Here's a brief history of civilization: Last 50 years, almost nobody is a farmer. The 2 percent of Americans who farm are exotic, largely invisible pixies who magically turn petrochemicals into grocery-chain products encased in plastic wrap.
Last couple of years: Everyone wants to be a farmer. Or hug a farmer. Or at least buy and eat local food that isn't sprayed, injected, modified, adulterated and transfatted into inedibility.
People are revolting against tomatoes with the resilience of tennis balls, strawberries that ship like Styrofoam, farmed salmon injected with dye, chickens that have never seen the sun, pet food from China stretched with melamine and fast food that speeds the way to a heart attack.
Our food system has become the poster child for all that seems awry in American life - the frenzy and mediocrity, the cheap, the homogenized, the excessive and the bland. Instead of food being the highlight of the day, as it is for most animals, it has become a gobbled distraction in front of the TV, on the way to work or after soccer practice.
So now comes a shifting toward "slow food," the opposite of fast food, in which ingredients are selected meticulously, cooked with care and savored with good company.
A shift to savoring
There is the "locavore" movement in which shoppers seek food grown with a minimum amount of chemicals and within a hundred miles of home, sometimes to the point of subscribing to weekly boxes of produce or meat from specific farmers.
There is the attempt by many producers to adopt (or co-opt) the "organic" label, meaning food grown without pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilizers.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has created a system to certify organic food, but public confusion remains over shadings such as "100 percent organic," then "organic" (95 percent), then "made with organic ingredients" (70 percent) and finally the attempt to avoid the certification process entirely with words like "natural" or "authentic." Another term used is "sustainable agriculture," which usually refers to modifications in plowing, crop rotation and the like.
There is a growing demand for meat that isn't confined to a filthy feedlot and force fed corn, grain, ground protein from waste and bone, antibiotics and female hormones.
And there is recognition that the kind of small Western Washington farms that supply a Pike Place Market are as precious to urbanites as the Market itself.
Not all this comes easily. Grass-fed beef, free-range chicken, line-caught salmon and organic, heirloom produce (meaning the vegetables and fruits are older variants that advocates say have more flavor) can sometimes cost up to twice as much, require driving to a special market, are only available seasonally and must be washed and chopped.
To which a harried working mom might say, "Get real."
Is this just another Yuppie fad for double-income, no-kid couples?
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