I've read your books and they have changed the way I eat. (Your three rules are going up on my kitchen wall in three-inch lettering – I just sent off the order!) I have young children and want to impart this common-sense approach to food in them as well. It'll be a while before my oldest, who is five years old, will be able (and willing) to sit down and read your books. What advice do you have for parents wanting to educate their kids on where their food comes from and how to decide what to eat?
– Ben Cox, Vancouver
That's a very good question. I got into all this because my son was such a bad eater and it really was the source of my curiosity about how strange our relationship to food is. But one of the few things that I've learned – and he's 16 now – is that having a garden is a fantastic way to introduce kids to foods. They will eat things from a garden they would never eat off a plate. It's a mystery. It has to do with, I think, the satisfaction of growing and picking something themselves and that they are never going to be sweeter.
Similarly, cooking is a good way to get children interested in food. They will eat things they cooked that they would never eat if someone else cooked it. So my advice would be to get your kids into the kitchen as soon as you can and plant a little vegetable garden – it doesn't have to be ambitious.
I found your arguments in The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food compelling. However, it is much easier to eat produce locally when one is living in California. I can manage to put up some fruits and vegetables in the summer, but not nearly enough to make it through the long Ontario winter. Perhaps if I did not work full-time things would be different. So what do you suggest for those of us in cold climates – are we really supposed to eat only root vegetables for seven to eight months of the year?
–Elizabeth Caucutt, London, Ont.
It's true it's really easy to eat this way in California – and Vancouver, too, I imagine. I'm not a locavore zealot and there's nothing wrong with frozen vegetables – they're really cheap and they are often picked at the height of nutritional quality and freezing does not ruin their nutritional composition. I think it's a very good way to get through the winter months.
I also do think, though, that the idea that you have to have a lettuce salad 12 months of the year has taken hold where there are many other vegetables suitable for salad – root vegetables, cabbage. There are all sorts of ways you can eat fresh vegetables in the winter, shredded with vinaigrette, whatever, that are more nutritious than lettuce salads. There is actually very little food value in lettuce – as much as we all love it, it's overrated.
There's no question it's challenging in the winter and I don't see lots of people putting up hoards of vegetables, but don't overlook freezing or canning. Putting up tomato sauce and preserves for the winter,
if you have the inclination,
is great – it's a wonderful burst of summer in the depths of winter.
How do you see the current recession affecting the local food movement? And what does it mean for smaller-scale farmers?
– Mark Hall, Grenfell, Ont.
It's a mixed bag and there are some contradictory trends going on. On the one hand, McDonald's is doing very well – so certain people are trading down to cheaper restaurants. But then you've got a lot of people who are cooking who weren't cooking before. I've spoken to people who track sales, and ingredient sales are up, so people are cooking more. They have more time because they are working less – so that's a very positive thing.
