Food Sovereignty PSA

A surprising number of people like to ask people of my age what we want to do with our lives. Now I will admit I'm a bit more sensitive to this question than other questions, being only a few years removed from my undergraduate experience and no finances to propel me further along the higher education ladder. But I find it to be a surprisingly personal question that people just throw about to make small talk. Personal because you almost always make a snap judgement on someone based on their answer. If I were to tell you that my life long dream was to flip hamburgers at McDonald's for the rest of my life, that would probably give you quite a bit of pause.

As it is, my passion (surprise!) does lie in food. But when I tell people this, they normally think that I want to work in food services. Believe me, I loved my time at the bakery in high school, less so last year when I was in a more desperate situation needing cash and food, but I don't necessarily think I have student debt up to my eyeballs so I can go work in a bakery. Unless it's a French bakery, in France, in Paris, and Johnny Depp comes to woo me. (Oh wait...)

Truth is, I don't really know what I want to do with food. I like to say that I'm really interested in food justice, because then I can explain to people what I think food justice is, and by that time they don't really ask follow up as to why I don't have a job in that industry, or if there are even jobs to be had in that industry, for that matter (parents and J's mom, I'm lookin' at you).

One of my many bosses e-mailed me this article today and I'd like to quote it here because it's short, sweet and to the point. Well, maybe not that short. Emphasis added by yours truly, read the bold text to get the spark notes version.

"All people have the right to decide what they eat and to ensure that food in their community is healthy and accessible for everyone. This is the basic principle behind food sovereignty. If you want to support domestic food security through the production of healthy food at a fair price, and you believe that family farmers and fishers should have the first right to local and regional markets, then food sovereignty is for you.

Food sovereignty is essential because our current food and farm system is broken. Small farmers in the US and globally cannot earn a fair price for what they raise, despite their high productivity. Meanwhile, more than 1.2 billion people around the world go hungry every day. As corporate-controlled agriculture spreads across the globe, the social and environmental costs weigh heavily on our communities. Driven by big corporations, the agricultural system no longer values healthy, delicious food, productive and sustainable rural communities or people’s right to make decisions about their communities and their farms.

Fortunately, an alternative exists: Food sovereignty for all."

Here's an online PDF for more information. Maybe I'll just print off a bunch and hand them out when "And What Do You Want To Do With Your Life?" comes up again...

Should I give up or should I just keep chasing pavements? --Adele

I've been running for about two full months now, having started at the end of January. The first week was pretty awesome. I was exhausted, but I felt good. I had tons of energy, and was startled by the amount of time I could give over to the pursuit of... whatever it was I was pursuing. Previous hours spent looking at Facebook, blogging, or whatever-ing were now spent at the gym. And with good reason, winter in Chicago is brutal with a capital B. So I was happy to get endorphins at a time when I normally consume every sweet in site and turn into a mini Jabba the Hutt. Tasty.

Yet after that first week I didn't really get any kind of "high" like I was anticipating. I wasn't as sore, which is a plus, don't get me wrong, but running is hard. Hard like, I always feel like I'm going to fall off the treadmill (this did happen). Hard like, I really hate this. Hard like, omg am I even older than I anticipated, I can hardly run a mile!

Last week I ran two miles straight every day that I ran. And I feel better than I did before, as long as I keep my pace. This week I was supposed to up it to three. But then Spring Break happened, my running buddies all went home, and I can't seem to get out of bed in the morning to save my life, and I just kinda stopped. This morning I went to the gym, but only for a shower. I'm hoping this week off will jump start the feelings I had when I first started and keep me going strong until the date of the Shuffle (April 10, eek!). I know I can do this, it's just keeping motivated is really hard. And when I feel like crap all the time even though I've been going to bed at about 10:30 every night for the last three weeks (high school all over again!) and not eating sweets at all, minus one day, for my birthday, where I had a piece of cake. And yesterday, where I had a mini cupcake, but that was to support the kids, all right??

So we'll see. A small break. Maybe it's a sign. If I start feeling better I'll know I have made the right choice. Here's to next Monday and new beginnings.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of something I cannot have:

PS, or, How I feel about today

Tricks and Treats

M: so how are you going to eat birthday cake during lent

me: omg, nina asked me the same thing

i usually make an exception for my birthday

if it's just one time

M: ah

that's what jesus did, too, i think

because his birthday fell in the middle of the 40 days

me: ...

M: so he got drunk and ate

Yes, it's true. I used to be one of those sad children who had to bring bagels in to class for a birthday treat because my birthday ALWAYS falls within Lent. This year I'm giving up sweets, even though my roommate laughed at me, saying I could give up something else if I wanted, but seriously guys, my sweet tooth is the size of Texas. I need to cut back. So we begin.

Last night I went out with a friend to celebrate the end of her last job. We went to Margie's and it was magical. In fact, M and I had already visited the location nearer to us on Monday, in anticipation of this Lent thing. Margie's has MASSIVE amounts of ice cream and home made hot fudge, and candy, and basically it's like Willa Wonka's sweet shop plopped down in the middle of Chicago. And last night I discovered you can get "swiss fudge" which means they swirl marshmallow fluff into your fudge before they serve it to you and pretty much what all this means is that it was a terrible place to spend Ash Wednesday.

But I'll be back, Margie. With a vengeance! 39 days to go.

On the tricks side of this post we have a few contenders.

1) M sent me this video today and it is not only disturbing but made me down right hate America...

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/the-heart-attack-grill-24471051

2) Chartwells, provider of food for my Alma Mater and current employer, has often incurred the wrath of not only me but many colleagues. Students recently organized and won a "living wage campaign" because Chartwells workers were not being paid living wages and had no health insurance, despite working full time at the University, some of them for several years. The students rallied with the workers and helped them unionize, and things are fine now, health insurance and the whole nine yards.

Sadly, Chartwells' shenanigans run much deeper. As I found out first hand, ordering from them can be ... an experience. With a capital "E", no less! They have questionable descriptions for their food menus, for example:

The Bronzeville: Ribs, Fried Chicken, and Watermelon (seriously?!)
The Pilsen: Fajitas, Rice and Beans
The Wentworth Avenue: Dim Sum and Chinese food

Why don't they just call it "soul food", "taco bar", or "asian cuisine"? In trying to be "cute", they're just being offensive. My supervisor sent off this email tonight (yes, after 5 pm sh*t does hit the fan over here):

"This is absurd and demeaning!! It sounds like the Jim Crow menu. This is wrong on sooo many levels (e.g. so they don’t eat tacos, chicken, and ribs in Lincoln Park??). Should we (Steans & Egan) continue to order from Chartwells and sit by while they spend our money and spit in our face at the same time? Do we refuse to purchase from them until they change names for their menu options? Do we bring this to the larger university administration’s attention and demand that they make Chartwells change this non-sense?

What is the proper course of action here? Do we even care? What say the rest of the village on this one?"

Well village, let's talk about this :)

Sunshine and blue skies (an early spring tease)

Hello everyone (or maybe just one)!

Snow and gray skies have kept me indoors and out of commission for a while. I haven't stopped cooking but I have become a bit lazy, and reverting to my old mainstay of pasta with sausage a few too many times than I would care to admit. In addition to being less than creative, I am also at work which is not an ideal blogging environment, but still appreciate use of a full keyboard, and will make this post a list format as opposed to my usual rambling text (which I know everyone, not just one of you, will appreciate :) )

Things that are great:

1) This shrimp bisque from Bell'Allimento. I love Bell'Alimento, the writing style is after my own heart and her food looks delicious. This was my first attempt at something of hers and it was fabulous. This soup kept us warm and snug during the Snowpocolypse last month.

2) Soul Vegetarian Restaurant on 75th St: I've had some eating qualms for a while, starting back in the fall when I took my Food and Social Justice class that was taught by one of my bosses, who also happens to be a vegan. While I could never hope to be vegan (I heart cheese wayyyy too much), I have started to consider dabbling in vegetarianism, if only accidentally (ie, I sometimes forget to eat meat or just don't have it in the house). Yet this restaurant, which catered our staff retreat last Wednesday, totally blew my mind. There were "eggs" (tofu scramble) "sausage patties" (I am guessing this was seitan and some kind of bean mixture) and the best biscuits I have ever had. Lest you forget, I've worked at two bakeries. Hands down best biscuits. And all of this was completely vegan and completely amazing and tasted completely like it was supposed to, like real eggs and sausage and buttermilk-y, crumbly biscuits. Nom.

3) Serious Eats: I love love love this website. I can get lost for hours here. For the Super Bowl this year I made their Spinach Dip, M caramelized some onions for a dip of her own, and we anticipated making some delicious wings... except that I left the wings at home. Next on deck, maybe tonight if I get my life together, are these little babies.

4) The smell of basil. It is just wonderful.

5) Sunshine! Even if it still cold, just waking up to sun and being able to go home from work and have it still be sunny is an amazing thing.

Hope you're all having a great week, happy Wednesday, and stay tuned for more rambles!