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Explorations in Just Living

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Welcome to the blog of the Enough for Everyone program of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). By "just living" we mean both justice-based living and just simply living – freeing ourselves from the clutter of stuff so we can focus on living faithfully and living well. Join us in the exploration!

About the Author
Bryce Wiebe coordinates Enough for Everyone, a ministry of the Presbyterian Hunger Program. He loves slow food and is fascinated by the way things are made.  He is excited to dive into experiments in simplicity with you.  His sacred cow of consumption: kitchen gadgets.

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December 3, 2008

Thinking about Thanksgiving

Ben Randell

This year, my wife and I found ourselves at home for Thanksgiving not able to travel back to Oklahoma to be with family.  She worked until four that morning and slept until noon so my daughter and I did most of the cooking.  We had made clover leaf rolls from scratch and two pumpkin pies together. 

Full Disclosure:  We cut a few corners on the pies and used canned Organic pumpkin and pre-made crusts.

While sharing this time with my three year old, memories of cooking with my grandma came rushing back. I explained to my daughter that the measuring spoons she was holding belonged to my grandma.  "We called her Granna," I explained.  "Oh Ya? Ugh Oh!" She "accidentally" dumped a teaspoon of cinnamon on the floor at my feet.

Recently, Michael Pollan was on Bill Moyers Journal.  (If you've not read his Omnivore's Dilemma or In Defense of Food, you're reading list just got two books longer.) Discussing food policy, the Farm Subsidy Bill and changes that need to come under the new administration, Pollan ssummarized the health problems resulting from our current food system by saying: 

"We've gone from 2,000 or 2,300 to 2,600, something like that. We all weigh on average ten pounds more. And lo and behold, we have a serious epidemic of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, diet-related cancers. All these chronic diseases which is now what kills us basically pretty reliably in America are adding more than $250 billion a year to health-care costs. They are the reason that this generation just being born now is expected to have a shorter lifespan than their parents, that one in three Americans born in the year 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control, will have type 2 diabetes, which is a really serious sentence. It takes several years off your life. It gives you an 80 percent chance of heart disease. It means you are going to be spending $14,000 a year in added health costs. So this is about how we're eating."

In rebutting the assertion that organic, whole foods are prohibitively expensive Pollan points out that, 

"Cheap food is actually incredibly expensive. If you look at the all the costs, you are talking about the farm subsidies. That's $25 billion a year to make that food cheap. You look at the pollution effects. The quality of the water all through the farm belt, nitrates in the water, moms who can't use tap water because it, you know, blue baby syndrome from nitrogen in the water. You look at the public health costs. You look at the cost to the atmosphere. Agriculture is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases."

Something he said after Moyers asked what the average person can do to deal with the challenges we face was refreshingly simple.  He said:

"Cook. Simply by starting to cook again, you declare your independence from the culture of fast food. As soon as you cook, you start thinking about ingredients. You start thinking about plants and animals, and not the microwave. And you will find that your diet, just by that one simple act, that is greatly improved. You will find that you are supporting local agriculture, because you'll care about the quality of ingredients.And you know, whether you're cooking or not is one of the best predictors for a healthy diet. It's more important than the class predictor. People with more money generally have healthier diets, but affluent people who don't cook are not as healthy in their eating as poor people who still cook. So, very, very important. If you don't have pots and pans, get them.

Now people say they don't have time, and that's an issue. And I am saying that we do need to invest more time in food. Food is just too important to relegate to these 10-minute corners of our lives. And you know, even if you would just take, you know, we watch cooking shows like crazy on television. We've turned cooking into a spectator sport. If you would merely invest the time you spend watching cooking shows in actually cooking, you would find you've got plenty of time to put a meal on the table."

These two paragraphs contain the same ethos from which Enough for Everyone sprung.  "Do things more simply and live life more fully recognizing the spiritual side of the consumer choices we make."  In preparing Thanksgiving dinner with my daughter, I considered the wide variety of information in "Alternative Thanksgiving Ideas" a piece from our Just Living Series.  We chose a free-range turkey, local yams and made our own bread and pumpkin pie.  We cut a few corners with the packaged stuffing (I chose organic stuffing) and canned organic cranberry sauce (there is something about a dish that retains the shape of its container that I can't do without).

In cooking together, my daughter and I spent quality time together.  We laughed.  We shared.  We took turns.  The big payoff came during the meal.  I could see the unmistakable look of pride on her three year old face when her mom said, "These rolls sure are good.  Who made them?"

"Me and daddy did." 

My heart melted like so many pats of butter on freshly baked bread.