What is Food? - Food is Power

In the previous post, I put forth the notion that food is energy. For my last installment, I would like to argue that food is also power. I’ll admit, however, that “food = power” is an unsubstantiated statement. I must first begin with a brief overview of one of the two most prominent sources of power: dependency (fear is the other).

The most prevalent example of this is in the parent/child relationship. Parents would have no power – indeed, no need to exercise power – if their children were not dependent on them for their livelihood. A child who no longer needs anything from their parents has no reason to obey the rules of the home; they can simply leave.

Often, the sense of independence precedes actual independence, which explains why children frequently return home after their first attempt to go it alone, but it also explains – in part – how those who live in the industrialized world can have an exaggerated sense of freedom, liberty, autonomy, and independence. Basically, teenagers and “free peoples” suffer from the same problem: a failure to recognize their own dependency.

So, let’s now trace a line of this argument to the current food system. In Stuffed and Starved, Raj Patel points out that – with modern, on-time delivery systems – most grocers carry only a three-day supply of most goods. I understand this to mean that, if the shipping industry were to shut down for any reason, the shelves at our local grocers would be emptied in under a week. I think this is especially likely given the tendency for people to hoard in such a scenario. This would also mean all restaurant establishments would be effectively shut down. There would be very little food available to most people. What would you do?

You might think there is plenty of food produced in your area, which may be true, but it is not likely that – with a highly industrialized and homogenized agricultural system – you would find adequate diversity of produce in your area to support the local population. There are farmer’s markets, but I can’t imagine any in the “modern world” which could feed their community as they stand right now; the market is simply too small.

In short, we are largely dependent on the global industrial food system for our very livelihood, and therefore, that system holds power over us. If the empty shelves scenario described above were to ever come to fruition, anyone who did have access to food would have immense power over those who did not. I, for one, am quite certain that I would do almost anything for food if I were hungry enough; I doubt it would be any different for anyone else.

But what’s the problem with feeling freer than we actually are? Well, I would not argue that there is a problem with that. The problem, as I see it, is that the food system upon which we all depend has a dependency of its own: fossil fuels – a finite resource. Thus, the system cannot be sustained. So, it is not that the system makes us slaves (although, I believe it does); it is the potential to be enslaved by our dependency. A brief look at third world nations and the structural adjustment programs that have been forced upon them in times of need should provide all the examples one would need to see this reality.

So what’s the lesson from our masters? Take matters into your own hands; look out for your own interests (which includes the establishment of reciprocal relationships within your community); and avoid – at nearly any cost – becoming dependent on anyone or anything for the energy which sustains you, your family, your community, your nation, or the whole of humanity. Independence is the basis of freedom; establish it, and you are liberated. What’s more is that – with the way the system is structured – your independence can also do much to help those in less fortunate parts of the world to establish their independence because it is a co-dependency which is created and easily exploited by the global class of elites. He who controls the distribution of resources has all the power; but if you are in control of your own resources, you are not as vulnerable to being exploited because you are not dependent on the distributor.

Of course, one cannot expect to be able to provide ALL they need for themselves; trade is a necessary part of civilization. So how is my relationship with a purveyor at my local farmer’s market any different from my relationship with farmers from outside my community? Isn’t it still dependency? Well, yes it is, but in the global industrial food system, there is a “middle man”: the trader. Both “ends” (producer and consumer) are dependent on the trader – not one another. The farmer depends on the trader to buy their product, and the consumer depends on the trader for their goods. But the trader has no concern for the interests of either party; their concern lies with maximizing profits and nothing else, so they pay as little as they possibly can and sell for as much as they possibly can. When I buy directly from the farmer, however, there is accountability in the transaction. As a consumer, I am accountable (responsible) for a fair purchase price, and as a producer, the farmer is accountable for the quality of the product. It is a mutually beneficial relationship instead of a mutually exploitive relationship mediated by an unconcerned party.

In closing, power goes way beyond food to all resources, but I emphasize food for many reasons: it is one of the two most vital resources on the planet (along with water); it is a relatively easy matter to control for oneself; it is the basis of one of the most corrupt, unstable, and unsustainable institutions of civilization; and, well, it’s a common subject on this blog.

Any questions? I’d love to engage them. For me, this (what some call “food sovereignty”) is a fascinating and all-too-important topic to just swim around in my head.

What is Food? - Food is Energy

Now that I’ve attempted to make a case that culture and food are closely related, I’d like to change gears a bit while also (I hope) strengthening my case by broadening and deepening food’s relationship to the greater reality. I do this by regarding food as energy.

So, I’ll begin by giving a brief example of an energy cycle. You’ve got this big ball of gas – so big that it is a perpetual nuclear reactor, fusing hydrogen atoms into helium under its own weight. Immense quantities of energy escape this reactor, most notably, in the form of light which travels outward through “empty” space, dissipating as it goes. (You can ignore the quotes; they are there only to deflect any arguments from physics nerds insisting that space is not “empty.”)

A tiny – and I mean tiny – fraction of that light is shone upon our planet where plants, or producers, use it to fuel their own growth. Some plants are eaten by animals; others die and become food for other plants. Some animals eat only other animals, but regardless, they all pee, poop, and die – food for something in the end.

The lesson from functioning ecosystems and the proverbial food-chain is modestly simple: waste is food. Waste that is not food – pollution – is wasted energy, and wasted energy on a fixed budget of solar energy is a recipe for decline and even death for entire ecosystems. (I have to give props to William McDonough for this concept)

Clearing forests, tilling soil, and redirecting waters are but a few of the strategies employed by humans to make the environment more suitable to our needs; erosion, salinization, and desertification are but a few of the consequences of these actions. The result is the destruction of ecosystems which represent large storehouses of energy, but more importantly, they represent the opportunity for future energy income. All the while, we inundate these ecosystems with unusable wasted energy we call pollution.

Coal is the fossilized remains of old forest growth: trees, shrubs, and the like. Oil and natural gas are the fossilized remains of ancient algae which were cooked “just right” to be made into usable and recoverable resources. Together, the fossil fuels constitute a huge savings account of energy stored by ancient plant life, and the forests and other ecosystems which convert sunlight into usable energy (food) are our source of energy income.

So, every time you clear-cut some forest or till some soil, it’s like going to check-into-cash and getting a high interest loan that will keep you coming back, resulting in a continually declining income. And every time we utilize fossil fuel energy to build things, heat things, transport ourselves, or grow food, we are making a withdrawal on that massive savings – a savings we are only now coming to realize has an end and one we no longer make significant deposits into.

Viewed in this way, it’s clear what must be done: we must increase our planet’s income while decreasing our dependency on its savings if we wish to avoid getting ourselves into serious debt. We need to increase energy production, just not in the irresponsible and wasteful way that governments, corporations, and the media would have us do it – by increasing our withdrawal rate and getting more payday loans. What ought to be done may not be in the best interests of power interests, and who can blame them for looking out for themselves? Well, perhaps it’s time we take a lesson from our masters…

What is Food? - Food is Culture

This time, I’m going to try making a more difficult case, so I need to define some terms first. A society is a large group of creatures acting as a single organism, but with specialization, or “polygeneity.” So, ants and bees live in societies, but algae and fungus do not. A civilization is also a society, but its distinguishing characteristic is culture. Culture refers to how society is organized: its political, economic, and social structure, but more importantly, its customs and traditions. It is necessary for humanity to have culture to be a society because humans are not naturally born into their specialized roles like bees and ants; we must choose.

Now for my thesis: our culture does not dictate our relationship with nature. Rather, it is reciprocal such that our relationship with nature also dictates our culture.

An organism living on this planet must interact with the rest of nature in order to get what it needs to survive. Its behavior and adaptation are, therefore, subject to laws of natural selection; in other words, nature dictates the direction of that organism’s development. Together, civilization constitutes a society which, as stated above, acts as a single organism – an organism as subject to natural laws as any other. It must procure the energy and resources it needs to grow, survive, and reproduce. As the natural world changes, it must adapt or suffer in any or all of these areas. That’s the name of the game.

So, as a series of logical arguments: Culture makes civilization possible; civilization is a society which makes it an organism; organisms are subject to natural laws and must adapt to changes in the environment; therefore, culture is a product of society’s relationship with the environment. Culture is how the human organism adapts.

Looking back, we can find societies whose culture more clearly reflected their relationships with nature; customs and traditions were easily recognized as having significance to resource procurement, particularly (and for obvious reasons) food. Today, society is far larger and more complex, but hints of our past relationship with food still peek through in our cultural heritage if we’re willing to look for it.

Today’s culture is also a product of our relationship with nature. Modern humans exploit every level of the food chain and even more levels that few would call food (fossil fuels). Today’s culture is one that separates us from the natural horrors our existence extols on our environment. We no longer have the heart to look.

Humanity’s relationship with nature is one of consumption, and our culture is one of consumption. Our relationship with nature is one of usury, and our culture is one of usury. Our relationship with nature is one of power and submission, and our culture is one of power and submission. Our relationship with nature is one of reckless abandon, and our culture is one of reckless abandon. You get the picture…

And what is our most intimate relationship with nature? What aspect do we depend on most? Why, it is the energy which sustains us, of course; it is our food.

What is Food? - You are Food

As I said in the introduction to this series, most of what I talk about here is common knowledge. Most of what is wrong with humanity today is not just that we are ignorant, but that we also fail to give due consideration to what we already know.

So, here, we start with something simple that we already know – a cliché most of us have heard at one time or another:

“You are what you eat.”

I prefer to say, “You are food” because it actually goes both ways, but the gist of it is that every molecule in your body is made of matter you’ve consumed. Primarily, matter is ingested, although it is also inhaled and absorbed through skin and other membranes. But little beyond what we eat is under our control as individuals, so to emphasize air quality when talking about lifestyle choices would be a practice in futility. Basically, you, your growth, your health, your sanity, your personality, everything about you is made of what you eat.

A healthy body is dependent on having good building materials around. If all you have are bricks lying around, you get nothing but brick buildings; forget windows, doors, sinks, toilets, or anything else that makes a structure function properly. Too much or too little of essential materials makes for dysfunctional structures that affect the whole of the system; deficiency or excess = disease. In some matters, there is no such thing as a deficiency – such as would be the case with poison, but I do believe there to be such a thing as too much of anything.

We in affluent nations are all aware of how easy it is to suffer from diseases of excess related to meat consumption. America, in particular, is nearing an epidemic of obesity related medical problems because we eat nothing but corn, wheat, soy, milk, cows, pigs, and chickens. These seven items are consumed in ridiculous excess while most everything else is in deficiency. So, we have osteoporosis, anemia, heart disease, cancer, and morbid obesity all in the same nation – sometimes in a single individual. Aside from polluted air, tainted water, unfiltered sunlight, and a bit of genetics, we have little explanation for our poor physical health except for a poor diet (and maybe a little radiation).

Diet also plays a major role in our mental health as well, for obvious reasons. This reality gets little attention perhaps because it is not the only actor within our spheres of influence. For our sanity, we also need a better social environment, but food done right can come to our aid in this matter as well; I’ll have to get to that later…

For now, just spend some time thinking about what you are – not your job or anything fascinating like that; I mean your existence…

You are food.

What is Food? - An Introduction

Whatever the fate of our environment, our social systems, our political systems, our economic systems, or our legal systems; history and my experience as witness to industrial civilization have taught me that the fate of humanity – from one individual, to one family, to one community, one nation, and so on – is dependent on one thing: how we extract, distribute, and use energy. It not only determines the fate of all living things, but also determines how all things live and evolve. Despite all the magnificence of artificial lighting, heating, cooling, running water, sanitation, refrigeration, computers, televisions, telephones, washers, dryers, stovetops, ovens, microwaves, cell phones, planes, trains, automobiles, and all other modern luxuries, our existence is rather mundanely dependent on the same things as everything else: food and water.

Because these two things are so vital to our existence, our relationship with them largely defines who and what we are. Look around at any species of plant or animal and you aren’t likely to find any aspect of its structure or behavior that can’t be argued as relevant to the acquisition/storage of water and energy (and perhaps a chance to reproduce). For us, it is no different. Like anything else, we are defined by how we get our energy from the environment, survive, grow, and ultimately reproduce.

Growth and subsequent reproduction is impossible without the availability of energy (and water). So, energy is what drives life and will therefore be the focus of this series; it is the focus of this entire blog, actually.

Wait one second; did I just say that energy is the focus of this entire blog? Am I in the right place? This is a food blog, right? Well, yes it is; but it’s also an energy blog. Food is, after all, energy isn’t it? Food is the energy that sustains life, but modern humans tend to think of things like electricity and gasoline when someone mentions energy. To me, that’s a narrow view of the most vital resource we’ll ever have – a view that relegates energy to the role of powering technology and nothing more.

Peak oil – or peak energy, really – represents a major threat to almost every human system and institution on this planet simply because we’ve come to rely on fossil fuels for virtually everything. Every aspect of our livelihood is at stake, but when the chips are down, I want to know that I’ll have at least two things: food and water. I suspect anyone else would want the same. I don’t know what to do about industry; I don’t know what to do about the economy; I don’t know what to do about climate change; I don’t know what to do about the rise of neo-fascist corporatocracies, fundamentalists, and mercenary armies; I don’t know what to do about our transportation networks; I don’t know what to do about an incompetent media that looks more and more like a propaganda wing with each passing day. But frankly, I could handle a disaster in any or all of these areas better than I could handle a collapse of the food system, so that is the threat which frightens me most. Besides, I believe energy (mostly food) to be a basis from which we could address all of the preceding issues, so even though I don’t really know what to do about a food crisis either, that’s what I’d like to see us working on.

There are several points about food that I hope to make over the coming weeks. My goal is to shed new light on common knowledge, but more importantly, it is to give an understanding of where Jennifer and I are coming from, who we are, why we do what we do, and why this is a food blog instead of an issue blog when we’re clearly interested in more than just cooking. We are concerned with all crises facing humanity in the coming century, and of all the things we could be doing (you know, being ‘politically active’, etc.), an energy blog in a cooking blog’s clothes seems most appropriate for us.

What is required for humanity to weather the coming storm of declining energy from fossil fuels is a shift in thinking. That is why, aside from food and energy, this blog can sometimes be psychological, sociological, personal, and even political in nature. For each of us, it will be journey. Sharing that journey with each other will make it easier to cope with. Sharing and community are truly the heart of this blog – what started out, for me, as a remote repository for Jennifer’s recipes in case our computer crashed. Anyway, turning on topic street…

Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I recall being told that the Chinese symbol for crisis is the same as the symbol for opportunity. It is opportunity that I hope to capture in the coming series. Among the potential solutions to an almost apocalyptic horizon, I see opportunity for positive changes that most, I believe, would find unfathomable given our current circumstance. And much of this, I think, will happen without our even trying. Necessity will dictate many of our most opportunistic adaptations; it will be up to us to recognize them for what they are.

Science has taught us that valuable knowledge can only be gained by breaking something down into its constituent parts – a process called reductionism. Connectedness, synergy, and interactionism are lost in the shuffle of x’s and y’s, and we’ve come to believe that numbers hold the only truth. If it can’t be measured, it is not worth our attention; if it is broken, we must correct “this part here” to make the equations work again. I, for one, consider myself a ‘deductionist’; that is, the parts are of less significance to me than the system as a whole. Breaking things down into small parts leads us to treating symptoms rather than causes.

This has gone on for so long now that most symptoms we see in society today are symptoms of other symptoms, and so on. It seems like everything is caused by something that is, itself, a symptom of something else. Through this maze of cause and effect, I’ve come to see energy as having incredible importance to all things, and for living things, we call it food.