Before I begin, I want to comment on yesterday’s post. I think I may have made the wrong message. I recognize that everyone, myself included, must shop at grocery stores to purchase some if not all of our needs. At the same time, I do believe that grocery stores are not in the business of health; they are in the profit-making business. As such, the food-labeling campaign is great for grocers because now more of their packaged products are deemed “healthy.” This is distressing for me. I do not trust grocery stores (unless they are coops with a strong volunteer base.) Grocery stores do not want transparency; they do not want intelligent consumers; they want people to purchase foods based on anything but health considerations. Yes, grocery stores have whole foods, but what percentage of their products are whole fruits and vegetables? I could go on and I won’t. I just want to make clear that I strive to put less of my money in the hands of grocery stores and more in the hands of the producer. In today’s world we can buy our fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products directly from producers (farmers). That is my goal and I believe that we should all strive to strengthen local economies and local agriculture, etc. (I would love to hear other’s thoughts on this – please comment and let’s hear what you think!)

There are 5 people in the world of food that I consider heroes. Today I want to share these fine individuals with all of you. Some of them you may know or have heard of and some of them may be complete strangers. But these are the people I admire and mention in conversation more than most others. And so, in no particular order, my heroes in food:

1. Michael Pollan – Writer, journalist, professor, and top-dog advocate for seasonal and local eating habits (among other important concerns.) He is the end-all guru in food politics (in my opinion.) Or maybe I should say, he is my guru in food politics. Everything he writes is damn good. More than anything, he takes complicated issues and writes in laymen’s terms (most of the time.) His writing is very accessible, no matter your literacy on the matter. He is most well-known for The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. (Though at this point he may be known for more recent publications.) I cannot speak highly enough of this book. If you are at all interested in anything related to current food issues you have to read this book! Don’t be the person who says “I’ve heard of it” or “I know what it’s about.” Just buy it or get it at the library of do what you have to do to get a hold of it – and read it! I promise you it will change your life.

2. Joel Salatin – Once you have read half of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, you will know this guy. Pollan is fascinated by Salatin and what he has done for pasture-raised animals. In short, Joel Salatin is the farmer leading the pasture/grass-fed animal movement. Salatin is a farmer in Virginia who runs Polyface farm. On his farm the the animals work together in symbiotic relationships to fertilize the land and produce diverse and healthy pastures for future livestock. His farming method (which is explained in great detail in Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma) is truly sustainable, truly healthy for the animals, and truly healthy for those people that eat his animals. Over the last year I have become a huge advocate of grass-fed meat (which I will extrapolate on a lot down the road) and Salatin’s farming method is one to trust.

3. Will Allen – Like Salatin, Will Allen has been farming for years but the recent explosion in food politics has given him some national fame. Winner of the “genius” MacArthur Award for his work in urban agriculture, Allen (like Salatin) is changing the way we think about sustainable food production. He is the founder of the non-profit Growing Power in Milwaukee, WI. He has taken 2 acres of land in urban Milwaukee and created a MASSIVELY COMPLEX urban farm, complete with 6 greenhouses, an apiary with 5 beehives, 3 poultry hoop houses, outdoor pens for livestock, and numerous other facilities for growing sustainable food systems. As someone who is eager to develop urban food systems, this guy is amazing and a recent hero in my book. One of my goals is to mimic his work in Portland – to create a small yet intensive sustainable farm for low-income folks to gain access to sustenance and knowledge at the same time, in the same place.

4. Mike Braucher – Compared to these other folks, Mike is a grain of sand in a huge dune at the beach. Nonetheless, in the Twin Cities of Minnesota he is a hero to me and my friends there. He is one of the less well-known farmers utilizing the Salatin method and providing healthy and affordable meat to people throughout Minneapolis and outside communities. Befriending him as a member of his CSA connected me to this beautiful food chain of sustainable sustenance. For those of you who live out there in Minnesota and do not know of this farm, please do yourself a favor and join his CSA! Sunshine Harvest Farm

5. Mark Bittman – As far as I understand, Bittman joined the action from a different angle than these other folk. Mark Bittman is a cook, a chef I suppose. He writes for The New York Times, he has published many books including my personal kitchen bible – How to Cook Everything. I received this book of his when I graduate from college and as I became more comfortable cooking, this is the book that provided that comfort. His philosophy is that a) anyone can cook and b) cooking can be simple and delicious. I think I feared cooking for so long because I assumed that fancy cooking dominated the world of food. Bittman helped me realize that each vegetable, fruit, grain, meat, egg, etc can stand on its own on the dinner plate. I highly recommend this particular book of his to anyone that wants to start cooking more often. I will provide links to his blog, http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com.

Note: I recognize that none of these individuals are women. I do admire Alice Waters, Julia Child, Sally Fallon, Molly Katzen and many others. I intend to post more on other activists that inspire me.

Who are your heroes in the kitchen?

Related posts:

1. A simple menu (weekly menu 2)
2. The Grass-Fed Manifesto (Part I)
3. The Grass-Fed Manifesto (part 4)
4. Urban farming – a world of possibility
5. The Grass-Fed Manifesto (part 3)

Tags: Grass-Fed, Joel Salatin, Mark Bittman, Michael Pollan, Urban Ag, Will Allen