“Eating is an agricultural act.”

Wendell Berry

Read it again, let it sink it. “Eating is an agricultural act.” Have you ever thought about eating as activism? You are part of the food supply chain and you have power in that supply chain. If you have found this blog, you are probably not what Wendell Berry describes (in The Pleasures of Eating) as an ‘industrial eater’. But, perhaps you do not yet fully appreciate the importance of your own place (and power) in the food supply chain.

The business of modern food depends on you accepting the idea that the best food is the food that is the most convenient. Every mouthful you take is a vote of approval for that supply chain – the processes, the ingredients, the inputs and the farming practices – that made that mouthful possible. The more convenient (and therefor more processed and always available) that food becomes, the more out of touch eaters are with the realities of farming, and of the earth herself.

Michael Pollan, in his book ‘Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation‘, steers us away from valuing convenience. He describes cooking as revolutionary, as “the single most important thing an ordinary person can do to reform the … food system”. Own your power. Every time you opt for the convenient supermarket package, it doesn’t only impact your health. You take power away from small organic growers and give it to the industrial food system that wants you to forget the impact it has on the planet.