An Edible History of Humanity - Tom Standage

An Edible History of Humanity was sort of entertaining, as it contains lots of colorful anecdotes, but much of it felt like a less substantive (and very derivative) version of Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemna (cf the discussion of corn). Moreover, I came away feeling like behind his pseudo-intellectualism, Standage is either really ignorant, or sort of a schmuck. His political beliefs, when they show through, are disturbing.

For example, Standage describes several instances of famines in which the native community starved, while exporting their food for consumption by wealthy foreigners.* However, evidently without realizing the irony in his position, Standage remains shockingly, unabashedly colonialist - he explains the danger of the current popularity of "local food" by stating that, "an exclusive focus on local foods would harm the prospects of farmers in developing countries who grow high-value crops for export to foreign markets. To argue that they should concentrate on growing staple foods for themselves, rather than more valuable crops for wealthy farmers, is tantamount to denying them the opportunity for economic development." I was dumbfounded when I read this... Below I have excerpted only 2 of several passages where Standage plainly describes the misery that results when poor farmers grow crops for wealthy foreigners, but this does not seem to have shaken his ideology.

He also extensively lauds the virtues of nitrogen farming while devoting exactly 1 paragraph to its dangers, trivializes the organic movement, and is a bit over-the-top in his rah-rah Capitalist, anti-Communist jingoism ("Is it a coincidence that the worst famine in history occurred in a Communist state?"). He's the business editor at the Economist, so maybe that explains it?

Anyway, I wish he would take some time out from copying Pollan's rhetoric to read a little Chomsky.

Sigh!

* On p.135, he states that "by the early 1840s, imports from Ireland were supplying one sixth of England's food. This food was produced by men who worked on the best, most easily cultivated land and were typically given small patches of inferior land on which they grew potatoes to support themselves and their families. The English could only keep eating bread, in short, because the Irish were eating potatoes." He later describes, on p.188, how under Mao in China, "the main cause of the famine was not inadequate food production so much as the farmers' lack of entitlement to it. The food they produced went to feed people in the cities, Party officials, and foreigners."

Anthony Bourdain

So I'd never watched Anthony Bourdain and had never read Anthony Bourdain, but this spring ran across an interview he did with the DCist in Washington where he compares Alice Waters to the Khmer Rouge. I thought "well THAT'S a little extreme" but wasn't ready to form an opinion until (a)I had read some Anthony Bourdain, and (b) had learned more about Alice Waters and had eaten at Chez Panisse.

Both A and B have been accomplished. Ironically, I chose the Bourdain book where he attends a dinner party of vegetarians in Berkeley which is a HILARIOUS chapter. From his perspective, the Berkeley-ites come off as virtuous, hypocritic Alice Waters-disciples who tout a lifestyle completely out of reach and disconnected from the average US citizen. I see his point. Then again, I imagine that one of those dinner party attendees would say that 'Tony' is a chain-smoking and offensive vagrant who behaves badly for fame and a paycheck. Neither party is innocent.

But what he really criticizes at that dinner party is the vegetarian cooking. If vegetarian food is cooked poorly, it's not going to taste good. Period. However, Bourdain didn't actually eat at Chez Panisse. If he had, he would have had the best vegetarian meal of his life. Last month in Berkeley, Eric and I made a pilgrimage to the CP Cafe. The ambiance was relaxed, the service was attentive but not intrusive, and my vegetarian meal was divine. And no where did I see signs of communism or other subversive powers at work.

And I picked up Alice's "In the Green Kitchen". It turns out to be a compilation book of techniques by her favorite chefs, but the foreword is passionately written by her and illustrates that her philosophy is not meant to be virtuous, its meant to drive a return to local, homegrown and sustainable food. I see how that might be out of reach for some, but for many communities (including the impoverished SW corner of DC that just received its first Yes! Organic Grocery store) Alice's movement IS coming and it IS going to provide access to pesticide-free, responsibly grown food. How is that bad, Bourdain?

Bourdain backsteps on his Waters-hating by saying that he appreciates what she did for local producers. I found it ironic that he went on from Berkeley to eat a 16 course, 4 hour, over-the-top meal at French Laundry and couldn't find anything to criticize about that. If you want to talk about something completely out of reach for the average American, lets talk about THAT!

Regardless of the philosophies, I enjoyed Bourdain's travels (especially his time in Russia) and found myself laughing out loud at his inner-dialogue. The man is funny, and I don't think anyone can argue with that.