That inextricability is another obstacle for Wolfson’s clients. “Food sourcing is so tough. Products made in America may have ingredients from who knows where, and we don’t require labeling of genetically modified crops. You have to shop for different items at different places to get the safest of each.” Her realistic advice is just to buy whole foods and, when you need to buy packaged, “check the number of ingredients: the list should be short and they should be recognizable. I think that can be more important than the nutrition labeling, because the US De- partment of Agriculture ‘food pyramid’ is more about farm subsidies and lobbying than about sound nutrition.”
Blogger Nelen says one bright spot is the USDA’s 2012 measure requiring twice the previous amounts of fruits and vegetables in the national school-lunch program. “Getting sugar, fat, and pro -
cessed food off cafeteria menus,” she says, “could begin to heal the damage done to a generation of students” whose early diets have “contributed to record rates of obesity and food allergies.” Nelen would also like to see “choices limited to healthy food at home.” Wolfson confirms that starting good eating habits in youngsters is vital. She serves many clients who have food intolerances—to wheat and dairy, primarily—but “sugar is the number-one thing that people need to re- duce or eliminate. An excess affects everything in our bodies, and our need for it is minuscule.” Genetically engi- neered crops worry her too, since “we’re just on the cusp of learning how they really affect us. The new field of nutri - genomics is starting to explore how food can influence our genetics and those of our offspring.” She cites evidence that certain genes’
expression can be turned on or off “through a clean, high- quality diet or a diet that’s poor or contaminated by pesti- cides, hormones, plastics, and metals.” Whatever complex of factors is at work, Wolfson says, “There is no question anymore that many chronic conditions today, from heart disease to bowel disorders to cancers, are directly related to a poor diet.”
But take the burgeoning healthier-foods market with a
grain of salt. It’s nice that restaurants are offering more gluten-free or low-fat offerings, Wolfson concedes. Prob- lem is, “many companies are jumping on the bandwagon by marketing packaged foods that replace fats with sugars, or sugars with artificial sweeteners.”
Socially engineered food?
The only answer, Wolfson says, is many answers. “Take our food back into our hands, support our local farmers, educate our children, train our doctors, and cast our votes every time we shop.” Rangil interjects, “We also need to acknowledge the privilege of being able to shop selectively and advocate for bet- ter systems without having to worry about putting food on our table.” The more-produce rule for school lunches is reportedly resulting in students’ tossing much of it into the trash. “We can’t af-
ford to throw food away,” she says, “while we’re trying to teach our kids how to eat.” Wolfson concurs “the population isn’t getting any
smaller, and our food-supply expectations grow bigger by the second.” For her, one key to the problem of “how to feed the world but feed it with good nutrition” is to prune back the dominance of big agro. Andrew Plotsky, hog butcher for the world of his small circle, cites ag pol- icy reforms too. While he respects the food safety con- cerns behind feder- al meat-packing regulations, he says, “they can only be met by big corporations with administrative de- partments to han- dle them.” Absent alternative rules for small “meatsmith - ing,” his processor is state-certified, not US-certified. On rooftops too, Lauren Mandel would like to rewrite some or - dinances. While
more cities are beginning to allow small flocks of chick- ens, bee-keeping is usually prohibited, as bees are consid- ered a nuisance or hazard. Mandel says, “We need ways not just to permit but to promote agriculture in residen- tial and industrial zones.”
Economist Odekon shares the preference for small, local, diversified farming. “Unfortunately, the distribution of labor in global food production,” he says, “is following
22 SCOPE SPRING 2013
BRUCIE ROSCH
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