This too.
by Mike
Joe is Mexican, he lives in Mexico. He grows peppers and cows for a living, selling his veggies and meat to neighbors. Often he’ll trade steaks for other veggies to round out the family’s diet. The family has always made just enough money to get by, enough for food and for the kids’ school.
Unfortunately, Joe was renting his land, and that land was sold to a tomato company that exports its produce. Joe’s going to lose his farm, but they’ll rent another house in town and try to make it work. The company also bought most of the neighbors’ farms, so now anyone who wants to eat has to buy food from a restaurant or store.
Joe tries working at the tomato farm, but the wages are too low, the family finds they can’t make ends meet. Joe decides he’ll follow others’ example and go to the US, leaving his family at home. (Read More)
He illegally goes to Arizona to find work. He finds it at a diner, busing tables. The pay is much better there than at the tomato farm, which means that if Joe sacrifices his comfort, he can send money home to his family. Obviously he’d rather be in Mexico, but, you know, that’s life.
After the hullabaloo in Arizona about illegal immigrants, Joe moves to Seattle where he finds work busing tables at a cafe.
Then, in December, you walk into the cafe and you order water and a tomato. Joe brings it to you. Neither he nor you know where the tomato is from. The tomato is originally from Joe’s old land, from the farm that didn’t pay him well.
The cafe owner might know that it’s from Mexico, but they might not, and besides, they’re watching the bottom line. Of course, that’s why we eat Mexican tomatoes in Seattle – because it was so cheap to grow and harvest that the cafe can buy it and serve it to you at a great price in the middle of winter, or maybe you buy it at a grocery store for the same reason.
The local stuff the farmers grow here is too expensive, you think, and besides, there isn’t any local tomato in December, and you want tomato in December, seasons be damned.
You smile at Joe, and he smiles back, and both of you are oblivious to the fact that by ordering tomato you’ve indirectly separated Joe from his family. He may or may not resent you for it. You may or may not resent him for being here.
You might buy Coke from Iowan farmers displaced by corn, order chicken from an Arkansan displaced by chicken farms, drink wine with French people displaced by vineyards, order salmon from Alaskans whose fish runs are trickling. These are gastronomic refugees, maybe some generations removed, but they can’t go home.
You’re no socialist, but you also don’t want to hurt people, you tend to like them. But money alienates us from the spirit and people at the source of our food. So you spend the money and you hurt others. You’re not bad, you just didn’t know how else to do it.
So, now that we can see how it works, we have to ask ourselves: given that we have money and there’s tomato on the menu or in the Costco, do we have a right to buy it just because we want it? Am I greedier than I am compassionate?
Your money can be used for good, to support things you believe in. It can be used here, for the farmers and farms that are here. For the families and nutrients here, even if they don’t have tomatoes. You don’t need a tomato, like, ever.
The default use of money, these days, supports practices that hurt others, so it’s not good enough to go with the flow. The closer you are to your source – the fewer hands through which your money passes to get to the soil – the more sure you can be that your food isn’t hurting people. It kinda doesn’t matter how bad you want the tomato.
Tags: food philosophy, food politics
Posted in food and USA
Published on June 7, 2010
at 10:27 am.
3 comments
OK, now this makes more sense….I guess we are trying, but do have a habit of not thinking about where everything comes from. You, Azure and Mother Earth are helping us along. Thank you
Hey Mike,
This is a great post about a phenomenon that is ever present and completely hidden. Really nicely written in a way that is easy to understand. It reminds me of this: http://www.storyofstuff.com/, also a great commentary, only about consumerism and its effects on us, others and the environment.
Thanks Nicole. I love that Story of Stuff link, very well done. Buying stuff = ethical minefield.
Joanne – We’re trying too, and food is just one of the aspects. The fact that we fly around the world every year is pretty ugly. So is the use of my car for work.
The thing about food, though, is that it’s a relatively minor shift in habit, but it takes a relatively major shift in thinking. Either way, it’s something that we can pay attention to three times a day, and it’s one piece of the puzzle that gets us closer to clean living.