by Heather C.
The premise of the Eat Local Challenge is that knowledge is power when it comes to your food choices. Most people are disconnected from the food that they eat. We spend a lot of time talking here about where the food comes from. I think that there is also a need to educate people on what food is.
I've heard reports that say that people don't make the connection between a package of pork in the supermarket and a pig. Maybe I'm naive but I thought that was an anomoly and not the norm. But lately when discussing local food issues I've found out for myself that many people deliberately choose not to think about the sources of their food. Is ignorance bliss?
Obviously if you are reading this then you are interested in your food sources. I think we also need to look at our influence in just getting the people around us to think about food at all.
This week I took a cutting of a mint plant that is running rampant in my garden to a co-worker. Another person asked about the plant. I explained that it was mint. She asked, "Is it minty?" I said yes and offered a leaf to her to taste. She was horrified. She was even more disgusted when I popped a leaf in my mouth to show that it was safe. She acted like I had just swallowed the entrails of some animal on FEAR FACTOR instead of chewing on an herb from an organic garden. I really think that she thought that mint was an artificial flavor seen mainly in Life Savors and that this plant was a poor man's substitute instead of the real thing.
At a family potluck my cousins brought lasagna made with beef from a cow that they raised. They were talking about it and calling it "Rosie lasagna" in honor of the cow. My husband turned slightly green and opted for the vegetarian lasagna. I asked him about it later and he said that he just couldn't face eating something that was raised by my cousins and had a name. He said that if he had to slaughter his own meat he would definately be a vegetarian.
I lived near a small family owned meat market growing up. It was normal to run through the barns and pet the cow or sheep that was in the pens waiting to be butchered. My grandparents also had a small butchering operation in their basement. I remember watching them process deer they had hunted or a side of beef they purchased. My husband shudders when I mention this. He just doesn't want to know.
I'm a vegetarian but a staple of the farmer's markets around here are pasture raised meats. I've thought about suggesting to my omnivore husband that he might like to buy meat there but he might turn it down. The idea of meat coming directly from a farm is as much of a turn-off to him as it is appealling to most people in this challenge.
How do you promote local eating in a population that may not want to know?
Heather C. lives in rural central Ohio. She writes Based On A True Story....
