Cultivating My Inner Tree

And what does your food really cost? I found a nice video online that shares some of the stats and points around why eating locally is a growing concern in our oil-dependent economy. You could read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Delimma or his other books. Or, just watch this quick video slideshow to understand some of the basic points.

I had the opportunity yesterday to share my new-found knowledge about cattle farming (and the entire related food web) with several people yesterday. No, I didn’t give a lecture or go to a dinner party where the topic of food came up. Instead, two completely different conversations emerged that were entirely surprising to me.

First, I received an email from a friend who had heard me talking about The Omnivore’s Dilemma a few weeks ago. Actually, she’d cooked dinner for me, and after a few glasses of wine, we started talking about the way the food was raised. I managed (I hope) to not insult the great meal she and her boyfriend had put together — flank steak, grilled vegies and mashed potatoes. I guess she was more intrigued than anything. (We’d finished dinner by the time I’d opened my big mouth.)

Turns out, she had gone on to tell her brother, who farms and ranches in the midwest, about our conversation. He’s raising a steer on his ranch that he has grass fed and planned to “finish” with corn. They started talking about what this means, and she got him interested in the ramifications of finishing with corn. So, she emailed me for more information. I shared what I knew and provided them with a few more qualified resources for additional information. I hope they will share with me what he ends up doing. I believe he’s a relatively small farmer (that’s the farm that’s small, not the guy). If I can share this information with just one small farmer out in the middle of nowhere, perhaps he will share it with his network and work on improving our food supply in a grass roots way. (Pun very much intended!)

Next, I was talking with my very conservative and skeptical father yesterday evening. He’d just been in for a barrage of regular health tests. He’s doing fine, but mentioned that cholesterol and high blood pressure continue to be issues for him. He shared with me that his doc recommends taking in high quantities of potassium to offset salt intake. So, I shared a recipe for roasted kale that I’d read about in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which got the topic of that book into the discussion. This opened the door to talk about Dad’s love of red meat, which his doctors have been getting him to reduce eating over the years. Tentatively, I brought up  what I understand about the fat differences in grass-fed beef (Omega-3 fatty) and corn-fed beef  (Omega-6 fatty), and the implications of these differences in our diet.

Boy…he listened up when I got to this! Could this be a chance to not raise his blood pressure in fear each time he took a bite of steak? Clearly, he was taking me seriously and planned to investigate it more. Maybe tonight he’ll have a grass fed steak and roasted kale for dinner…who knows?!

So, two completely different discussions that may have wider impacts. I realize I understand only a small part of all of this, but I definitely seek to share it, if only to inspire others to learn more about what they’re putting into their bodies. When I explained to my father that if you put corn verses grass into a cow, you are feeding them something that aren’t evolved to digest. His comment was, “Well, that’s no different that us eating foods we shouldn’t.” He didn’t say, “Garbage in: Garbage out” but the tone and sentiment were the same.

Will Dad change his diet? Will my friend’s brother choose grass over corn? Will my friend buy some of her brother’s slaughtered steer and pay the petrol price to have it shipped to Washington from the midwest? I don’t know. What I do know is they’re more aware and listening, and that’s a start!