by Melissa Pasanen quotes Amy Trubek
Free Press Correspondent
September 2003
The answer to the question posed by Saturday’s 2003 George D. Aiken Lectures at the University of Vermont may seem obvious. Even though some days you wish someone else would go to the store to buy your groceries (not to mention cook dinner for you and then clean up), most regular folk trudge up and down the supermarket aisles themselves.
But in a world where the eight-ounce standard beverage serving has all but disappeared in favor of the 20-ounce “value” deal; where supermarket chains stock the same two or three potato varieties from coast to coast; and where the national poultry industry is dominated by just four large companies, the underlying question is, “How much choice do consumers really have?”
“By the time we get to the supermarket or restaurant,” said Rachel Johnson, Dean of UVM’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, in her introduction to the public conference, “Dozens of choices have already been made, including what to grow, how to grow it, how to preserve or change it, how to transport it, and how to sell it.”
But, one might ask, if the 20-ounce soda doesn’t cost that much more than the old eight-ounce size (and customers are getting a lot more soda after all), why does it even matter?
It matters, Johnson explained, because America has been hit by an obesity epidemic: sixty percent of adults in the US are now considered overweight or obese, and the rate of childhood obesity has risen to an unprecedented 15 percent. Everyone agrees that Americans are eating more than ever, and moving less. The disagreement arises over who is responsible for this change in behavior, and what can be done to fix it.
Companies across the food system — from seed developers to restaurant chains — argue that they are simply responding to consumer demand. During Saturday’s presentations, however, many experts on food, nutrition, and agriculture suggested that consumers might have unwittingly surrendered control of their own demands.
In the university’s Patrick Gymnasium — under a sports sponsorship ad featuring French fries and soda —Marion Nestle, Chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at New York University and author, most recently of Safe Food (University of California Press, 2003), focused her keynote speech on what she described as “the elephant under the carpet.”
For big food businesses to continue growing, Nestle explained, they have two choices: to convince consumers to eat their food instead of another company’s food, or to convince consumers to eat more in general. In today’s very competitive market, many companies are pursuing both strategies aggressively.
With slide after slide, she demonstrated how big food business influences what Americans eat through massive marketing expenditures and less obvious, but equally strong, pressure on our political system. “Obesity is a matter of politics and food systems at least as much as personal responsibility,” Nestle argued.
From those cute counting picture books featuring brand name cereals or cookies, to soda companies paying big dollars for exclusive rights into schools, to the impact of powerful food industry lobbies on US dietary guidelines, Nestle showed that the influences on food choices have changed significantly since Vermont Senator George Aiken spent only $17.09 on his 1968 re-election campaign — a fact she had noted with approval in her introductory remarks.
Limiting the food industry’s political clout is high on Nestle’s list of changes needed to improve real choice in the supermarket and at the restaurant table or drive-through. Another top priority is the elimination of food marketing in schools. Education is also where she sees the most hope for teaching kids about good food — how to prepare it and where it comes from. She urged parents to “March right into the principal’s office and get involved. Schools are a great place to begin.”
Following the keynote presentation, panel discussions delivered further insight into the importance of consumer choice across three different and important foods: poultry, potatoes, and dairy. Presenters offered a variety of steps consumers could take towards increased control over their own choices.
The poultry panel included two UVM alumni from the extremes of the industry. Rob Litch of Misty Knoll in New Haven described the challenges of being “a little farm on top of a little hill in a small state” while Hank Engster of Perdue Farms shared the perspective of a top-five US player in an increasingly global market. Misty Knoll will never compete at the commodity level Litch said, but he is depending on consumers to appreciate the difference in his chicken as well as the company’s good environmental and business practices. “The consumer needs to make a choice,” he said.
During the discussion about potatoes, Amy Trubek, a food anthropologist and professor at the New England Culinary Institute, compared the USDA-recommended serving size of ten fries to the actual number in a “super-sized” fast food serving. In fast food restaurants, Trubek observed, “We don’t have any choice in what varieties of potato we eat or how they’re cooked, but we can eat lots and lots.” The largest size fries will never be a healthy choice, agreed her co-panelist, Margo Wootan, Director of Nutrition Policy for the Washington, DC-based Center for Science in the Public Interest, but, Wootan added, “A simple oil change by fast food companies could reduce heart disease significantly.”
The final panel of the day, which addressed the economics and politics of the dairy industry, included the Vermont Commissioner of Agriculture, Steve Kerr. Kerr echoed Nestle and other panelists when he urged consumers to be aware of the influence they can wield. He particularly emphasized the need to support local farmers — large and small — whose products were available to the estimated 700 conference attendees throughout the day in the form of heirloom varieties of crisp Vermont apples, sandwiches made with Misty Knoll turkey, cheeses from all over the state, and little paper bags of unusual potatoes grown by UVM students. Professional chefs demonstrated how to prepare a whole Vermont chicken and ways to cook with potatoes that are not just big, long and brown.
At the same time, Kerr admitted that he also identified with many Vermonters who may not realize the extent to which their food choices are not entirely their own. “We do make at least semi-conscious choices regarding the food we buy,” he said hopefully. And after listening to the full day of Aiken lectures, he added, attendees should be more conscious than ever of the limits and power of their food choices.
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Contact Melissa Pasanen at mpasanen@aol.com
Resources:
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Tips for cooking a whole Vermont chicken from Robert Barral, Executive Chef, New England Culinary Institute:
1 ˝ pounds mixed potatoes (one russet plus any other varieties), peeled
and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 whole scallions, chopped
1 cup milk (low fat is fine)
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley or chives
Combine the potatoes, butter, scallions, and milk in a wide saucepan.
Add enough water so that the potatoes are just barely covered. Season with salt
and pepper and bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat to a simmer,
cover, and cook until the potatoes are tender, 18 to 20 minutes. Check from
time to time to see that the liquid is not boiling too vigorously.
Remove the cover and increase the heat to medium-high. Boil gently,
stirring a few times, to evaporate some of the liquid and thicken the stew, 5
to 8 minutes. Stir in the parsley or chives and taste for salt and pepper.
Serve warm. Serves 4. — Adapted from One Potato, Two Potato by Roy Finamore
& Molly Stevens (Houghton-Mifflin)
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