Let Them Eat Cake (and Corn)

Is healthy and sustainable food only for the privileged?

BATAVIA, Ill.—In the food deserts of America, the place to shop for groceries isn’t the local supermarket (there aren’t any); it’s the corner liquor store.

There’s a two-tiered, class-based food supply in the United States, and access to food that is healthy for both body and environment is far from democratic.

In most areas, a mother can use food stamps to buy a bag of Cheetos for her children but not a bag of apples from a farmers’ market. Thanks to our nation’s agricultural policies and generous subsidies for corn, a heavily processed, health-busting, environment-destroying meal of burger-fries-and-soda is now plentiful and cheap—cheaper oftentimes than a pint of simple, pesticide-free berries (if you can find them). Even in areas where fresh produce and organic options are available, how many have the luxury of choosing, say, a $6 quart of organic strawberries at a place like Whole Foods?

Those were some of the barriers to the sustainable food movement discussed in a lecture given by Chicago Tribune food and investigative reporter Monica Eng at the Batavia Public Library earlier this month.

“Who is looking out for some of the sickest, who are also the poorest, among us to make sure that this isn’t just a movement for the well-off? Eng asked. “How do we make it a movement for everyone to help create a healthier nation in general—healthier soil, healthier air, healthier kids?”

That’s one of the biggest themes emerging in a sustainable food movement centered around foods that are healthy for consumers, animals and the environment, Eng says. Only 1-3 percent of the U.S. food supply is organic, and the premium for organic can be steep: anywhere from 20 to 40 percent more (or even six times more, Eng has found). For those without the access or means to buy organic, the main option available is food produced by conventional, mostly industrial, agriculture—what Maria Rodale, author of the book “Organic Manifesto,” calls “chemical agriculture.”

Industrial agriculture yields a supply of food that’s plentiful and cheap, but loaded with hidden costs and ticking hazards. Not just for the poor, but for us all.

Media Mashup for the week ending February 28

Every week, I consume massive amounts of media online. Most never make it into this blog, often because I can't figure out how to build an entire blog post around them. Seems such a waste. So I've decided to start a new feature: my media mashup for the week previous.

So without further ado, here's what I learned online last week:

Does this blog make me look old?

One of the joys of taking classes at a community college in my thirties is that I get to annoy "Millenials" with all sorts of pseudo journalistic questions about their generation.

I'd like to think their answers help me stay relevant.

But sometimes, their answers just make me feel obsolete.

For example, this week I took a survey in my journalism class to find out how many of my young classmates read blogs (self-serving question, I know). The answer: none of them.

Oh, and Twitter is for "old people." And Ashton Kutcher.

That's what I get for asking self-serving questions.

Strangers no more: A new app that IDs faces

When I wrote this post a few days ago about our dwindling 15 minutes of anonymity on the internet, I almost included a bit on how the coupling of facial recognition technology and smartphone cameras will enable us one day to obliterate the anonymity and mystique of any stranger we encounter on the street. One day.

But that day is already almost here.

Five reasons I won't be blogging today

1. Only celebrities can get away with being boring.


2. There's a place for blog posts that are mostly just links to the creativity of others--It's called Tumblr.


3. I'm not part of the 24/7 MSM news cycle. If I were, I'd get fired, because as a creator I am slooooow.


4. I already know I can do half-baked. My next post is in the oven, spending as many days there as it needs, for a change.


5. Olympic women's figure skating starts tonight. Canada's skater just lost her mother. South Korea's skater has the rabid gold-medal expectations of every Korean on the planet (including my parents) piled upon her willowy 19-year-old shoulders. Drama, drama...

Does self-esteem reside in the left brain?

Science is confirming what I've long suspected: the left half of my brain has a bigger ego than the right.

When the left hemisphere is in charge, subjects are more likely to associate themselves with positive attributes, such as "capable," according to a study published in Cortex. When the right hemisphere is in charge, subjects gravitate more toward negative attributes, such as "boring."

In other words, the left hemisphere has confidence that it's awesome, and the right hemisphere mostly has self-esteem issues.

That explains so much. I've had two careers, one very right-brain and the other very left. At the left-brain job, I knocked shit out, no problem. At the right-brain job, it was round-the-clock angst. If I could transfer the big ego to my right brain and give all the humility to my left, I'd probably get a lot farther in life. Sigh.

If you have any comments to submit, please do. Just remember: All mean comments should go to the left; All nice comments should go to the right.

15 Minutes of Anonymity

They say the Defense Department invented the Internet, but I have an alternate theory: I think Al Gore made a wish on The Monkey's Paw, and one day we'll find out the ironic price to be paid for that granted wish.

Happy 20th Birthday, Photoshop

Unfortunately, you're still one year away from taking a legal drink, which you'll probably need after seeing my first attempt at photo painting. But this is what you've unleashed on the world...