This question was posed by Michael Pollan
In the article, Pollan asks why we should all be concerned with caring about the affect our consumption has on the world at large when chances are, your counterparts aren’t, and further, don’t care.
I don’t know how long I have on this planet and I’m not going to distract myself with the Who, How, Why, and When of it all. But I bother because while I am here, I want to enjoy a quality of life that nourishes me beyond the material things I can accumulate. I want to walk outside my house and be surrounded by beauty wherever I go. I want the air to smell clean, I want litter-free sidewalks, and access to fresh, nutritious food wherever I am.
I bother because these things are important to me. And while other people may not get why I compost, shop at farmers’ markets and sometimes pick up other people’s trash on the street, I know that I am personally accountable for my participation in the world I live in.
Life can and really does suck for a lot of people.
But most of us are in a position do do something about it.
The face of food is changing in America.
We can no longer afford to blindly accept the way food is sourced, packaged, and sold to us, regardless of how pretty the packaging is.
Food is an edible plant or animal that grows, walks or swims on the earth and its waters with no genetic engineering, no hormone-driven growth, and no synthetic chemical substances to mimic natural qualities. Over millennia human metabolism and cultures have adapted to the foods growing in every ecological niche.
Anything else is a MESS (Manufactured Edible Substitute Substance), any edible substance other than real food is a MESS. A MESS has genetic engineering, hormone and antibiotic residue from concentrated production, and synthetic additives. Emerging research demonstrates that human metabolism cannot handle MESSes. MESSes subvert food cultures and food sovereignty. MESSes and the processes used in their manufacture and packaging contribute to the alarming toxic load that every human being now carries.
I am not interested in converting anyone over to any particular way of thinking and being about food. But if I can enlighten someone to make one small change in their lives that can improve both their health and the health of the planet; if picking up trash somehow pays it forward for the next pedestrian’s experience, then I will do it.
Even if I never know my affect on the next person, I will bother.
I aim to share a practical dogma-free outlook on creating a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. There will be a bit of a New York slant to these writings, as live in New York and my experiences are directly informed by my work in community food education, health coaching, local and sustainable food issues, and being a native Brooklyn girl.
You can find me on Twitter, a great tool for sharing information in real time.
You’ll also get to meet some of my friends, colleagues, and partners, from Field to Fork.
I look forward to your contribution to this work.
Thank you to Hank Herrera of C-Prep for providing these definitions of Food and MESS. To read the full version of the proposal that includes these definitions, click here.
Honeybee Holistic is based in Brooklyn and Hudson Valley, New York.
