A Terrifying (Unsurprising) Trend

Since I started this blog, a recurring theme has been the link between the way we eat in this country, and the skyrocketing rates of obesity. The current healthcare debate has brought about a wave of articles about the cost of obesity, including an excellent piece in this week's Time by Bryan Walsh. By some estimates, obesity is costing us $147B a year.

It is unlikely from the content of this page, but I am a fixed-income financial nerd by profession. Last year, as the housing market began to unwind, and the financial crisis set it, an often mentioned topic was that of record US Household Debt. A key component of the creation of the housing bubble that burst so dramatically, was an equally large bubble in credit. The reckless practices by banks and lending institutions, coupled with high consumer confidence and rising housing prices, led to the US personal savings rate dipping into negative territory.

I couldn't help but draw the connection between careless spending, and a broader carelessness in America. In a world dominated by Lipitor, fad diets, ever-changing nutritional standards, aggressive food marketing, Americans have expanded almost as fast as the housing market. Just like Countrywide giving $800,000 loans to unemployed janitors, using the rational of ever-rising home prices, the big food companies do their best to convince us that Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes are "smart choices."

Based on childhood obesity data from the CDC and the Federal Reserves US Household Debt data, I decided to put the two together. The relationship is staggering. The actual correlation of the two data sets is .998, almost perfect.

We all know how the housing market story ended. Where this leads, with respect to our national health and the safety of our food supply, is yet to be determined. What has been determined, sadly, is a pattern of behavior that plagues us in America: why deal with the problem today, if I can put it off until tomorrow?

Tomorrow is getting closer.

Consumed

Today on the New York Times photo blog, "Lens", the photographer Susana Raab is profiled, along with her newest project, "Consumed." Of course this piqued my interest as it pertains to food AND photography. In searching for a new way to portray fast food, beyond the obvious (gluttony and obesity), she captured an honest slice of American culture. Below the horrific health and environmental impacts lie whimsy, fantasy, imagination and pure ingenuity. Don't worry, my stance on these issues hasn't budged, but it is quite remarkable how the fast food industry evoloved.

Among her comments, she discusses a theme repeated often on this page:

"As a Peace Corps volunteer in Outer Mongolia from 1995 to 1996, Ms. Raab watched as the cow she was about to eat was killed right in front of her. She believes Americans are at too great a remove from their food, how it is created and how it is processed. “That’s unhealthy,” she said."

Whimsy, fantasy, imagination, and ingenuity have quickly been overshadowed by the ugly, irresponsible, unhealthy, dishonest truth.

On a separate note, I think I'll get back on my "Fresh Direct " photoproject.

A Not-Food Breakfast, Then a Glimmer of Hope

Last weekend I traveled up to Niagara Falls, Canada for my close college friend's bachelor party. While it was great to catch up with old buddies (and pretend we were back in college - my liver disagrees with this decision, however), it was also a sad, sad look into the middle-America (and by extension, Canada) I haven't seen since graduating. (For now, i'll leave the discussion of how one of the 7 wonders of the natural world has been completely spoiled by tacky, glitzy casinos and hotels for another time)

Upstate New York and the towns near the Canadian border are decent places - rolling hills, green pastures, cornfields, and post-industrial cities struggling to find a new identity, most containing a number of quality universities. These are generally family-oriented places. But like most working-class towns in this country, eating and shopping establishments are dominated by giant, corporate-industrial chains. As a result, it was extremely difficult to find anything "edible," in the local/organic/sustainable/honest sense. Applebees, Bob Evans, Perkins, TGIFridays, and of course KFC, BK, the golden arches, and Taco Bell were all eager to sell a cheap, high energy meal. Garbage. Appropriate in a town monopolized by casinos. Breakfast was at Perkins, and was truly disgusting.

This is just further illustration of the well-known fact that Americans spend about half as much per capita on food than other westernized nations. In a society haunted by consumption and risk, we are more willing to drop a $20 chip on a blackjack table than $20 on breakfast. Ask me how that makes sense! For the first, you have a known disadvantage against the house, whereas on breakfast, you have a known advantage of eating a good meal.

But like I said in the post headline, I have also seen a few glimmers of hope. On Sunday, I returned to NYC and caught the tail end of the farmers market. I got some garlic scapes, local cherries, some late-season sugar snap peas, and some amazing andouille sausage from a farm in Putnam County that raises only grass-fed cows. There was a TV crew interviewing some of the purveyors and vendors, and an unusual buzz. Some guy was saying to the farmer at this particular stand that he "just read the Ominvores Dilemma" and was excited about the local food movement. Once he was gone and I ordered my sausages, I asked if that book has had an effect. His eyes lit up and he said plainly, "It changed everything. It changed our lives."

Now it's time to change yours.