Against the Grain - by Richard Manning
Topic: Books - Food
This is a great book. I kept going "yes, yes". Manning takes us from prehistoric humans to current days and shows how agriculture has always lowered the level of living for the vast majority of the people wherever it goes. He doesn't have a romantic view of hunter/gatherers but sees how when agriculture came in most people's health plummeted, tyranny arose and people lost control of their lives and their food.

Yes agriculture gave us "civilization" which gave us many wonderful things but most people's health and quality of life suffered. One of the big things is that they quit eating meat (shades of last post), probably not by choice and the variety of their diet became extremely restricted. He mentions the IceMan they found in the alps who had sixty types of plants in his gut when he died. That was one day's intake. We have maybe a dozen, if we're lucky and with most people it's not the most healthy dozen.

He then gets into the strangle hold that a few companies have on the food supply and how they use this to drive out family farmers and control what we eat. One example he gave is the ubiquitous corn sugar which is now in everything. I've tried to buy products without it and couldn't. This hidden sugar is making us a nation of fatties without us knowing why and all the increase the profits of a few companies who can make millions off corn sugar.

Through the book I'm agreeing and thinking he's right but at the same time I'm in favor of free enterprise and wonder what can be done without violating that. Not that much of the food industry is really free enterprise, but privilege bought from every administration, democrat and republican, including Mr. I'm so pure and righteous Carter. It's ok for him to tell us we're too stupid to fill out a ballot correctly but he has no problem with taking money to give farm subsidies which help, not the farmer, but the food companies, which he knew when he did it since it was the food companies that gave him the money. As they gave it to the Bushes and to Clinton. Not a one of them turned it down and it was substantial. One person in the industry that Manning talked to admitted that they give to both parties and both parties take it gladly. Well, we've just found where our politicians are non-partisan.

I digress, I was wondering what I could do and the author says to quit eating food that goes through the big companies. To buy food at farmers markets and even organic food from organic food stores as the fact that it's organic almost without exception means it didn't go through the handful of large food companies. This is what I'm doing anyway. Yeah! I even bite the bullet and try to buy as much of my meat from farmers markets or health food stores since the animals are raised without additives and often free range. There is one farmer's market where I can get free range beef, chicken and lamb. Unfortunately its early on Sunday morning, clear across town and one mile beyond the bus, but I do get to it when I can. Good stuff!

Another thing the farmer's markets have is a wider variety of little seen varieties that don't ship well but are so much fun to try out, and are in danger of being lost forever. This is also one reason I buy beans and such from Native Seed Search who is trying to preserve the wide variety of beans and other desert varieties. Yesterday I got a Sharlynn melon at a local store which will be fun to try. I enjoy eating purple potatoes and yellow tomatoes and strange squashes. I usually by my bread at a local bakery which has such yummy stuff. They make a rosemary bread that is fantastic. It is so good with peanut butter. I kid you not.

Yes this way is more expensive but it's just me and I can afford it if I'm careful. After reading the book I looked in my cupboards and found all kinds of food that I've bought and never eaten. I could probably exist nicely on just that for a month, but I do have a goal to get through a bunch of the stuff in the cupboard corners also. It's good stuff. I just stick it in the cupboard and forget it's there. This way of eating means taking your lunch to work but I usually do anyway.

Manning also hunts and picked up a bison from a bison farm, but I don't think I'll go that far. For one thing I don't know that I would trust myself with a gun and it's really expensive to get all the stuff you need to hunt. I'll stick with supporting the small farmers who are raising range fed animals and treating them decently and not just medicating them.