learning to eat

I am very challenged by Wendell Berry's The Pleasures of Eating essay. I grew up with a garden, watching my green beans grow, so I can see an appreciate his stance on the appreciation found when actually harvesting and participating in the cultivation and growth of food. This essay was helpful for me to pinpoint specific areas of my life, as a city dweller, that can positively affect the food system. His list of ways to participate is as follows:



1) Participate in food production to the extent that you can.
I hope to grow a garden when I own my own land. My roommates participate in CSA gardening; they help cultivate, wash, and pack vegetables for the program. I am encouraged by their participation and am considering joining their efforts next year. I can grow basil in my kitchen window, but I just tend to forget the essential watering step of keeping plants. Hopefully that will change as I age.
2) Prepare your own food.
This is at times difficult being a busy college student, but it is possible.
3) Learn the origins of the food you buy, and buy the food that is produced closest to your home.
This is also at times difficult, but I find the more I am conscious regarding where my food is produced, the more I appreciate it. I enjoy buying produce/vegetables at the farmers market from the Cal Poly organic farm. Their carrots are so juicy and sweet.
4) Whenever possible, deal directly with a local farmer, gardener, or orchardist.
5) Learn, in self-defense, as much as you can of the economy and technology of industrial food production.
6) Learn what is involved in the best farming and gardening.
I am excited to learn.
7) Learn as much as you can, by direct observation and experience if possible, of the life histories of the food species.

Learning is the main theme running through every step of the process, and I am looking forward to learning throughout life ways to implement these steps into my life. As Berry states,

Eaters, that is, must understand that eating takes place inescapably in the world, that it is inescapably an agricultural act, and that how we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used.

I want to be considerate of the way I use the world. I want to live a life appreciative of my blessings and thankful to God, my provider, for taking care of my needs. Food is essential, and it is pleasurable. I appreciate how Wendell explains that more pleasure is found in eating when understanding of the foods lifespan that took place. Thinking is good for me.