Recently, on her interesting blog, Jennifer Jeffrey has been musing about the pressure that the local food movement puts on already over-burdened, ever-harried women. Women juggling work, kids, partners, friends and family, understandably appreciate the convenience of take-out food, drive-through windows and prepared grocery store meals. Convenience, Jeffrey points out, has been our friend. She posits that the movement toward local, fresh foods, strikes another blow for women seeking equality and well-balanced lives, which we imagine men are living.
As I caught up on my Splendid Table podcasts (6/9/2007) during my walk this morning, I heard an interview with Dr. Marion Nestle. Something she said really resonated with me as I struggle with the same things Jeffrey is concerned with, like the inordinate amount of time I feel like I spend thinking about my food sources and menus (not without pleasure, I feel I should add!), and the extra time things take to do the first time around, like canning and making tortillas.
However, as Dr. Nestle points out, while convenience is certainly our friend, food companies are just as certainly NOT our friends. They are businesses. They provide a service in exchange for our dollars. This service is certainly important; it gets food to our tables even during the darkest of winters. Their whole reason for being is to make a profit. It’s the American Way, and we shouldn’t be surprised when they choose to make decisions that economize their process and maximize their profit.
Afterall, the farmer who runs the stand that I frequent just down the street does the same thing, albeit on a much smaller scale. And that’s the point. The scale of the thing.
Rather than see making more local food choices as one more thing for busy women to put on their already overflowing lists, I choose to view the choice as a way of thinking about our communities in general. Why must this choice be held only within the mind of the woman of the house? Why must we, as women, take on this cause as if we are the only ones who can choose the right groceries?
More and more, I like to believe that as we vote with our forks (which translate into dollars), we can expect local and regional foods that are convenient and available in grocery stores, restaurants that source local prodcuts, and even locally preserved and frozen fruits and vegetables.
I’m a Yankee girl. If it’ll save a dollar or an hour I’m usually all over something. However, if I can help save the fabric of my community by supporting farmers who maintain the fields in my town, while knowing what’s in my food, I’ll spend a few extra hours this summer preserving some of the harvest.
Local eating is a feminist issue only if women allow themselves to feel that they are the only ones who can shop and cook. Just as we’re encouraged to share the load in terms of doing laundry, cleaning and carting kids, we should be encouraged to get our families to start thinking about where their food comes from. Even if all that means for some of us is trying to get to the farmer’s market just once this summer, or buying honey or jam from the farmstand rather than the grocery store.
Ladies, take back control of your food dollars!
Nicely said, Kim. I agree entirely. Sometimes it feels overwhelming, but I think as we continue to ‘vote with our forks’ the options for good, healthy ‘convenient’ food will grow.
Now I’ve got to catch that Marion Nestle podcast!
Wow, great post, as I am feeling especially overwhelmed with preserving just now.
I found my way here through urban hennery, btw, and am enjoying looking around and reading a local-ish to me blog!
Ali from Maine
Thanks, Ali! And thanks for stopping by. You’re right, it’s nice to hear from neighbors!
I’ve recently quit my job at a University and moved back to join my husband on our farmlet. I wanted to take on the challenge of growing/gathering/fishing/ etc for all our food for one year. I spent this past year growing, raising, canning, and otherwise preserving all our food, and learning to gather from the wild, fish and hunt. While I’m no longer ‘working for a wage’, I’m certainly working! My husband is now the solo wage earner. Even so, he had the gallantry to take on certain jobs that were part of my ‘experiment’. I certainly could not have accomplished what I did without his help. He does the canning of all the beets for example. Pickled beets, along with a host of other tasks, are ‘his’ job.
All this talk above of women doing all the work around food begs the question, Where are the men? Is there any reason the husband can’t help with the harvesting, the canning or processing? Not to mention the cooking!