FOOD PHILOSOPHY

My parents were raised on farms, so a necessity for their first home was space enough for a large vegetable garden. We dumped food scraps on a compost pile behind the shed, and every spring my father tilled the soil and added fresh manure. If that didn’t raise a few eyebrows, when the elder neighbors spotted my hippy Mother weeding in her white go-go boots they declared the neighborhood was going down the tubes. Actually, in the 60’s sustainable farming was a growing trend, but for my parents it was second nature.

In summer we ate from the fruit trees and vegetable garden, “canning” our winter food in glass jars. We stored pickles and tomato sauce in the basement cellar. Corn, plus other veggies were blanched, frozen, and stashed in an auxiliary freezer along with meat from Grandma’s farm. Several times a year we visited the cheese factory that processed her cow’s milk. It was a way of life and I became accustomed to the taste of good food.

When I left home, these food sources were replaced by processed and non-organic food. After a few years I was overweight, chronically tired and malnourished. It took many years to get healthy again, and it wasn’t inexpensive. To survive, I had to start spending more money on food and less on health care. I returned to my roots and sought options for better quality food. Thank God for the Outpost, Health Hut, and eventually Whole Foods. A simple solution to the healthcare crisis - spend more on quality food, stop inflating medical costs, and don't support companies who produce nutritionally poor food. In his new documentary “Food, Inc.” based on two books, “An Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan, and “Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser, filmmaker Robert Kenner explores the dilemma.

Kenner is adamant that food is not an elitist issue. Rather, “it is a health issue, an environmental issue, a human rights issue. This industrialized food, whether you're eating it or not, is going to cost us all.” - June 11, 2009 By Tamara Straus, Special to The Chronicle
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/michael-pollan-offers-64-ways-to-eat-food/

My other food hero is co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey. His fascinating story appeared in The New Yorker in January 2010. I’ve always been curious about the origins of this super market. I encourage you to read Nick Paumgarten’s impressive profile of John Mackey’s journey through the food industry, and support businesses that benefit you and your whole community.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/01/04/100104fa_fact_paumgarten