From Wikipedia,
"Food sovereignty", a term coined by members of Via Campesina in 1996,[1] asserts the right of people to define their own food systems. Advocates of food sovereignty put the individuals who produce, distribute and consume food at the center of decisions on food systems and policies, rather than the corporations and market institutions they believe have come to dominate the global food system."
"Food sovereignty refers to the right to produce food on one's own territory."
While it is a world political movement, Food Sovereignty's importance is not just in non-industrialized nations. It is also important at the individual, neighborhood, and community levels here in the USA. For purposes of this website, these three levels will be focus of the content and discussion. Food needs to be a local phenomenon, in the opinion of this author and many others (no, it is not my brilliant idea!) so political, national, and international issues will not be a topic here -- that is, unless the laws threaten the autonomy of local people. It will be USA-centric because I cannot follow insanity in more than one nation. People around the globe are invited to partake in this information, to borrow liberally from it if they wish, and to contribute ideas that are on topic with our discussions. Because political content frequently interferes with digestion (at least it does for me) it will be isolated from the other content and those who are interested can partake. Political commentary in topical discussions will be deleted without appeal. In the political discussions, such commentary will be germaine. That way, people who simply want to eat good food regularly can live and eat undisturbed.
Why is this blog titled Food Sovereignty Step by Step? Well, I flirted with different How-To titles including “For Dummies”, “Made Easy”, “How To” and even “For the Food Lover's Soul”. None of the options seemed to capture the importance of building competence and skills to become sovereign over your own food. Step by Step seemed to capture the idea of gradual change, of learning progressively, and setting goals and achieving them.
First, think about what you want to achieve with your sovereignty over your own food. A lot of effort can be wasted if you don't set goals for yourself, because if you have no goals, you will get exactly where you are headed. Our marketing-intensive food system has you not thinking much about food at all; instead it has you buying it. Here are goals some people have set for themselves. They are a good starting point as you rethink your relationship to food.
Avoidance goals - you want to avoid or reduce something you feel is harmful or undesired
- Genetically Modified food products (aka GMOs)
- Heavily subsidized food is not healthy food and shortages are looming.
- Pesticides in our foods
- Nutritionally harmful foods (salt, fat, and sugar)
- Potential food-borne illness (E-Coli, salmonella, etc)
- Foods that make a medical condition worse (Metabolic Syndrome, Diabetes, etc)
- Fast Food addiction
- Animal products
Positive goals - you want to make improvements in your diet
- Improved nutritional content in your food
- More and more natural flavor in your food
- Setting a good example for growing children, teaching them a better palate
- Teaching children skills around food preparation
- Flexible meals to meet multiple people's needs and wishes
- Greater variety in your diet
- Ethical Omnivore Movement
- Blood Sugar control, optimum cholesterol/triglycerides, etc. as recommended by an MD.
Other goals - things you want to change for other reasons
- Cooking from basic supplies as part of preparation for emergency
- Incorporating your garden or local farm foods into your diet
- Becoming a Locavore (not eating distant foods)
- Foraging for wild / naturally occuring foods
- Lifestyle change - there is a stay-at-home spouse
Take your time to consider these goals. Pick just a few that are very important to you to guide your first foray into changing your relationship to food. Study them and understand what you need to do and why. Don't try to change everything at once, pick just a few, learn about them, and start your change process. Then, rather soon you will be eager to revisit your goals and go for more.
Now, with your goals in mind, here are the steps in an approximate order. You are "permitted" to work on two areas at once - remember YOU are the sovereign, not I or anyone else ......
1. Eliminate processed foods wherever possible. Learn the skills your grandmother took for granted... Make baby steps toward the principle that if your grandmother (or your mother if you, like I, am old enough to be a grandparent) didn't recognize it as food, just don't eat it.
2. Learn about Nutrition and make scientifically valid choices. Distinguish quacks from experts, promotion from truth, and marketing from healthy choices. This is more important than you might think, and it will save you a fortune and maybe your health.
3. Consider the sources for your foods. Do you know where your foods come from? Do you know what they contain? Are they to be trusted? Understand industrial agriculture and its effects on your diet. Not everything in the supermarket is bad ... a lot is sort of OK. Some is really, really bad... Know the difference. Start, step by step, to improve your shopping.
4. Grow your own. Pots and planters filled with greens are an excellent source of nutrition and a great tool for kids to learn. There is nothing like going outside with shears to cut lettuce and greens, take it inside to wash it, and eat it ten minutes later. Growing your own can extend to many other plants and vegetables ... seek your own crops and plants to harvest...
5. While you're at it, say a friendly hello to your local farmer. Look around to see what exists in your community. Actually go visit a few local farms, meet the people, and buy some food from them. If you have kids, take them along - nothing like barnyard critters and friendly adults to win over young minds. Farmers are people just like you ... maybe even moreso... If there isn't chemistry, keep looking.
6. Take kids to a "pick your own" strawberry or other fruit farm (apples in the fall). If your local farmers have not yet gotten that far, ask them if your kids can come to glean or help harvest. Have them harvest their own food and then take them home to prepare it for their meal. Have them help cook it. The next time, have them invite their friends over for a treat they made themselves.
7. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) - If you think your kids are choosy little buggers whose dietary preferences are locked in ... just look in a mirror. Investigate Community Supported Agriculture and find out what a share of a farm output really is. Think how you might use it in your daily diet ... how you might convince daughter Sally and son Stevie to try it ... then look in a mirror and convince yourself too. Take your time if needed, maybe don't jump in with both feet -- ask the farmers how they prepare that unfamiliar produce and you might find some really tasty dishes....
8. Learn how to preserve food. Canning, drying, fermenting, and using root cellars are all ways to preserve food. Meats and fish can be jerked and smoked and preserved with many traditional methods. Freezing works for most everything, and it is an excellent stopgap until other means are learned....
9. Learn to eat with the seasons. A little over a century ago, our ancestors ate food they preserved without technology, energy, or any modern conveniences. No refrigerators, no freezers, no boxes on the supermarket shelves.... Their diet was varied and glorious at times in its own way. Summer was an orgy of pies and desserts and fall was a celebration of color and diversity of the harvest. Winter was also boring and repetitive at times, especially if canned foods ran out. Traditional meals (hamburgers are a traditional meal of the latter 20th century) were the comfort food of the era... and creative recipes turned common foods from the root cellar into celebration dishes to share with friends.
10. If you haven't already, revisit your goals and the details of those goals, and set new ones. Boring and predictable is good when it comes to some food, but changes are interesting and keep motivation going. Experiment with cooking, refine your recipes, take on new produce and foods, learn a style of cooking (Mediterranean, Chinese, Native American, etc.)
Embracing Change
People who see their behavior as being driven by outside forces also see their behavior as resistant or impossible to change. If they are to change, the world will have to change first. They have no choice but to conform. That is, indeed, how we got ourselves into this mess in the first place. One who would control slaves without their knowledge simply controls the externals in their lives and the slaves comply.
Don't just take my word for it....
Visit http://foodbabe.com and see how to get processed food and all its suspect ingredients out of your life..... The episode on Mac and Cheese shows how to make this staple really extra nutritious and even fool the kids......
Favorite Recipes
The following recipes are early ones I discovered as I started to look at how many interesting things I could cook from scratch. Also the pursuit gave me a chance to explore unfamiliar vegetables and novel combinations.
Granola Recipe From Mom's Hippie Youth
Make Your Own Yogurt (without a yogurt maker)
Use your home made yogurt to make your own Ranch Dressing from scratch.
Learn to strain your home made yogurt to make Greek Yogurt and useful whey in the traditional way and with a new, easier method. The whey is a tasty base for dressings and sauces.
As you explore foods you can make yourself, make a small batch of Pickled Kale Slaw I like recipes that incorporate carrots because they are so nutritious and their sweetness is a nice surprise in an otherwise common dish. This slaw will keep for weeks in the refrigerator. A small serving is a nice accent in most any meal.
Getting processed food out of your life is sometimes easier if you make your own mixes. Here is a thirty cent brownie mix.
Mix contains 1 Cup Sugar, 1/2 Cup All-Purpose Flour, 1/3 Cup Cocoa, 1/4 tsp Salt, 1/4 tsp Baking Powder.
Every casserole (or, in MN or Lake Woebegone, a Hot Dish, contains Cream of Something Soup. Something is either celery, mushrooms or chicken (others are possible if you have a really active imagination). Guess what! You don't need to buy a can of dubious contents and instead you can make your own version .....
Cream of "something" soup recipe
1 cup non-fat dried milk
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup bouillon You can use whatever kind you like (ie, beef, veggie) (if you have cubes you have to smash them up) or use real broth from chicken, beef, or whatever you have.....
4 Tablespoons freeze dried minced onions
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried thyme (If you cant find the thyme,you can use dried parsley instead)
1 teaspoon pepper
(For the equivalent of one can of condensed cream soup, mix 1/3 cup dry mix with 1 1/4 cup water. Cook until thick)
I keep it in the pantry and as you can see the recipe is taped on the outside. (so I don't lose it...cause I will if it ain't connected!)
Put it in a baggie or a canning jar....
Anyway, the lady that showed us how to make this awesome stuff made up a sample. She just cooked up some elbow macaroni and mixed it with the soup, added a little cheese and warmed it through in the oven.
It was GOOD!!
Industrial Foods
Here is an example of a mass market restaurant product. This Lemon Cake has modified food starch, sodium citrate, locust bean gum, carrageenan while this recipe does not. I have not yet tested the recipe though it looks very good and many of its variants get high praise.
Restaurant salads pushing 1500 calories are here
