Demystifying Food from Farm to Fork

by Maurice J. Hladik

Overview

In North America and elsewhere, there is a growing concern by many that they are no longer connected in any meaningful way with the production or processing of the food they consume. Furthermore, many sources portray a negative bias regarding the production, transport, processing, and marketing of today’s food.

In DEMYSTIFYING FOOD FROM FARM TO FORK, author Maurice J. Hladik examines a plethora of issues surrounding the agricultural industry. It answers the questions of what is food, what does farm to market really mean, and whether the food we eat is safe. It also discusses the controversies and socioeconomic concerns surrounding food and the food supply, such as the role of government; farming, environment, and biodiversity; genetically modi?ed food; organic foods; the 100-mile diet; weather, climate, and food; and animal and poultry welfare.

Hladik—a descendant of European farmers who settled on farms in Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota as early as 1834—not only provides a lively discussion of food controversies, but also shares hundreds of little-known facts about food and farming.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781462068050
Publisher:	iUniverse, Incorporated
Publication date:	02/02/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB

Read an Excerpt

Demystifying FOOD from FARM to FORK

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By Maurice J. Hladik

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2012 Maurice J. Hladik
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-6803-6

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Chapter One

What Is Food?

Merriam–Webster's online dictionary food as "material consisting essentially of protein, carbohydrate, and fat used in the body of an organism to sustain growth, repair, and vital processes and to furnish energy; also: such food together with supplementary substances (as minerals, vitamins, and condiments)." This is a comprehensive definition that captures the technical essence of food, but I maintain that what we eat is also a personal matter for individuals, and it very much depends on the circumstances relating to the way the concept of food is entertained in the human mind.

Take a gourmand sitting down for a meal at a three-star Michelin restaurant in the company of a special friend on some summer evening in rural France. His or her attitude toward food is mostly related to a very high degree of anticipated pleasure with little thought to the above definition. This is a perfectly acceptable state of mind, as indeed the enjoyment of fine food and beverages, along with positive social interaction with others, is as old as civilization itself. In contrast, this same gourmand in quite another setting, such as finishing a vigorous workout in a hungry state, will now likely have an identity with food more along the lines of the definition. Such a hungry person, gourmand or otherwise, will in the interest of time simply make do with the offerings of a fast food outlet or whatever is handy in the fridge.

Then there are the individuals and their families who are facing food insecurity. When one is hungry and food is not available, it becomes an obsession, with all effort going into securing the next meal. Sometimes this obsession leads to acts of desperation such as theft, particularly if a caring parent has hungry or starving children.

Hunter-gatherers were almost constantly on the lookout for their next meal. For them food and its acquisition was probably the dominant activity while awake. But when the hunters brought a large animal back to the village, making a feast for all possible, then most likely the social and pleasure aspects of food became part of the occasion. While much less refined, this event would have been somewhat akin to the experience of the gourmand.

Farmers might have a different perspective. For them food may be the crop growing in the field, or many tons of grain loaded on a truck to be delivered to the market. Then there are the officials at the USDA, the United Nations, and the Food and Agriculture Organization who are concerned about the macro situation of feeding a nation or the world.

And finally, what meaning does food have for the readers of this book? It is only a guess, but many will be somewhat like me, with no food security issues but an interest in feeding the family a safe, nutritious, and reasonably priced assortment of interesting food. Socializing with meals is also important, as is a healthy interest in sustainable farming practices and the prosperity of farmers, local and otherwise. Where my food comes from and how it got to my supermarket is also of interest.

All these various approaches to the meaning of food provided a rich backdrop for me when deciding on which topics might interest a broad spectrum of readers.

Chapter Two

What Does "Farm to Fork" Mean?

As is the case with the definition of food, the term "farm to fork" can be applied in a variety of ways. For some it can involve a community picnic, where only local foods are served in order to emphasize a very direct link between food production and consumption. The emphasis here is on the local food movement.

There is also the issue of food safety as foodstuff moves from farms to the point of consumption. On IBM's website they provide a description of how their technology can be applied to track food from farm to fork. The benefit of this is the rapid detection and withdrawal of any food products that have become contaminated and pose a risk to health.

Elected officials and bureaucrats use the term when drafting legislation or enforcing regulations that ensures all steps along the way are in place to facilitate the availability of ample supplies of safe, nutritious, and reasonably priced food.

For the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the emphasis is on the socioeconomic aspects of food security and the avoidance of actual hunger. Here there is a sense of urgency and of the complexities of the often great distances from farm to fork as food is moved from areas of abundance like North America to regions of scarcity such as Sub-Sahara Africa.

And finally, when I was a boy growing up on the farm and later as a young adult, I used to speculate where the truckloads of wheat might be processed and consumed. Although I had never heard the phrase "farm to fork," I did understand the concept. The wheat could have been processed in a nearby flour mill and, against all odds, returned as bread along with our family groceries. Because most of such wheat in Canada is exported, a more likely scenario would have the grain shipped to China and the then Soviet Union, where it would be milled and converted into products quite unfamiliar to me, and then consumed in some location beyond my imagination.

To best capture all these various points of view, I turn to Dictionary.com for the following encompassing definition of farm to fork:

Definition: Pertaining to the human food chain from agricultural production to consumption

Example: We want to explain the complex process by which food reaches the consumer's table and the systems and technologies that ensure the quality and safety of food from farm to fork.

I find this definition helpful because it covers almost any issue that has a direct or indirect impact on all elements of the human food chain, including the socioeconomic consequences related to consumption such as improper diets, food scarcity, or even hunger and famine.

Chapter Three

Today's Frustrated Hunter-Gatherer

Though there were neither farms nor forks during the era of the hunter-gatherers, the parallel "hand to mouth" existence would have been very real. I venture that humans were then much more connected with their food than they are today, and here lies the concern some modern humans have with the apparent lack of transparency and understanding of the farm-to-fork dynamic.

According to most anthropologists, Homo sapiens have been around for between 250 and 400 thousand years. With carbon dating, they have discovered that primitive agriculture started to evolve about ten thousand years ago. If human existence on this earth were measured in terms of a twenty-four-hour clock, the earliest efforts at farming began at 11:00 pm, symbolically at the eleventh hour.

Taking the most recent date for the evolution of our species, there have been about ten thousand generations that survived by their skills and efforts as hunter-gatherers. Following this there were about four hundred generations that, until very recently in terms of human development, depended on subsistence farming that was probably augmented by a continuation of hunting and gathering. For all these generations, humans lived by their wits to glean enough food to at least keep them alive and to procreate. This quest for food was the ultimate test of survival of the fittest, swiftest, and smartest and was a constant challenge for our ancestors.

This was the most fundamental human preoccupation, and perhaps subconsciously, many individuals in advanced societies sense that something is amiss when suddenly (in terms of the long history of human existence) so little effort is required today to obtain more than ample nourishment without concern of hunger or famine from sources that have no resemblance to the environment of our early ancestors. For some folks, this brings an understandable and perhaps primordial feeling of discomfort with the entire food system. The subconscious may be telling such individuals that this is too good to be true, and taking food availability for granted does not serve basic survival instincts. Thus it is a natural human reaction to become more engaged in actual food production, or at least spend time becoming familiar with the process by which it finds its way to the family table.

Although humans started to grow their own food ten thousand years ago, modern agriculture, which began with the introduction of the self-propelled steam engine or tractor in the late 1800s, is a relatively new phenomenon. Even with the introduction of mechanized agriculture, farms still remained quite small and labor intensive for many decades; it was not until after the Second World War that large-scale agriculture became a reality. Thus until about 1950 the majority of people still had some association with a farm through family, friends, or the community—there was still a connection for many as to where food came from, and food looked like it came from the farm. For most, this was probably enough to satisfy enough of the primordial hunter-gatherer instincts about securing food.

After 1950 this connection with farming has increasingly disappeared, with extensive urbanization occurring often in cities—where several million inhabitants had never even been close to commercial food production. Furthermore, the proportion of active farmers in the national labor force of most developed nations declined, so it was becoming less and less likely that there would be family or friendship connections with those in the urban community. In addition, many of the basic farming practices of earlier days have largely been replaced by advanced and sophisticated but less transparent plant and animal production technologies that lend themselves to large farming units to take advantage of economies of scale.

To continue with the twenty-four-hour clock, the change in the 1950s is now down to only a few seconds before midnight in terms of human history. It is therefore quite understandable that in recent decades many people in North America and other advanced economies are extremely uneasy about this loss of what had always been a fundamental element of human existence.

In the past, if the whole community was not constantly engaged in obtaining food, hunger or worse was sure to follow. Perhaps it is a bit of an exaggeration, but for some there might be a feeling of impending doom brought on by a relatively sudden and total absence of the need or opportunity to put any real effort into securing nourishment. The perpetually full horn of plenty that is a modern-day reality for many is perhaps an illusion that could disappear, leaving most individuals with little ability to fall back on their primitive agriculture instincts were the existing food industry were to fail.

To this we add the fact that much of our food today would probably be rejected by our hunter-gatherer forefathers as too strange to contemplate. Take beverages, for example. For the first several thousand generations of human existence, water was the only the liquid intake of consequence beyond infancy, and it contained no calories or nutrients except for a few trace minerals. There is now milk, coffee, tea, fruit juices, a great selection of sugar-laced drinks, and a host of alcoholic beverages. Might there be some negative, primitive reaction to drinking food instead of chewing it? Beyond beverages, there are the ubiquitous processed fast foods that we recognize as junk food because of their challenged nutritional qualities.

Not only is there a disconnect with where food comes from, but the senses of sight, taste, touch, and smell of much of what we eat probably send signals to the brain that further confuse the primitive urges of modern humans longing for a closer connection to what is on the fork. It is not surprising that there is discomfort with modern agriculture and the food supply and processing industry. Not only are the sources of much of our food today lacking transparency, but so many forms of it are unrecognizable as something our ancestors would hunt or gather.

Many people in advanced societies receive real comfort from growing their own food, shopping in farmers' markets, knowing the farmer who grows the food that is about to be consumed, and seeking out local products. It is also apparent that for some there is a negative reaction to modern commercial agriculture, given the scale of farming, the total disconnect of populations from actual food producing operations, and the difficulty to understand and appreciate advanced practices that are foreign to the farming of even a couple generations ago. The less than obvious origin of much of today's food only adds to the angst.

To further contribute to this confusing state, over their lifetime the hunter-gatherers probably faced many periods of hunger but survived these by being able to store body fat. This survival mechanism served early Homo sapiens very well, and indeed those who had a metabolism that was particularly efficient, by easily and quickly gaining body fat during periods of plenty, were the ones most likely to survive prolonged food shortages and have now passed this trait on to modern humans. Unfortunately, in today's world of nearly constant abundance for some countries, this survival gene serves many individuals poorly and manifests itself in the obesity epidemic. It is common sense that those who go on crash diets trick their body into the famine-coping mode and therefore enhance the propensity to gain and store fat once the crash diet has ended. Not only does this survival mechanism work against people's well-being, but the all too frequent sedentary leisure that has replaced the strenuous effort of hunting, gathering, and primitive agriculture further contributes to the obesity issue. Though no one is suggesting returning to this earlier lifestyle, our bodies are designed to pack on the pounds, and for many an inactive lifestyle has contributed further to the dissatisfaction with today's farm to fork food dynamic.

However, in contrast to the above situation, the development of modern agriculture has many benefits, such as reducing or eliminating food security in many places on a global scale and providing nutrition at very low costs, both in actual monetary terms and when measured in units of hours of work required to put enough calories and nutrition on the table. If pure logic prevailed, this should be recognized as an incredible step forward. Furthermore, this situation has freed up humans to find creative pursuits in commerce, science, and the arts without stress regarding feeding oneself and one's clan. However, many thoughtful people are simply not wired to sit back and enjoy the perpetual bounty of our fields, orchards, fish ponds, and pastures. Fundamental hunter-gatherer instincts of survival leave many troubled with so little control or involvement in securing their food supply.

What I have described regarding being a frustrated hunter-gatherer is personal and has impacted my behavior over the years. For starters, I must garden to feel complete. When overseas in Thailand, I was blessed with a lush tropical garden with papayas, bananas, and mangoes; guinea hens largely living off what they found in the garden; and ducks in a pond. In Hong Kong I had tomatoes thriving in my south kitchen window on the thirty-sixth-floor apartment where I lived with my family. Moving on to Beijing, I again grew tomatoes on the south-facing window ledges of my apartment. When my wife, three young children, and I were evacuated because of the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989, these plants were abandoned for many days, but when I returned, although the foliage had withered from lack of water, I was left with the legacy of a few very ripe but still quite delicious tomatoes.

In all the turmoil of the time, that insignificant harvest gave me a symbolic and very welcome sense of gathering my food. Back in Canada I have my garden, which is described later and in some detail. I am not alone; countless others are embracing growing at least some of their own food, some for the first time and others as old hands who have long known the therapeutic and culinary benefits of this pursuit.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Demystifying FOOD from FARM to FORK by Maurice J. Hladik Copyright © 2012 by Maurice J. Hladik. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Preface....................xi
Acknowledgments....................xiii
Author's Note....................xv
1. What Is Food?....................1
2. What Does "Farm to Fork" Mean?....................3
3. Today's Frustrated Hunter-Gatherer....................5
4. The Family Farm—Where Food Begins....................10
5. From Farm to Consumer....................29
6. The Consumer of Food....................40
7. Role of Government....................48
8. Farming, the Environment, and Biodiversity....................52
9. Genetically Modified Food: The Controversy....................57
10. Organic Foods—More Controversy....................71
11. The Hundred-Mile Diet....................84
12. Pros and Cons of Knowing Your Farmer....................88
13. Legacy, Heritage, and Heirloom Varieties....................91
14. So You Think You Can Garden!....................94
15. Weather, Climate, and Food....................98
16. Water and Food Production....................104
17. Animal Protein: Too Much of a Good Thing?....................112
18. Animal and Poultry Welfare....................118
19. Hormones and Antibiotics in Livestock Production....................124
20. The Pros and Cons of Backyard Egg Production....................127
21. Food Expectations of North Americans in a Hungry World....................130
22. Fish, Fishing, and Fish Farming....................132
23. Background on Farming of Selected Food Products....................136
Wheat....................136
Dairy....................142
Beef....................147
Apples....................149
24. Is the Food We Eat Safe?....................152
25. Agriculture in the Third World....................155
26. Food Security, Insecurity, and Famines....................168
27. Abuse of Food in the Kitchen....................175
28. Food Myths Busted....................183
29. Is Information on Food Reliable?....................188
30. Biofuels and Food....................193
31. Feeding the Global Population....................200
32. The Future of Food and Farming....................203
33. Conclusions....................207
Notes....................209
Index....................227