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Jonell Galloway: Mindful Eating: Farmers, the Land, and Local Economy

Published by Jonell Galloway + Monday, April 1, 2013 Permalink 0

Mindful Eating: Farmers, the Land, and Local Economy

by Jonell Galloway

Many times, after I have finished a lecture on the decline of American farming and rural life, someone in the audience has asked, “What can city people do?” “Eat responsibly,” I have usually answered. Of course, I have tried to explain what I mean by that, but afterwards I have invariably felt there was more to be said than I had been able to say. Now I would like to attempt a better explanation.

I begin with the proposition that eating is an agricultural act. Eating ends the annual drama of the food economy that begins with planting and birth. Most eaters, however, are no longer aware that this is true. They think of food as an agricultural product, perhaps, but they do not think of themselves as participants in agriculture. They think of themselves as “consumers.”

—Wendell Berry, The Pleasures of Eating, Center for Ecoliteracy

The Times They are a-Changin’: Move Towards a Local Economy

After a few very difficult years, we are now only starting to talk about the importance, and even necessity, of maintaining and supporting a local economy. This is important not only to our health and taste buds, but also to our vital economic self-sufficiency. It is perfectly in line with the concept of Mindful Eating, and, by definition, involves local farmers as well as others who contribute to eating and drinking.

Pessah ou la fête des Azymes

Published by Jonell Galloway + Saturday, March 30, 2013 Permalink 0

par Julien Darmon

Click here for English.

Extrait du Dictionnaire Universel du Pain, publié par Bouquins, Robert Laffont

L’obligation de s’abstenir de hamets (pâte levée) durant la fête de Pessah, et donc de consommer uniquement de la matsah (azymes), trouve son explication dans Deutéronome xvi, 3 : « Un pain de pauvreté [‘oni] car tu es sorti en hâte d’Égypte », qu’on interprète généralement comme « la pâte n’a pas eu le temps de lever ». Quelle est cette « hâte » dont il est fait mention ici ? En effet, en Exode xii, 11, cette hâte fait l’objet d’un ordre : « Vous mangerez [le sacrifice pascal] en hâte », tandis qu’en Deutéronome xvi, 3, il s’agit d’une justification : « Tu ne mangeras pas [ce sacrifice pascal] avec du hamets, pendant sept jours tu mangeras des matsot, pain de pauvreté, car tu es sorti en hâte de la terre d’Égypte… » Or, en fait de hâte, voici comment les choses se sont déroulées au moment de la Sortie d’Égypte (xii). Le premier jour du mois de Nissan, Dieu dit à Moïse et à Aaron : « Ce mois sera pour eux le premier des mois […] Les Hébreux feront le sacrifice pascal et mangeront des azymes […] Dès le 10 du mois, ils réserveront un agneau, qu’ils sacrifieront le 14… Durant la nuit suivante, au milieu de la nuit, Dieu frappera tous les premiers-nés […] Alors les Hébreux sortiront d’Égypte. » Donc, depuis au moins le 10 du mois, si ce n’est depuis le 1er ou le 2, tous les Hébreux sont au courant qu’il va falloir manger des azymes dans la nuit du 14 au 15 (qu’on appelle la « nuit du 15 »), et durant les sept jours qui suivent. Donc, les premiers azymes de Pâque ne sont pas des pains qui, à cause du manque de temps, n’ont pas eu le temps de lever, mais des pains qu’on n’a pas laissé lever, délibérément.

Documentary: Building a Slow Food Nation

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, March 29, 2013 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

Wendell Berry speaking in Frankfort, Indiana

The Atlantic‘s Corby Kummer interviews Wendell Berry, food philosopher, poet and advocate as well as farmer; Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation; Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food; Vandana Shiva, philosopher, environmental activist, eco feminist, and advocate in the domain of agriculture and food; and Alice Waters, American chef, restaurateur, activist, and humanitarian.

Part 1 of this movie-interview lasts 1 hour 21 minutes, but is broken up into shorter segments, consisting of interviews with the people listed above. Part 2 lasts 53 minutes.

Click here to view documentaries Building a Slow Food Nation, Part 1 and Building a Slow Food Nation, Part 2.

Wendell Berry: Daily Food Quote, June 28, 2011

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, March 26, 2013 Permalink 0

Eating with the fullest pleasure — pleasure, that is, that does not depend on ignorance — is perhaps the profoundest enactment of our connection with the world. In this pleasure we experience our dependence and our gratitude, for we are living in a mystery, from creatures we did not make and powers we cannot comprehend.—Wendell Berry

Daily Food Quotes: Farm Philosophy from Wendell Berry

Published by Jonell Galloway + Sunday, March 24, 2013 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

For 50 or 60 years, we have let ourselves believe that as long as we have money we will have food. This is a mistake. If we continue our offenses against the land and the labor by which we are fed, the food supply will decline, and we will have a problem far more complex than the failure of our paper economy. The government will bring forth no food by providing hundreds of billions of dollars to the agribusiness corporations.

Wendell Berry, “in the op-ed piece he published with his old friend and collaborator Wes Jackson, shortly after the economy crashed in the fall of 2008.” (Michael Pollan, in introduction to Wendell Berry’s Bringing it to the Table: On Farming and Food).

Wendell Berry speaking in Frankfort, Indiana

Wendell Berry Interview, by Mark Bittman

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, March 15, 2013 Permalink 0

by Jonell Galloway

There’s probably no better short overview of Wendell Berry‘s views on agriculture and sustainability than Mark Bittman‘s interview of Berry in The New York Times in 2012.

Wendell Berry speaking in Frankfort, Indiana

Here are a few excerpts about agriculture and sustainability:

“That’s one of Wendell’s recurring themes: Listen to the land.”

“If you imitate nature, you’ll use the land wisely.”

“The two great aims of industrialism — replacement of people by technology and concentration of wealth into the hands of a small plutocracy — seem close to fulfillment.”

Mark Bittman (Photo credit: rebuildingdemocracy)

“You can describe the predicament that we’re in as an emergency, and your trial is to learn to be patient in an emergency.”

“[N]o great feat is going to happen to change all this; you’re going to have to humble yourself to be willing to do it one little bit at a time. You can’t make people do this. What you have to do is notice that they’re already doing it.”

“I’ve been thinking about that question about what city people can do. The main thing is to realize that country people can’t invent a better agriculture by ourselves. Industrial agriculture wasn’t invented by us, and we can’t uninvent it. We’ll need some help with that.”

Read The New York Times entire article here.

Food Philosophy: British Economist E.F. Schumacher

Published by Jonell Galloway + Friday, March 8, 2013 Permalink 0

Small is Beautiful - Economics as if People Ma...

E. F. Schumacher

A timely quote by the British economist E. F. Schumacher

E.F. Schumacher

“If greed were not the master of modern man — ably assisted by envy — how could it be that the frenzy of economism does not abate as higher “standards of living” are attained, and that it is precisely the richest societies which pursue their economic advantage with the greatest ruthlessness? How could we explain the almost universal refusal on the part of the rulers of the rich societies — where organized along private enterprise or collective enterprise lines — to work towards the humanisation of work? It is only necessary to assert that something would reduce the “standard of living” and every debate is instantly closed. That soul-destroying, meaningless, mechanical, monotonous, moronic work is an insult to human nature which must necessarily and inevitably produce either escapism or aggression, and that no amount of of “bread and circuses” can compensate for the damage done–these are facts which are neither denied nor acknowledged but are met with an unbreakable conspiracy of silence — because to deny them would be too obviously absurd and to acknowledge them would condemn the central preoccupation of modern society as a crime against humanity.”― E.F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, November 20, 2012

Published by Jonell Galloway + Tuesday, November 20, 2012 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

The joys of the table belong equally to all ages, conditions, countries and times; they mix with all other pleasures, and remain the last to console us for their loss.—The Physiology of Taste (1825) by Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin was a French lawyer and politician, and gained fame as an epicure and gastronome. His famous work, Physiologie du goût (Physiology of Taste), was published in December 1825. The full title is Physiologie du Goût, ou Méditations de Gastronomie Transcendante; ouvrage théorique, historique et à l’ordre du jour, dédié aux Gastronomes parisiens, par un Professeur, membre de plusieurs sociétés littéraires et savantes. The book has never been out of print since it first appeared, two months before Brillat-Savarin’s death. Its most notable English translation was done by food writer and critic Physiology of Taste, who remarked, “I hold myself blessed among translators.” Her translation was first published in 1949.

M.F.K. Fisher

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, October 4, 2012

Published by Jonell Galloway + Thursday, October 4, 2012 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

Bad cooks — and the utter lack of reason in the kitchen – have delayed human development longest and impaired it most.–Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist. He is best known for saying, in his famous work Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None, that “God is dead” and declaring that man, no longer “the image of God,” is a “chance product of a nature uninterested in purpose or value”.

An overview of Nietzsche’s philosophy…
Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 19, 2012
Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 20, 2012
Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, October 1, 2012
Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, September 25, 2012

Simon Says: Daily Food Quote, October 3, 2012

Published by Jonell Galloway + Wednesday, October 3, 2012 Permalink 0

by Simón de Swaan

The belly is the reason why man does not mistake himself for a god.–Friedrich Nietzsche, 1886

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality. Central to his philosophy is the idea of “life-affirmation,” which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life’s expansive energies, however socially prevalent those views might be.

English: German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsch...