The Seeds We Can Plant

October 24 is the first national Food Day- a day to celebrate and honor efforts to bring real food back to the American diet. Although it may seem a little gimmicky, this day is a very worthwhile way to gather like-minded people to encourage discussion about the issues of our current food system. Food Day’s goals are these:

1. Reduce diet-related disease by promoting safe, healthy foods

2. Support sustainable farms & limit subsidies to big agribusiness

3. Expand access to food and alleviate hunger

4. Protect the environment & animals by reforming factory farms

5. Promote health by curbing junk-food marketing to kids

6. Support fair conditions for food and farm workers

Events are being hosted all over the country (and some truly fantastic meals being served in Montana!) and I encourage everyone to participate. Events can be found on the website: http://foodday.org/

I was lucky enough to attend and present at the Food Day event in Billings on October 22, where it was encouraging to see how many people there are genuinely interested in food issues in eastern Montana. The isolation of communities out here can often make it seem like I am acting alone, but I could see that this is not the case at all! We watched the film ‘Fresh,’ ate a glorious all-Montana lunch and heard from numerous activists about the efforts they are taking to change Montana’s food system.

I came away renewed in my enthusiasm for my work in Forsyth, and reassured that I am not alone in struggling to introduce my community to the benefits of healthy food.

This Food Day event acted as a reminder for me that all revolutions, whether they are Occupy Wall Street or the Arab Spring or eating local, require energy more than anything else. For the food movement, this means getting people excited about the changes that they can be making and the benefits they find from them. It’s not enough to get people to eat right, because eating thoughtfully requires effort and education. Although it may be a step in the right direction to get someone to shop at the farmers market rather than Walmart, it means little if they don’t understand why they should be doing this. This also means that they won’t be able to tell other people to do likewise. For the food movement to be a sustained movement, the emphasis always needs to be about building excitement through education.

I think it’s important for Foodcorps members- and all food activists- to remember that energy is the main thing we are building. It’s an investment in future action. Our communities might not yet be ready for farmers markets, or our schools not prepared for Farm to School, or families not able to cook for themselves. Getting people excited about food is just as valid an achievement. If we can engage just a couple of people in a conversation about food and educate them about one of the issues, this plants the seed which has the potential to grow into action somewhere down the road.

No Substitutions!

Undeniably, there is a healthcare crisis. Perhaps it hasn’t quite hit us yet, but it is not something that we can avoid discussing any longer. One in three American children is overweight or obese and by 2030 if current trends continue, 85% of American adults will be overweight or obese.[1] For years we’ve been preaching the virtues of eating healthy and exercising, but with scant success. What’s the problem?

There are numerous issues at play, including the availability of cheap fast food, increasingly sedentary lifestyles, and the disappearance of the sit-down family meal. Although very important, I don’t think that these factors entirely explain the problem. The obesity crisis emerges from the fact that Americans no longer know what food is. I’m not talking about the cultural acceptance of Twinkies, but instead our inability to see food as a whole rather than broken down into its components.

Science has identified the important nutrients that make up our food, which has in turn determined modern day eating practices. Food itself means less and less as the focus falls on its nutritional variables instead. We’re told that we need to eat fiber and vitamins while shunning carbohydrates and calories, and consequently seek or avoid foods containing these ingredients. In pursuit of a healthy diet, Americans are likely to seek out foods containing these nutrients rather than seeking foods which are recognized as healthy as a whole.

The benefit of breaking food down into its parts is that it allows all foods to become equal. If foods have the same levels of carbohydrates, calories, proteins, or fats, etc, they are treated as equals by our system of grading nutrition. Little consideration is made for food origin, freshness and level of processing or other factors. If all nutrients are comparable, it doesn’t matter if they are delivered via fast food or the farmers market. This has encouraged Americans to believe that it is acceptable to get our fiber from a yogurt instead of vegetables. Vitamin- enhance granola bars save us the inconvenience of eating fruit. Now we can serve children Lucky Charms, and know they’re eating healthy whole grains. What a fantastic way to eat healthier without having to change what we eat! And this has had very, very bad consequences for our health.

As long as Americans think that individual nutrients make a healthy diet, health will continue to decline. As long calorie-counting is a more popular weight loss tool than eating square meals, weights will continue to rise. Although a diet is much more appealing when you simply need to limit your order at McDonalds rather than finding a meal not fried in grease, it is no surprise that 95% of diets are unsuccessful in the long term. All food is not equal, and America needs to recognize that substitutions cannot be made when it comes to our diet.

Instead of seeing calories as a part of food, we need to focus on how food becomes part of a meal, and learn to recognize the health benefits of eating kale rather than eating Vitamin K. We need to overcome this need to micro-manage and regulate our diet. MyPlate, championed by Michelle Obama and Let’s Move! is the tool Americans should be using to reeducate themselves about food. Instead of listing the abstract nutrients our bodies need, it illustrates the whole foods that make a genuinely healthy meal.

Americans need to relearn what foods are healthy instead of what nutrients are necessary. When you eat a balanced meal, your nutritional needs are taken care of without needing to know anything more.

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[1] http://www.thelunchtray.com/a-startling-infographic-on-childhood-obesity/

Let's make healthy food palatable!

Lentils, garbanzo beans, yerba mate, kale. These are foods which are generally identified as tools of the health food revolution, but not ones regularly found in the average American's kitchen. If everyone ate them, the American obesity crisis would be solved. However, the rising number of diet-related diseases shows that cheeseburgers continue to outsell garden burgers.

To many, healthy food has come to mean something different from the food we eat on a day-to-day basis. A 'normal' meal can't be healthy anymore, as the healthy food movement is increasingly identified by specific foods and the demographic promoting them. It has become synonymous with the American counterculture. Eating healthy means eating like hippies, yogis and Prius-driving environmentalists.

This is why, despite growing passion and increasing action, the food movement has yet to significantly alter what Americans eat. Living in a town full of cowboys, I know firsthand that many refuse to eat healthy as a tactic to preserve their masculinity.

We've created this idea that only special foods count as healthy, and everything else is bad for you. This is one of the primary obstacles to improving America's diet, and the greatest weakness of the healthy food movement.

We need to stop promoting these 'alternative' foods and instead look at how we can improve the quality of the meals we're eating today. Out here in eastern Montana, I can tell you that a lentil burger would not be greeted with enthusiasm (except maybe enthusiastic laughter). Why haven't we taught people that healthy food doesn't need to be foreign? Americans would be a lot more cheerful about eating healthy if they knew they could eat a plain-old hamburger instead of a vegetable stir-fry. Let's take an organic beef patty and stick it on a whole wheat bun with some fresh pickles, onions and tomatoes. Voila- healthy hamburger! I'd choose that any day over a quinoa salad. Maybe not the food movement we've been dreaming of, but a significant improvement over the status quo.

I think we've learned by now that radical change in the American diet is not happening. We're just too attached to our meat, pasta and things drizzled with cheese. But we can make small changes every day. So instead of cutting kids off from pizza, let's teach them how to make their own! Rather than going vegetarian, let's eat identifiable cuts of organic meat. We've overcomplicated the whole situation by trying to add seaweed and polenta, when we really need to be plugging for asparagus and brown rice. These healthy foods are great- don't get me wrong, but they're poor advertising for a french-fry eating audience. Convincing a non-believer to eat oatmeal will be a whole lote easier than selling them on kamut. Do you really expect me to believe out of all the passionate food advocates out there, no one has a healthy version of macaroni and cheese? Let's work on making traditional meals healthy again, and save the garbanzo beans for the quiet of our own kitchens. I promise, more people will get on board if we keep the wheat grass to ourselves.

Food Deserts

‘Food desert’ is not a term that I heard too often in the Willamette Valley. It is hard to even imagine a landscape which allows for that type of isolation. (Generally, an urban food desert has no grocery store within one mile and a rural desert within 30 miles.) It’s one thing to know the definition, and an entirely different experience to see what it’s like to live in one.

When I’m not gardening in Rosebud, I am working on increasing access to good food in the town of Hysham, 35 miles to the west of Forsyth. Hysham is the only town in Treasure County, whose entire population barely tops 1,000, and whose grocery store closed its doors in 2008. Since then, residents can do some shopping at the local gas station but otherwise must drive at least 35 miles to Forsyth’s grocery store or 70 miles to the Wal-mart in Billings or Miles City. Although the gas station has expanded to carry the basics, it cannot offer a balanced diet, and what it does offer is exorbitantly priced. For a community of people with relatively high levels of poverty, living here is an enormous challenge.

Without a grocery store, few people are willing to move to town, and more and more are forced to move away as they age. What used to be a successful, albeit tiny town, is fast becoming a ghost town. Farmers must sell their produce elsewhere; tourists pass by because there is nowhere to stay or shop; and residents must do their shopping elsewhere. Without a store, within ten years this town will probably no longer exist. Most of the buildings along Main Street are shuttered and closed, apart from the hardware store and the restaurant-bar.

For the last month, I have been working with interested Hysham residents on the idea of creating a co-operative grocery. Although there is little local produce, we hope to entice producers to bring what foods they do have here. A store would offer supplies to the hunters and fishermen who pass by throughout the summer, and provide a space for the community to meet and socialize. A local, community owned store would help to keep money in the community. Currently, everything goes straight out and away.

The idea of starting a co-op in Hysham is a daunting task. I am only slowly getting to know the residents, and learning about all of the obstacles to this project. Is there even enough interest in Treasure County to keep any store afloat? How do I sell the idea? How the heck do we get foods shipped out here? Perhaps not surprisingly, people claim to have adapted to driving the 35 miles or more to do their shopping and say they are not inclined to break this habit. I’ve heard them say this store would probably be too expensive, and insist on disregarding the fact that the gas they spend driving out of town makes shopping much more costly.

One innovative idea that the school came up to help lower prices in the store was to buy food for the cafeteria from the store to increase the size of shipments to reduce shipping costs. This could also potentially maximize the amount of (more or less) local food being served in the school.

Although the situation here is different than Rosebud, the main challenge boils down to the same thing: enthusiasm. The project depends completely upon the interest and support shown by every single person in town. And with such a cultural disinterest in food as anything more than fuel, it is hard to convince them why this is such an important issue. I see a grocery store as a gateway to an economic revival for Hysham. I can see it creating a thriving little downtown (in my wildest dreams I envision a coffee shop!) Hysham's residents are dedicated, hardworking farmers and ranchers who are active in the community on a variety of issues. I simply need to present the grocery store not as just a vehicle for delivering food, but as an opportunity for Hysham to get back on the map, and not as a statistic but as an example of success!

Energize Up!

Yellowstone Valley, between Rosebud and Forsyth

Perhaps one of the most common complaints I hear in Forsyth is, “People think that Montana ends at Billings!” This is a valid grievance, and a challenge that eastern Montanans contend with every day. It is easy to forget that the state goes east for another 250 miles. Montana has a population of less than a million, and the vast majority of those people live on the western side of the state. Eastern Montana lies largely untouched, largely lacking the exciting outdoors experiences and urban hubs that draw tourists and the fertile soil to make agriculture truly practical. Residents get by using the scrubby prairie to raise cattle, growing government-subsidized crops such as corn and wheat, and various mining ventures. But even this experience is becoming more and more difficult as local economies suffer and the communities stagnate. The towns of Rosebud and Hysham are both shrinking as the population ages and the younger generation moves away seeking jobs. The lack of a grocery store in both towns makes these communities a difficult and undesirable place to live. The poverty level is high- well over 50% of students in both these schools qualify for free or reduced price lunches, which is why these communities have been deemed high enough risk to receive a Foodcorps volunteer.

Before I arrived in Montana, I thought my job would be fairly simple- organize residents into starting a community or school garden, find the supplies necessary to deal with the harsh seasons and connect local farmers with the school. I assumed that promoting local food and good nutrition were uncontroversial topics. I knew eastern Montana was a forgotten land, but I figured that at least residents would be on-board to make changes. How can the suggestion of a school garden not be greeted with joy?

My two months in eastern Montana have made me reevaluate every assumption I have ever made about food, revise my vocabulary and radically change my goals. Of course people care about nutrition, and want their children to eat healthier. But all odds are stacked against making changes to the food system, and the people know it. The lack of processing facilities on this half of the state necessitates food being shipped great distances. The growing season is short enough and the soil thin enough to discourage mass production of anything but commodity crops. The sparse population and lack of access discourages the development of a widespread culinary tradition, and creates a difficult landscape for fine-dining establishments. Food isn’t a big deal here.

These challenges were illustrated in the response to my suggestion of creating a school garden, which was both embraced and scoffed at. I have been told that a garden can be a great academic opportunity, and that I can’t expect to force this idea upon a community that is functioning just fine on its own, thank you very much. (Note that the argument wasn’t even about food, although that is the whole motivation for the project.) I realized that, like any revolution, a food movement requires energy and that is something that this town simply doesn’t have yet. Farmers are just trying to survive year to year, and can’t be concerned with the extra effort of producing local, organic or sustainably grown crops. My hope is that a school garden can introduce the fun and deliciousness of eating local. If I intend to change how people think about food, I have to start from scratch. Although at times it is frustrating when I think of the local food opportunities I could be enjoying in Missoula or Portland, I realize that this is the real America. There are no lentil burgers, and it’s next to impossible to get my hands on grass-finished beef. Vegetarians are not common, while two or more sodas a day is normal. There are no Odwalla or Izze juices here. Food is something to be finished to move on to more important things. Unfortunately, it can also lead to obesity, diabetes and other diet-related problems.

How does one change the way a community thinks about food, when they have never experienced anything else? I have no idea, but I hope that by starting small in the garden, enthusiasm will spread and build. This past week nine 7^th graders planted 36 tomato seeds in the greenhouse, whose fruit will be used in school lunches and to show students how fun growing their own food can be. Tomorrow I will be planting more tomatoes with the 8^th graders. The energy builds, ever so slowly.

An Intro to Rural Eating and Living

Over the last month, I have debated long and hard about having a blog. My hesitation comes from knowing that everyone shares their thoughts in such a manner these days, and from the fear that I may not have worthwhile wisdom to share with my followers. However, I have decided the first reason is irrelevant, and that my second fear is blatantly wrong. From daily discussion with all types of people about living and eating in rural Montana, I realize I have a great deal to say about all aspects of eating healthy, the broader food movement and government agricultural policy.

I am living in Forsyth, a town of less than 2,000 people in Eastern Montana. We have one grocery store, three bars, four restaurants, two hardware stores and a movie theater. The main industry is cattle ranching, but there is a significant amount of wheat, barley and sugar beets grown here as well. We are 50 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart and 100 miles from the nearest Starbucks. Forsyth epitomizes rural America in the extreme.

Forsyth, Montana, is perhaps one of the most bizarre places in the state to encourage the growth of a local food movement, but also one of the places where it is most necessary. In my two months of living here, I have learned that promoting local food is a much more complex process than I could have ever imagined. How we get our food is influenced by Forsyth's remote location, the distance from any food processing facilities,the struggling economy and a lack of interest in change. I cannot emphasize enough the complexity of the process which brings food to our tables in rural Montana.

For the next year, I am volunteering as a member of Foodcorps Montana, an Americorps VISTA position dedicated to promoting and bringing local, fresh food into schools through the Rosebud-Treasure County Extension Office. This includes helping build school gardens, increasing procurement of local foods in the cafeteria, and teaching nutrition to students. Although I am based in Forsyth, my main projects are in the towns of Rosebud and Hysham, communities with a population under 1,000 on either side of Forsyth. Both lack grocery stores, and Hysham qualifies as a food desert due to its distance from a store, and both suffer from high levels of poverty.

With this blog, I hope to enlighten you on some of the major issues I encounter during my year in Eastern Montana. I will try to explain some of the major challenges with local food as well as my reflections on how greater governmental policy has influenced production in the area. I find that the local community is perhaps not yet prepared to listen to my arguments on food and food policy, and thus I bring the discussion to this online venue. Enjoy!