Tag Archives: nutrition

Recently, everyone seems to be talking about the wonders of quinoa. It is commonly but mistakenly thought to be a grain but is actually related to vegetables. It is still relatively expensive here, but can be found in many grocery stores. While we learn about its wonderful nutritional benefits and try to incorporate it in our diet, back in Bolivia where it was first grown, quinoa is a more complex story. Rising prices abroad have diverted more of the quinoa crop for export leaving less for domestic consumption. The domestic price has also gone up and consumers now turn to cheaper alternatives like white rice. Perhaps, the problem could be solved by expanding production but changing consumer preferences (soda instead of quinoa-based drinks) also contributes to limiting production. This story says a lot about the importance of a certain food is perceived. Quinoa is the latest trend so people will pay a premium for it but sodas are new and cool to someone else and they will change over to it from a healthier alternative. Even if we know what food choices we should make as people, as a country and as a planet, perceptions often drive the situation in a whole different direction.

How often do we hear that? Not often enough. But here is a story to make our rainy (where I am , anyway!) Sunday feel a lot better. On a shoestring budget, New York city schools are serving up healthy, cooked meals; changing the children’s perception of  food and influencing the choices that become available from food suppliers. I would have liked to know how they worked the budget to change over from steamers and freezers to actual functioning kitchens. Perhaps that happened earlier, (the program is about 7 years old) in times when knives were for chopping salads and not for slashing school budgets. Here is the report from the New York Times.

Here is Mark Bittman’s proposal for subsidies for the Farm Bill 2012. He advocates reallocating instead of abolishing subsidies, we could not agree more! Let’s move resources from corn and soy and boost vegetables and fruits. An increased supply in these areas will hopefully lead to a fall in their prices and more people getting their five-a-day!

Despite well-meant efforts, the food system is a long way from being fixed. Why is this so? In an insightful article at Grist.com, Tom Philpott concludes that it may be impossible to fix the food system without fixing the economic system first. The food system mirrors the distortions of the economic context and the existence of economic inequalities creates barriers to fixing the flaws of the food system. He describes the economic system as having three layers: a large low-income/poor class, a small class getting squeezed in the middle and a  tiny group of the super rich. It is the latter which controls the economic system and their goal is to increase their wealth; environmental, nutritional or health outcomes are not a part of their calculus. As long as the masses are fed and working, that’s all the system needs. So cheap food, high in calories and low in nutrients is readily available and the food system provides unhealthy choices , which in their turn lead to poor health outcomes in terms of rising diabetes and obesity rates.

The discussion which followed the article was also enlightening. People pointed out the lack of access to fresh produce, lack of time, lack of money, lack of energy to cook one’s own dinner  and the consequent capitulation to the  allure of fast food outlets and convenience stores. To that, it may be argued that we succumb to that choice because it is available. Go to a poor area in a large city in any less developed nation. The people who work two or more jobs there, sometimes in horrible conditions, still come home and cook their food. Lack of transportation is certainly an issue as is lack of funds but there is something beyond all of this. As a society, we do not value nurturing.  To make dinner at home everyday, we need to work less hours, have access to  ingredients that are nutritious and above all, cherish this effort. All this involves a cost which we are not willing to pay and a state of mind that we cannot get to or at least have a struggle understanding.

Speaking to the  issue of the economic system: the food system is a part of this larger system. If the big agri-businesses are the most active stakeholders in the economic system, we would logically expect them to resist efforts to reform the food system. So, is there nothing to be done? Not quite.  One thing that gets the message across is money: withhold your purchases of empty calorie products or those produced by unsustainable methods and sooner or later the corporations will modify their behavior as well.  Highlighting bad practices in the public domain is another tool as businesses try their best to avoid bad publicity.

Beyond these issues, there is an intangible variable as well. What we eat is not merely a commodity, it is a part of who we are. Immigrants in a foreign land will rush around trying to find familiar ingredients, cold days will bring up childhood memories of soup, the smell of coffee will lure us out in the fading hours of the afternoon. We are sentimental about what we eat, we do not like changing our habits and we resent being told we need to change.

So, yes, from all perspectives, this is likely to be a long and weary struggle but it is one that cannot be let go so let us gather up our strength to get on with it. The struggle to change the food system has to be waged at the personal level (of the consumer or producer), in the business arena ( to ensure nutritional standards are maintained and sustainable methods of production are followed) and in the domain of civil society (  reform efforts  need to be backed by the necessary legislation).