Mark Bittman's Food Manifesto in The New York Times

Good Afternoon! There is nothing quite like opening up a link about food in the Opinion pages of a widely read publication and finding SANITY!

Mark Bittman, author of Food Matters and the Food Matters Cookbook has written his first ever opinion column for The New York Times, entitled A Food Manifesto for the Future. In his own words,

"...food and everything surrounding it is a crucial matter of personal and public health, of national and global security. At stake is not only the health of humans but that of the earth."

These are powerful words, these are true words and they are important words. Take a moment to read Bittman's "Manifesto", and then think about this excerpt from Bittman's NY Times blog post entitled What Am I Doing? as he lays out a part of his motivation behind his "Manifesto":

"What’s gone wrong with food in the last hundred years has been a mixed bag of progress and self-destruction. There is no need for anyone in the world to go hungry; yet people do. There’s no reason for food to make us ill, either from chronic disease or communicable ones; yet it does. There’s no need for agriculture to poison the land, air, and water. All of these ills can be remedied, and yet it appears the situation worsens year-by-year. My mission here, as I see it, has several aspects: Try to figure out just why things move in the wrong direction; look for examples of positive societal change; and suggest ways in which individuals can make a difference, not only in our own lives but in the bigger picture."

Mark Bittman, a soldier in our food fight, is calling each of us to action - will you heed his call?

For Further Reading

• MarkBittman.com
• Books by Mark Bittman:

      

Film Time Friday

Since I woke up this morning not feeling so hot, I knew this was going to be a very laxidasical day. In fact, I thought I would even skip blogging, but I think I can swing a quick one in here to note, at least in short, all of the wonderful things I was exposed to today.

I decided to turn on my husband's Halo-edition XBox 360 to see if I could bust into our Netflix account. I surprised myself when I remembered how to maneuver my way through the menus and how to add movies to Instant Queue. I found a bunch of movies I wanted to see and started doing so, instantly! Of course, they were all documentaries, they were all about sustainability in one form or another and, for that reason, I have an excuse to write about all three movies I watched.

Here they are in the order I watched them:

FUEL
I started with this movie, because it was one I had wanted to see for a long time and simply never got around to. This movie addressed our addiction to oil. It was created by and narrated by the guy who drove the Veggie Van back in the nineties. He chronicled his life's work to transform our transportation using biofuels in diesel engines rather than relying on gasoline. I found this movie fascinating from beginning to end and caught myself off guard when I broke down at the first sight of the 9/11 attacks - I can usually steady my resolve through such scenes, but I think seeing the same scenes I have seen so many times from this perspective simply reopened an old wound. The Fuel website has lots of information about the film, about screenings and how you can get involved in trying to kick the oil addiction, so check it out.

The Future of Food
This was a movie I added to the Instant Queue today. I don't remember ever seeing it on the Netflix selection before (this should not be surprising to anyone who has Netflix!). This movie seemed like the prequel to one of my favs, Food, Inc. I truly enjoyed (is this the right word?) this movie. I was struck by it, all over again. Yes, I knew of Monsanto's evil doings before seeing this movie and of genetically modified foods, but the clear explanation of the process of genetically altering food is what gave me such pause. Also, to understand that the laws the farmers now have to fight are PATENT LAWS, not agricultural ones was simply staggering. Perhaps this all should have been clear to me before, but I am a math teacher by profession, with no background in law, so I simply didn't make the distinction until seeing this movie. On this website, you can actually watch the entire movie for free. If you would like you can also purchase the DVD, and check out the next project in the works "Symphony of Soil".

Food Matters
For my last film of the day, I watched "Food Matters." I picked it largely because I agree wholeheartedly with its title and was curious to see what their reasons for saying this were. The movie begins with a series of quotes and stats that focus on nutrition as our best medicine, our key to health, and missing from most medical doctor's schooling. This was the essential theme of the film and it was fascinating. From discussing the benefits of a raw food diet, eating the super foods, orthomolecular medicine - taking our vitamins (and stop being so nutty about the side effects), and the seemingly amazing results from following the Gerson technique for health - the message in this film is short and simple: food is the answer. This movie had A LOT of information to swallow all at once, so I will either be rewatching it or using the website as a reference as it looks pretty extensive. You can also watch this movie on their website, but their is a charge, you can also order the DVD there or search through the tons of information they have!

So, that's what I did with my day. To be fair each one of these films deserves their own dedicated post, but tomorrow is another day and I am sure I'll learn something new that needs to be documented! Until then, I hope these film intros whet your appetite enough to go explore at least one of them on your own (if you haven't already!).

A Seed Was Planted...

Over the last ten years I have slowly become more and more concerned (in a very cerebral way) with the value of my consumption. I imagine that one of my triggers for this deep thought and reflection came from the fact that I was (and still am) a teacher of adolescents. After the first few years of growing pains in my profession and feeling as though I was comfortable with my content and planning, I began to think of the bigger picture - besides the math I teach my students, what is REALLY important for them to know in this world? This was a big question for a twenty-something, still living at home with mom, to answer.

I remember beginning to incorporate personal finance into my weekly units, character education and jumping on whatever "teachable moments" I could find that may or may not be math related. I remember becoming more cognizant of what was being played on the radio, on television and what types of stories were getting play on the local news. I remember being very nervous about the world "my kids" were being brought up in. I remember arguing with my mother who said THESE KIDS weren't my children and I shouldn't worry so much. I told her she didn't understand, she told me I didn't understand and, at night, we would both lose sleep over our children who weren't listening...

And then one day, while in the bookstore and thinking of "my kids" again, I saw a book called Fast Food Nation and I thought, I need to read this... so I can know what else to teach them, so I can truly see what our world has become. They were my motivation to read the book, but the book changed ME forever. This book started my obsession with the insanity of not only "my kids'" world, but my own - what have I done? What haven't I done? What can I do?

Fast forward to the next decade: I am 33 years old, now married, but still with no children of my own besides those I teach. My mother passed away nearly four years ago, at the age of 58, from cancer and last year I was diagnosed with a rare disease, IIH - idiopathic intracranial hypertension (http://www.ihrfoundation.org/), which damaged my optic nerves leaving me with 20/40 sight WITH corrective lenses and currently dependent on a drug that is not approved to take during pregnancies. I don't feel especially healthy, I feel like life has been put on a little bit of a hold and put through a bit of a wringer as well... I would like to grab hold of the reins again.

The last book I was reading before my sight began to be affected by disease was called The Omnivore's Dilemma. My obsession with my consumption rages on! However, as I stated earlier, it has been one of thought alone... until now. I hope.

 I am currently listening to the audiobook (reading the printed word is still just too painful right now) Eating Animals and I am done. I am done with factory farming, agribusiness and eating food that has consumed more drugs than I did during my hospitalization, or has been exposed to more chemicals than my mother was during her chemo! I don't know what this statement, "I am done," means, I don't know how I am going to accomplish this, but I need to try.

I am writing this blog to, hopefully, force some accountability on myself in my search for sustenance.

I am searching for sustenance:

• SAFE sustenance,
• SUSTAINABLE sustenance,
• SAVORY sustenance,
• SWEET sustenace,
• SUMPTUOUS sustenance and
• SHARED sustenance.

I hope I can do it living in this east coast town of mine. If you have any ideas I would LOVE to hear them!