Food

According to the March 20-21 Wall Street Journal: the Club de la Table Francaise, which includes 280 food-loving members of France’s Parliament, wildly supported “an initiative Mr. Sarkozy launched two years ago to gain United Nations recognition for French cuisine as an intangible cultural asset.”

Why?

“…to protect French gastronomy.”

Or, more accurately:

“Club members say French cuisine is under threat. Grocery stores are increasingly importing cheaper cheese and meats, threatening local producers.” – from France Offers a Menu for Its National Identity, Wall Street Journal, March 20 – 21, 2010

OK, so seeking to sanctify and preserve a land’s culinary history through regulation does seem to be a bit Orwellian. But, on second thought, having France’s culinary and gastronomic history / culture protected by UNESCO not only creates a barrier to trade and imports, it also creates an easy way to increase consumer’s perception of the value of those products.

Looking down a completely different path, why would a restaurant in Oakland, California undertake an effort to use web video, blogs and other social media to inform clients where their ingredients come from and why or what makes them special? On a societal level:

“In this new journal of stories, movies, cooking information and news we hope to give you an insider’s look at the workings of our restaurant community, of Oliveto, as a part of a larger community in which we live.  We also think that we are entering a time when people want to actually know where their food comes from not just for wholesomeness and nutrition or for assigning it worth, but for the joy and satisfaction that can come of it—a fuller more connected life.” Oliveto Community

But, on a business level, the telling of the story behind the food – how and where it is from, the people who make it, and why or what makes it special – in a way that is simple and approachable way allows clients to better understand and appreciate the food while also fostering familiarity with those people and places.

How important is familiarity?

According to Robert Cialdini in Influence Science and Practice:

“Few of us would be surprised to learn that, as a rule, we prefer to say yes to the requests of the people we know and like. What might be startling to note, however, is that this simple rule is used in hundreds of ways by total strangers to get us to comply with their requests.” p.144

I am not trying to imply this is some sort of Machiavellian plan or the purpose of the Oliveto Community website is purely to create profit. I am saying this is really a great example of using social media to reach out, engage, build relationships with people. A serendipitous result of this effort will be an increase in the perceived value of Oliveto’s goods and services by those clients

Interestingly, it is the Oliveto style approach and not the Sarkozy approach that creates longer lasting and sustainable added value to a product. A top down government lead approach such as Sarkozy’s may appear to addressing a problem and appease voters at first, the results are fleeting and can not persist without continued and significant government support.

So, do you think an Oliveto type approach is applicable to your needs? Why or why not?

Approximately one third of the world’s people suffer from a lack of micronutrients. Micronutrients are “any substance, such as a vitamin or trace element, essential for healthy growth and development but required only in minute amounts”  More specifically, micronutrients in food include essential things such as: folic acid, iron, vitamin D and iodine. Although they are consumed in minute amounts, the have profound implications on our health and wellbeing.

According to the World Health Organization, “these substances are the “magic wands” that enable the body to produce enzymes, hormones and other substances essential for proper growth and development. As tiny as the amounts are, however, the consequences of their absence are severe. Iodine, vitamin A and iron are most important in global public health terms; their lack represents a major threat to the health and development of populations the world over, particularly children and pregnant women in low-income countries.”

The proposal to address this problem is to enrich food staples and salts with micronutrients. It is true that enriching food staples such as adding iodine to salt and vitamin D to milk has been practiced in the US for a long time and is a primary cause in the elimination of nutrition based diseases such as rickets. Also, the article correctly notes that the cost of fortifying food stables with micronutrients is extremely cost efficient.

But, doesn’t this seem a bit like treating symptoms instead of treating problems?

The problem is not exclusively a lack of access to foods containing micronutrients. In all reality, the problem is a lack of access to an entire diet capable of meeting the current nutritional needs of people.

In a sense, fortifying food staples is the somewhat the nutritional equivalent of robbing Peter to pay Paul. The situation is akin to switching from regular to diet drinks as a way to regulate sugar and calorie consumption. The switch comes with the trade off of increased caffeine consumption as well as increased exposure to artificial sweeteners. At the end of the day, all you are doing is playing a game of nutritional three card monty by trading one bad thing for another.

It is critically important to ask what food staples that will be fortified. If fortified food products in the US serve as an example, they will be highly refined or processed, bearing little-to-no resemblance to their traditional form or place in a person’s regional or ancestral diet.

Considering:

“[When we eat refined foods] … we limit the opportunity to bolster our immune system, keep our blood sugar and emotions balanced, keep our blood sugar and emotions balanced, protect against degenerative diseases, maintain a trim and fit body, and in general, keep our integrated experience of life harmonious.”

“Our desire to overeat can stem from eating foods that are refined and therefore missing ingredients; these deficient foods can foster addiction as we are instinctively driven to over consume them in our endeavor to obtain the missing nutrients that are never there.”

Healing With Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford (2002 edition) pgs 16 -18

And, according to Harriet V. Kuhnlein, Professor of Human Nutrition and Founding Director of the Centre for Indigenous Peoples’ Nutrition and Environment (CINE) at McGill University in Montreal, Canada:

The development, health and scientific communities do not usually understand the food resources that indigenous people know and use. Scientific identifications and laboratory data for nutrients and other phytochemicals for a food system may be unknown for many species.

A possibly better solution to this issue might be re-examining and then reintroducing traditional dietary and agricultural practices “upgraded” for current daily life instead relying upon artificially fortifying foods derived from highly refined and processed foods frequently from foreign sources and diets.

It is easy to look around at the bounty of fruits, vegetables, and other foods being reaped during this time of harvest and believe the cornucopia is endless and offers limitless healthy food to all.

But, the cornucopia is neither endless nor offering limitless healthy food to all.

Instead, 36 million Americans, including 13 million children, struggle with hunger every day.

You may ask how is it possible for our American society to be plagued by such a horrible problem while our American society is also considered to be plagued by an obesity pandemic. Similarly, how is hunger among so many possible when so many fast food restaurants offer $1 menus?

The answer is not that food is not available. Neither is the answer that hunger equates to lacking of access to food.

Instead, it is better to consider the hunger crisis in terms of access to information about nutrition and foods offering dense nutritional value.

A body’s energy comes from three sources: Proteins, Carbohydrates, and Fats. Proteins and Carbohydrates offer about 4 calories per gram while fats offer about 9 calories per gram.

Considering our instinct is to seek out those foods offering the most energy and not necessarily the most nutrition, and the foods offering most energy happen to be fats, is there any real wonder why we would choose to eat an order of chicken nuggets dipped in a BBQ sauce with high fructose corn syrup as the primary ingredient, over a salad of fresh tomatoes with salad greens, thinly sliced steaks and a sauce of basil, garlic, parsley, olive oil and balsamic vinegar?

Similarly, when you walk into a coffee shop, what catches your eye longest? The lovely looking cracked bulgar salad with green onions, parsley, and tomatoes or those plump cinnamon, spice and rum soaked raison scones with the crunchy sugar sprinkles twinkling like stars and just enough to be seen? Since I just made myself hungary by typing the second description, I suspect the scone is the correct answer.

If you are tempted, what about everyone else? What about someone who might not be as interested in food as you and I, or someone who might not have the time, money or other resources to shop and cook the same as you?

So, during this time of amazing bounty, transition and the beginning of the fall and winter holidays ultimately leading us into 2011, it is important to remember the bounty offered to us can only be for all of us if each of us takes action to spread change and help those how ever possible.