Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Crisis?


No, this is not the "crisis" most are thinking of. I am thinking about the crisis of food in America. I cant tell you how many times a day I hear people complain about the price of food. These complaints are almost always followed with a question of when will the prices go back down? This assumes that they will go back down, and you know what they say about assuming... This is one suggestion from Michael Pollan whose article from the New York Times was linked on my favorite Blog rulman.com "Make changes in our daily lives: teach children how to cook; plant gardens in every primary school and equip them with kitchens; pay for culinary tuitions (or forgive loans) by requiring culinary graduates to give some service back to such undertakings such as teaching kids how to cook; increase school lunch spending by $1 a day; grow more of our own food and prepare and eat our food together at a table; accept the fact that food may be more expensive and eat less of it." Holy cow! These are great suggestions. Will they solve the problem and lower food prices? Of course not, but he is right on point with teaching kids to cook, planting gardens, eating together at a table, and eating less. How many young people do you know that know how to cook? I hope that it is not a dying art. How many families do you know that sit at the table together and eat at least a few times a week? Some of the most vivid memories of my childhood are from the cool mornings spending time with my parents in our family garden. Or standing on a stool to help my mom with dinner. Then finally sitting at the table with the whole family.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Yep! I am glad I taught my kids to cook. I have some great cooks in my family. Chara has taken up the art of cooking and Jon cooks for me 3 or 4 nights a week. I love it when Josh comes for the same reason. Jacob, I hear, has become an awesome cook. Judah can cook fish better than anyone I know. Charis and Chesed are both great cooks...Charis has the"down-home style" mastered and Chesed likes to make things look pretty. Now we all need to learn to plant gardens.

Ryan said...

I am glad that there are families like yours. However, I am afraid they are a dying breed. I would of loved to have taken home economics in High school but it was not offered in any of the four different schools that I attended.My concern is that the vast majority of the country would live on eggo waffles, PB&J and Hamburger Helper if the restaurants closed tommorow. And they would all be shopping for thier pre made foods on the moterized shopping carts.

Summer said...

Ha! I agree. I enjoy cooking a meal and having my family (me, Josh and Luke) sit down to eat withOUT the tv on. We always ate breakfast and dinner as a family growing up and Mom cooked a LOT of mornings. I don't know many Moms that still do that. You are going to have some well rounded kids! And you have plenty of room in the backyard for a garden!!

ma said...

Your blog is so true. I did not teach my girls to cook. They learned on their own after they married. Some people would say that was a blessing that I didn't teach them(haha). I am so thankful you and Sara are teaching your children to cook. Hope they learn to cook as well as their parents. We all could grow something in our yards. If we grow flowers, we can grow something to eat. You really need to blog more. Looking forward to some of your cooking Thanksgiving. LOVE YOU ma

Rosemary said...

"Experts" say if a kid cooks it he will be more apt to eat it. Whether that is true or not I don't know, but I do remember eating a lot of your experiments. You forgot to mention all the trial recipes for Waffle House waffles taped to our refrigerator door.

MJN6 said...

My kids are teaching me how to cook.

One Krazy Momma said...

"Down-home style" Let me clarify this. I think maybe the fact that I haven't "had" to buy beef, chicken, or fish for several years has something to do with it. Tony and Brandon have kept our freezer so full of deer, turkey, & fish(all from our land)that I haven't needed to. Also we have plenty of cream 40 peas(for all you picky pea eaters)silver queen corn, zipper peas, colored butter beans, & pecans. Speaking of pecans..McKinley sautees them with all kinds of spices and butter or olive oil. YUM YUM!

One Krazy Momma said...

OH, and perk for country schools...Ag class is required in highschool. We have a farm and pasture that the kids take care of. Hogs, cows, hay. It's neat to see kids riding by on the tractor or gator at parent pick up.