We need to change our eating habits, for our island, our planet and ourselves
by Rob ParsonsSeptember 10, 2009
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Let's
face it: fast food rules. In Hawaii, where fish and poi were once the
preferred diet of warriors and kings, good nutritional options have
long since taken a backseat to the likes of spam musubi, loco moco and
corporate franchise Happy Meals. Is it that people don't know any
better, don't care or are just following their taste buds down the dark
road to diabetes, obesity and cancer?
National debates over
health care reform have revealed the massive influence wielded by
insurance companies, pharmaceuticals and HMOs. But those same debates
have quickly digressed into political finger-pointing. There has been
little discussion of the role our personal choices play in our nation's
deteriorating health. Why is it that 47 countries have longer life
expectancies than the U.S.?
Enter Food, Inc., a documentary that
depicts how our nation's food supply "is now controlled by a handful of
corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the
livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own
environment." (Maui Film Festival is screening the movie at 5 and
7:30pm, Friday, September 11 at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center's
Castle theater in Kahului.)
Co-produced by Fast Food Nation author
Eric Schlosser, Food Inc. acts as a sort of prequel to Sicko, Michael
Moore's examination of the failings of our national health system.
According to its press kit, Food Inc. "illustrates the dangers of a
food system controlled by powerful corporations that don't want you to
see, to think about or to criticize how our food is made."
If
it's true that "you are what you eat," why do we keep consuming fried,
fatty over-processed and genetically modified foods, which we wash down
with sodas sweetened with high fructose corn syrup and aspartame? Is
there some diabolical chemical additive that seduces our stomachs and
hypnotizes our sense of reason, over-ruling our better judgment and
bringing us back to the same feed trough again and again?
Even
Time magazine recently published a report titled "Getting real about
the high price of cheap food." It meanders through revelations of
animal feed-lot pollution and outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant
bacteria, government-subsidized industrial farm operations supplanting
small farmers, nutrition loss and fuel costs associated with
long-distance shipping and the widespread impacts of chemical
fertilizers and pesticides. The article ends with rationales for
locally produced and organic foods, reminding us that "we have the
chance to choose better food three times a day."
Those choices,
however, may not always be as easy as the corporate food alternatives.
Driving home from town on Friday night, I stopped for my fossil fuel
fix at a Paia gas station. My refillable water bottle on empty along
with my tank, I perused the chiller cases. The choices were shockingly
unhealthy—beer, soda, energy drinks, sugar-filled iced teas and water
in plastic bottles. I left without buying anything, reminiscing about
days gone by when one could buy an ice-cold Haiku Juice, with the
colorful paper label wrapped around the metal can, at Nagata Store for
65 cents.
On Saturday morning we did our own part for the Slow
Food movement by shopping at the Eddie Tam farmer's market. Two
mornings later, after a quick Labor Day trip to the beach, I commenced
chopping local produce—red cherry tomatoes, Kula onions, Waipoli
hydroponic watercress, backyard arugula, carrots, Irene Mina's
sunflower sprouts and a perfect avocado.
Tossing all the
ingredients together with a little homemade dressing, we headed down to
the healthy potluck on the lawn in front of Baldwin High School. There,
while George Kahumoku Jr. strummed his slack key guitar, folks gathered
as one of more than 300 communities nationwide supporting Slow Food
USA's Time For Lunch National Eat-in. The goal was to build awareness
and send a clear message to Congress: children need real, nutritious
food at school. Signatures were added to petitions calling for
lawmakers to pass a new Child Nutrition Act. President Obama,
meanwhile, delivered a pep talk at a Virginia high school, calling for
kids to take responsibility for their education.
The rational
nexus would be that proper nutrition is conducive to mental acuity and
physical stamina, and that healthy kids grow up to be successful
adults. But despite the Hawaiian music and free food, the Slow Food
event was exactly that—slow.
Those in attendance—an Upcountry
produce delivery service owner, a Maui representative of Edible
Hawaiian Islands magazine, Warren Watanabe, wearing his new farm bureau
Maui Locovore t-shirt—were members of the choir. Barely a ripple was
made where an entire wave of consciousness is needed to shift people's
shopping and eating habits.
On another battlefront, local
farmers are imperiled by Gov. Lingle's drastic proposed cuts to
Department of Agriculture inspectors and Plant Quarantine Branch
personnel. It's a move that some have equated to "playing chicken" with
labor unions who fought Lingle's furloughs.
Attendees at last
week's Senate hearing at Maui Waena School stood in unified opposition
to Lingle's cuts. State workers, invasive species specialists and
farmers laid out the gloomy scenario of longer delays for shipments of
agricultural products and increased risks of invasive diseases and
pests that could wipe out local production.
Meanwhile Lingle,
speaking Friday at the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce meeting in
Wailea, stumped for new telescope projects on both Mauna Kea and
Haleakala summits, touting up to 100 new construction jobs. One local
farmer bemoaned the twisted logic of what Lingle refers to as the "new
economy," and her pushing for a handful of jobs while more than a
thousand jobs could be lost from the closing of certified nurseries.
"Her message is very clear," he wrote to me, "to hell with local
agriculture."
We are an island community that lined up outside
the new Zippy's in Kahului, that totes boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts on
plane trips to Oahu, that by and large is more attached to a nostalgic
"birthright" to local junk food than in switching to healthful
alternatives.
But Robert Kenner, director/producer of Food Inc.,
reminds us that things can change. "We did it before," says Kenner,
referring to the battle against tobacco companies. "We have to
influence the government and readjust these scales back into the
interests of the consumer."
In the end, our health and welfare—both as individuals and communities—depends upon embracing new ways to feed ourselves.