Is eating a political act?

Eating is a political act. – Michael Pollan

You are a co-producer. By choosing what to buy, what to eat, we choose what the farmer grows. OK, so you have heard enough of this from Slow Food advocates, but have we done anything about it? Have we chosen what to buy so farmers can continue planting what we need and want?

First, it was the rice crisis. Then, we ran out of white onions. Then, it became sugar. Now I hear it is salt? We are running out of salt?  Come on, bring it on, what will we run out of next?

In the other side of the world, a friend bought five pounds of red ripe tomatoes at 99 cents a bag of maybe 2-3 kilos. So he made tomato soup, tomato sauce and more. We of course don’t know if the tomatoes are organic or grown with lots of pesticides and chemicals, and that is why they are cheap. Nevertheless, they are tomatoes he could use. And the bumper crop is almost always absorbed by sale-seeking American consumers. “Anything 99 cents” is a popular store which absorbs all these extras produced with fertilizers and chemicals.

Much as I promised never to be political in my column or tackle any political issue, what we do three times a day is very political. And we are the very solution to this problem we face everyday. Choose your food well. Whether it is buying raw ingredients or ordering a meal, be more conscious of what you eat and buy. It is a vote to keep farmers alive or to keep food importers doing what they do best – import more, plant less.

The idea of Community-Supported Agriculture or CSA has to catch fire in the country. In this model, local farmers produce what they do best and a cluster of them are brought to market through subscription boxes. Consumers get a mix of vegetables from a cluster of farmers growing, for example, what one would use for sinigang or chopsuey or pinakbet. But there has to be a community leader or group to organize the farmers, make sure they grow an assortment of vegetables and finally get subscribers to sign up to ensure the destination of the produce. This could be a model that the Department of Agriculture can start in local government units (LGUs) or an order the Secretary of Agriculture (aka the President) can give to his regional offices.

The other idea is to support Natural Farming. We consumers are so spoiled we want our mangoes everyday, we want strawberries any month of the year and so we force our scientists to adopt what other GMO-believing countries have done. Genetically modifying natural fruits gives us what you probably planted in your modern farm – high-yielding fruits, the biggest mango, the biggest atis and santol. But these are what you may call supernatural, almost weird tasting mangoes without the tartness or sourness we Filipinos look for. After all, what is green mango without bagoong? But, no, we like to brag about the biggest fruit, despite its being far from the original natural taste profile. So, let us respect native varieties and savor their natural sweetness which, by the way, comes from the next consideration which is Seasonality.

Fruits in season are at their sweetest because that is how Nature intended them to be. And if we listen and observe Mother Nature, every fruit has its time and season. “To everything there is a season,” as the song goes and the Bible verse continues, and a “time to every purpose under heaven.” Yet, we force the seasons and ask for fruits that are not in their prime. Because we want them on command or as we want, not as we need. This is why we even import fruits that have been frozen in storage houses, because we have a silent wish to be Western or Continental in our daily diets, wanting blueberries or raspberries in our yogurt, even if they are frozen imported fruits. Can you imagine the import dollars we spend on these whims and caprices?

Next is tempering our use of temperate vegetables. We have a lot of lettuce producers because it’s a crop that is of higher value than our lowly pechay. It is highly perishable but we continue to produce it for value. And consumers find it easy to get a salad as part of their dietary requirements. But are we a salad-eating people? We have adopted Western diets so much, we look for the best kale, lettuce and arugula. As for me, I have tempered my wanting these high-grown temperate vegetables and instead I am discovering local vegetables and farm extras like bamboo shoots, kamote tops and even the common man’s malunggay.

And finally, let us avoid food waste if we are to help control prices of our local produce. One is to buy locally or as near to you as possible. The Benguet farmers are in trouble because the vegetables change hands about eight times before it gets to your basket, and farmers do not get a fair deal from wholesalers. So Baguio must grow for Baguio, not for Manila. Manila must get from Cavite and Laguna, high cool places that can grow what grows in Baguio. Yet, we buy from Baguio because it is cheaper, but now hardly sustainable given transport costs. A third of these produce go to waste as the vegetable goes on its long journey from the mountains to Balintawak or Divisoria. Tomatoes are picked green so they can withstand the long trip and the tomato (which is fruit by the way) never develops its natural taste anymore. Buy local or as close to your plate or table. Check the source and know your geography. I actually know people who do not know the difference between distance to Baguio and to Laguna. Do your homework.

And buy well to eat well.