I met the (to some) legendary Alice Waters and had a brief conversation with her, not to perster her and praise her, but just to see if she was as genuine as she is portrayed to be. It was my finding that she is, a passionate, intelligent woman who has the ability to transform the way we think by way of food. Food is her medium, yet her ideas communicate a broader message of creating a better quality of life by being in tune with our bodies and our environment.
In http://http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/17/FDMSSNQDP.DTL&hw=alice+waters&sn=002&sc=673, it covers the setting of my meeting with Alice. I explained to her that I had actually once made helped make her dinner while working in SF, and that my fellow cooks were all enamored by her presence. She was flattered, and said when I make it back to the Bay I ought to come to Chez Panisse, to which I said, "I'm sure you can have any cook you want." She noted that she would remember me, and that she doesn't forget enthusiastic, young cooks. It was pretty cool, and I immersed myself in her book later. But back to the issues:
"In the Midwest, there are other obstacles as well. I was able to coerce
two people from my original e-mail to forgo the Cubs pre-game to attend Waters'
lecture. As the crowd filed out, they voiced their frustrations. "It's really
inspiring," said 25-year old teacher Carly Leavitt, "but how are we supposed to
get fresh fruits and vegetables all year-round here?"
Dana Abrams, a 24-year old social worker, added, "This is a very urban city, and it's hard to have access to the produce from rural areas."
Both agreed that while they saw the value in educating younger kids, it was difficult to find the motivation to change their own eating habits, especially given the expense of buying local and organic ingredients.
Throughout the weekend, others voiced similar concerns, but Waters was ready with an arsenal of rebuttals. Winter? No problem. Plan ahead. Can tomatoes, pickle vegetables, preserve fruit. Enjoy nuts, dried fruits and grains. Start a greenhouse. It's all possible.
Most would call this an idealistic fantasy. Maybe, but in the 36 years she's been fighting for her cause, she's seen enough progress to keep her going, and her message hasn't changed. She wants a healthier, happier America, accomplished by eating
delicious food, and eating together.
"Good food sends positive ripples through the community," says Waters, and she's intent on providing the means and ideas to make that happen."
As far as this being an "idealistic fantasy," it's not. It's something that certainly would not happen overnight, but it's something that work and education could develop. It's about making food part of your life, not simply treating it as something to remedy your hunger. You put it in your body. How much more important could it be? With proper practice and effort, eating naturally produced fruits, vegetables and meats can happen year 'round. I firmly believe that all it comes down to is effort. Starting a greenhouse in your backyard may be unfeasible for many, including myself, yet the ideas can be done on a smaller scale of self-sustainability. You can learn how to preserve fruits, how to can things - maybe even utilize that freezer! The cost of organics are high in supermarkets, which is why non-supermarkets are so essential. If you're lucky enough to have any of these in your town, visit them to find high quality produce for low prices. Learning to eat in season has great rewards for your health, and it makes you appreciate what nature has to offer throughout the year.
If you think of what's been going on throughout time, people have been eating organically for CENTURIES. It's only since the 50's when fast-food began, unnatural preservatives started to be used, that as food-consumers, we thought we were headed toward the future with microwaveable dinners and bags of potato chips. How we lacked progress. There's much that can be done, and although Waters has been called a crusader, leader of a cult, and so-on and so-forth, she's got undeniable points. No, she wasn't the first person to discover organics, but why isn't anyone else raising as much awareness as she is? The earliest steps in a movement are creating consciousness (Eric Hoffer verified)
From my own experience, I've seen, and been a part of what food can do on a larger scale:
http://www.nopasf.com/pdf/nicolenopa.pdf
Read into it. Interpret it. The result of a conscious food-based community speaks for itself.
