Slow Food And Slow Salsa.

A salsa gigolo does not live by salsera alone. He also needs food, but what food should he eat? To answer this question, I found myself reading this book,

by Michael Pollan ».

The book is written in 3 parts. The first part is about the industrialized food chain, and “corn people”. The second part is about the organic food chain, and “grass people”. The third part is about the author hunting and gathering his own food.

Part I

Pages 18-19:
… For modified or unmodified starch, for glucose syrup and maltodextrin, for crystalline fructose and ascorbic acid, for lecithin and dextrose, lactic acid and lysine, for maltose and HFCS, for MSG and polyols, for the caramel color and xanthan gum, read: corn.
.
(HFCS = high-fructose corn syrup. The other acronym that figures prominently in this part of the book is CAFO = Confined Animal Feeding Operation.)

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Pages 18-19

Not a lot of gory details, but a lot of interesting research. For me, the main insight is the corn. I never realized how much of what I ate, or what I ate ate, was corn, and specifically “number 2” corn. I also never realized the political, environmental and economic issues in growing corn for the industrialized food chain. This book has made me want to eat less corn and corn by-products.

I almost never eat fast food, salty snacks, or cereal, so I’m ok here. The only time I drink pop is in a salsa club, but I drink a lot of frozen concentrated juices at home. Both are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, but this should be an easy fix. I’ll just switch to beer. The hard one to fix will be the meat and dairy products. Everything from beef and chicken, to milk and eggs – They are all grown on corn. I think my eggs actually come from Manitoba! I suppose it’s easier to feed chickens where they grow the corn.

As an aside, when this book was written/ published, in 2005-2006, the price of corn » was less than $2/ bushel. Today it is about $4/ bushel, due to the spike in demand for ethanol, among other things ». The demand for ethanol won’t go down, because it is a required additive in gasoline », so this increased cost of corn will drive-up costs in the industrialized food chain. I guess this is why food prices are still high, even though fuel prices have come down. On a $-per-nutrient basis, I wonder if it now makes sense to switch to organic foods.

Part II

Pages 248-249:
… As far as both Joel and Bev are concerned there isn’t a whole world of difference between Whole Foods and Wal-Mart. Both are part of an increasingly globalized economy that turns anything it touched into a commodity, reaching its tentacles wherever in the world a food can be produced most cheaply, and then transporting it wherever it can be sold most dearly.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Pages 248-249

I am very susceptible to supermarket marketing, but I have never really been hooked by the organic food movement. This part of the book differentiates between organic food that has been produced by an industrialized food chain, and food that has been grown on a local farm that fosters the symbiotic balance between grass, animals and trees. The insight for me here, is that all “organic” foods are not created equal, and that the food that is the most organic may actually never get to be labeled organic, because the organic movement and even the word, “organic”, has been co-opted by the industrialized food chain.

Any organic food is probably more nutritious than non-organic food, but the net environmental benefits are questionable if the organic food is being shipped to Toronto from California. Winter in Canada is probably not the best time to be complaining about where my food is being grown. I should simply be thankful that there is an efficient system that allows me to buy oranges in Winter, organic or not. Nevertheless, this book has made me want to eat food that has been grown on a local farm. It has also made me want to learn how to farm. Here’s a link to farmers’ markets in Toronto ». Some of these markets are open year-round, and some are even located near salsa clubs.

Part III

Page 332:
… When Joel noticed a PETA bumper sticker on the man’s car he figured he was in for some unpleasantness. But the man had a different agenda. He explained that after being a vegetarian for sixteen years he had decided that the only way he could ever eat meat again was if he killed the animal himself. So Joel grabbed a chicken and took the man into the processing shed.

The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Page 332

This part was the author’s philosophical introspection about whether or not he should be eating meat. In the process of his introspection, he hunts and kills a wild pig, which he writes about with some gory details. Suprisingly, this part of the book will make an eat-meater feel ok about eating meat. I doubt it will change a vegetarian’s mind though, considering the author’s son remains a vegetarian. I have always been ok about eating meat. Who am I kidding, I love meat. Just the thought of meat, fresh meat, makes me salivate. But this part of the book has made me aware of some of the philosophical issues surrounding the eating of meat.

Final Thoughts

I think in anything, one can draw analogies to anything else. I read this book, for the reason this book was written. But I also couldn’t help but to extend some of the thoughts to salsa. For example, I was tempted to analogize about the corn and corn by-products in processed salsa; or the industrialized salsa food chain that has co-opted salsa music and Afro-Cuban movement to make it convenient for culture-cringed inhabitants of cold countries to consume a co-opted culture (This was brought to you by the Letter ‘C’); or the different ways we strive to purify ourselves in salsa, in pursuit of authenticity, without knowing what is what, until we come to terms with our striving and our ambitions and realize that slow salsa with fresh meet salsera is the most nutritious kind of salsa there is. I tend to submit to temptation.