Eggo Panic

I was sitting over my breakfast in the cafeteria the other day when I spotted this article in the Star Tribune. Apparently, there is a “nationwide shortage” of Eggo frozen waffles due to “interruptions in production at two of the four plants that make them.” Bloggers and news sources alike have been following the story in hordes, some in seriousness, as does the Star Tribune, and others with just a hint of sarcasm, as Stephen Colbert does in this clip.

Believe it or not, these “vintage waffles” have already hit the virtual shelves of Ebay, selling for $49.99 for two boxes. It’s true: A nationwide emergency is on hand! What do people EAT for breakfast if not Eggo waffles???

Actually, there are quite a few other options. But Eggos are just one of the many processed breakfast foods that many people — especially kids — eat on a daily basis. Even if they were generally healthy for you — see the not-so-nutritious facts here — Eggos would still perpetuate the industrial agricultural model that dominates the food system by using processed and enriched grain products.

To combat these issues, try eating fresh, local fruit for breakfast, if it’s in season. Or you could even make your own waffles, using as many local or organic ingredients as you can find. If you’re concerned about the time it takes to cook in the morning, make a big batch on the weekend and then freeze them for the week. It’s like eating frozen Eggos — except more delicious.

But there’s a problem here: the cost. Eggos usually cost somewhere around $2 for a box. If you want to buy fresh fruit or fresh ingredients for waffles, you have to spend more money. This brings up one of the major issues with the local and organic food movements: How are people supposed to support the movement if they can’t afford it? Eating well shouldn’t be a class issue, as a comment on my last post noted. It’s easy to understand why less-privileged consumers wouldn’t want to spend money on expensive local food if they are struggling to eat.

Luckily, there are many organizations already trying to remedy this problem. Here’s a video — produced in part by a fellow Ole, Jensen Power — from Growing Gardens, an organization in Portland, Oregon. This organization plants urban gardens for low-income households to promote food security as well as healthy, local eating.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about Eggos, breakfast, or the cost of food.

Drink Local

Where does your wine come from?

What do many students do for fun in college? They drink. No parents, no chaperones = freedom. So we go nuts for alcohol. In general, the idea in college is to feel that alcoholic buzz without paying much, so college kids rarely worry about buying high quality tequila. But perhaps we should start at least worrying about where our drinks come from.

Why am I talking about drinking on a blog about food? Because alcohol is made from food. Wine comes from grapes; beer from barley, wheat, or other grains; vodka from potatoes or other vegetables/grains; and so on. Since most college students (at least on the St. Olaf campus) don’t make their own food but do buy their own alcohol, our drinks are an area where we can control our buying habits.

An article from last month’s New York Times revealed that even in San Francisco, the center of the Locavore “Eat Local” movement, most restaurants still carry imported European wines. Surrounded by California vineyards in places like Napa and Sonoma Valley, many restaurants — even those that advertise all-local menus — cling fast to their European wines.

A brewery based in St. Paul

Is this hypocrisy? I think it is. Why is alcohol generally ignored or forgotten from the local food movement? I say, if you’re going to go local, then go local. Learn to love the specific foods and flavors of the place where you live. Sure, enjoy an extravagant French wine or an imported German beer every now and then. But don’t make a habit of it and then claim to be a locavore.

Although St. Olaf College isn’t exactly in the heart of wine country, there are still quite a few wineries in Minnesota for students wanting to drink local. Here’s another website for finding beer breweries near the Twin Cities. Is it too presumptuous of me to ask that college kids start supporting these local businesses? Let me know your thoughts.

Trendy Pet Food

I saw an article the other day in the Star Tribune that featured the Thousand Hills Cattle Co., which sells its locally grown, grass-fed beef to my school’s cafeteria. Naturally, I was interested. But the story wasn’t quite what I expected. Apparently, along with selling grass-fed beef to humans, Thousand Hills has started producing and selling dog food.

Are we spoiling our pets?

Yes, dog food. The product is a blend of grass-fed raw beef and sprouted grains, plus vitamins and minerals. This concoction is supposedly healthier for your dog — since raw meat is what they evolved to eat — and is supposed to keep down veterinary bills in the long term. But at $5 a pound in some stores, this dog food isn’t exactly cheap when compared to standard Purina brand dog food, which costs between $1 and $2 per pound.

Now I want to make it clear: I love dogs. I love most animals, for that matter. And I greatly admire the Thousand Hills Cattle Co. for their amazing efforts to produce beef in a sustainable fashion. But I question whether such a specialized farm should be spending time, effort, and money on creating pet food.

From 1994 to 2004, the amount of money Americans spent on pet food rose from $17 billion to $34.2 billion, according to 2006 article from CNN. (Also check out this website for “Pet Bistro”: They specialize in organic, gourmet “pet cuisine.”) Instead of spending that money on pet food, consumers could have supported local and organic food markets for humans. But consumers chose to buy massive quantities of pet food while supporting cheap, processed food for themselves — inevitably unhealthier for them and the planet, as journalist Michael Pollan has argued — leaving the harmful practices of industrial agriculture to continue at will.

I don’t think that we should let our pets starve. And I think that we have the right to worry about what we put in our pets’ bodies. But I do believe that maybe we should think twice about spending our money on pricey pet food, and what it is actually benefiting — especially now that companies like the Thousand Hills Cattle Co. have entered the game, throwing a whole new loop in the justice of the food market. Just think: How many human mouths could that extra money feed?

Let me know what you think. Should Americans be lavishing their pets with such luxuries? What is your pet worth?

First Post!

First post! I’m so glad that I successfully manipulated technology to create this new blog. I’m planning on writing approximately one or two times a week about current issues pertaining to food and the local/organic/slow food movement. See the “About” section for more information about me and my blog.