Slow Foods vs. Low Income
Why does it have to be “versus”? Can the two coexist?
A recent “Weekday” broadcast featured Hsiao-Ching Chou, the food editor for the Seattle PI. She had many useful inputs on eating local/organic/sustainable/slow food. However, her big rebuttal on the topic of organic/locally grown produce being too expensive and “elitist” was as follows:
Many low-income people don’t have time to cook, don’t know how to cook, don’t know what to do with these fresh items, so they rely on cheap, processed products with no nutritional value. They could by fresh lettuce, it’s a good deal at farmer’s markets. The problem is really education.
WTF?! Are you kidding me? Education is not the problem with low-income consumption of local/organic/sustainable/slow food. Cost is. And convenience (which really just boils back down to cost). It costs more. It is yuppie and elitist.
People want cheap, so they’ll buy Chilean-born bananas for 99 cents a pound at the local super, and not think twice about the real cost of those bananas.
Sorry for my very inaccurate transcript. You should check out the show to hear it in her words.