When I read Ozeki's book I realized I had never actually planted a potato in the ground. I had seen plenty of potatoes go bad and begin to sprout so I decided it was time to actually plant one. Much like my parent's small, backyard garden in Spokane, I've been procrastinating for sometime now. Fortunately I happened to be in Kent near Carpanito Bro's. Garden Store where I purchased three Yukon Gold Organic Seed Tubers, some topsoil and a small bag of organic compost. Seeing as though these may quite possibly be the easiest 100 calories (thedailyplate.com) to plant and take care of (aside from the grasslands talked about in Pollan's book) it is no wonder that so many cultures have counted on the potato as a subsistence crop. It is also easy to see why agribusinesses would like to patent them. Lucky for me all I care about is that I can most certainly guarantee my Yukon Gold's will be organic and even after buying dirt (a very bad cultural sign in my mind) my potatoes will only cost about 25 cents each.
After I attempted to eat a processed bag of 380 calories worth of oil, chicken flavor, msg, and small, stiff noodles that cost relatively the same as one of my soon to be shiny, organic Yukon Gold I realized once again that in fact my parents aren't lunatics. They may not have always been able to get a vegetable garden growing in the backyard but they always took the time to make sure my brothers and I got incredibly organic, fresh food including goats milk, eggs, and chicken from a local ranch along with fresh produce from the street market or local farm. Many of the concepts in Michael Pollan's book were taught to me at a time when I really didn't want to listen. I vividly remember going to the health store with my mom when I was home-schooled and trying to get her to buy me organic candies and natural sodas but only on rare occasions was I allowed to have anything with any amount of sugar; high fructose corn syrup was defiantly out of the question no matter what.
As I read Pollan's book and skim articles on the web I slowly find myself heading back toward the food I was "allowed" to eat as a kid. Often my brothers and I would ask my mom when she was going to buy some "real" food. One of my childhood fears was that one of my friends might open the refrigerator and spread the word that I eat specimens in a jar. To be fair I must admit that the food may have lacked some MSG flavoring but it was completely edible. Coincidentally one meal I fondly remember eating as a family was lentil stew similar to what I recently made in Anthropology of Food! That was one of the better dishes; others were no less healthy and consisted of products such as spelt noodles, turkey (from local farmers) meatballs, rice cheese, and a strange kind of red sauce I've seen anywhere else. A sad caparison I've found is that as a kid I actaully grew up on "real" stuff that would have come from places like grass farmer Joel Salatin's. What I eat now may still be "organic" but it comes from industrial farms with little more incentive than monetary profits.
To end on a more positive note: My mom recently commented that she "can't believe they teach this stuff at a university" until now she had a solid impression that state schools had become completely commercialized and that any professors who dared go against capitalist norms would quickly be thrown out. When I told her we have an "organic" garden on campus and I'm reading books about genetically modified foods and the meat/poultry industry she nearly decided she wanted to move over here!
Wait until I tell her I planted organic spuds!
(A few buds starting to sprout!)
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