtaking.
Lily, thank you so much! This means a lot—to be read and understood so well.
Ahhh, again, Alicia; again you’re making me think so deeply, it’s painful.
Quinoa is an interesting example of everything that can go wrong in our global food system. Interestingly, I was reading today about teff and how the Ethiopian government protected the farmers of this tiny grain (the next so-called superfood by some marketers) by outlawing the export of teff - their reaction to domestic fears of export-driven shortages like those that occurred in parts of South America after the quinoa craze. The government has lifted the ban, but exports remain strictly controlled. This is a breath of fresh air, even though it angers many proponents of the 'free market.' Teff, of course, is a mainstay in the Ethiopian and Eritrean diet, so a shortage of supply would have been disastrous...just as it was to the poor Bolivian farmers and to the people of Bolivia who depended on quinoa in their diet. I completely agree with Ms. Berens and her quote, "The problem is in mass consumption with little regard for how the crops are produced, how they function within the society of origin, or for folks who grow and depend on the ingredient as a daily diet staple."
Thank you for sharing your perspectives. As always, I appreciate going through the ensuing thought calisthenics.
The colonialization of food has been going on for a hundred years or more. The book “For All the Tea in China: How England Stole the World's Favorite Drink and Changed History” by Sarah Rose is a fascinating representation. Even if you’re not a tea drinker, the story and evolution of how the British traded and took tea from China is a well written account.
Yes, Sweetness and Power by Sidney Mintz is one my favorite books.
I’ll have to check it out.