by Jack Moffitt

Greetings Local Food Fans!

A few weeks ago I mentioned Michael Pollans latest book In Defense of Food – An Eaters Manifesto and now I am reading the diatribe in it about how we have been misled about our food for a good while. Ironically, the news this week is abuzz about how the Government has dialed back the recommendations for women on mammograms (fewer and later). The Government, according to Pollan, led a gullible American public to consume more carbohydrates, by warning about fat in the diet. This in turn sparked a wave of carb bingeing, obesity and diabetes. The end result is not disputable. The arguments regarding how the end result came about are like any political argument – multi-faceted and influenced by more than just facts. Likewise, this recent controversy about breast cancer screening will involve facts, and politics.

Pollan points out that the bad food pyramid was not so much the culprit, as the methodology it employed called “nutritionism” – the practice of referring to food by it’s nutritional make up (carbohydrates, fats, proteins, etc. ) instead of its type (fruit, meat, veggie). Once you buy into nutritionism, your idea of health food is low-fat cookies with a low-carb beer chaser. And what the heck, since its low fat, double up.

The conclusion Pollan reaches is a 7 word piece of advice – “Eat Food, Not too much, Mostly Plants”. “Food” is being used as a term of art to mean those things you can recognized as a food, with minimal processing. Apples. Carrots. Steak. Potato. I would submit that using common sense would lead you to the same conclusion. Treating your food like a chemistry experiment just doesn’t make a lot of sense. For starters, no one has “the formula” and, while earthworms contain protein, I don’t think I want to eat any worms to get my protein-carb balance just right at lunch. And as anyone who has baked a cake can tell you, adding all the precisely measure ingredients and baking for the correct time and temp, doesn’t make a baker out of you.

Unfortunately the mammogram controversy is more complex, and maybe there are even more political interests clouding the truth.

Nature has been making food for a long time. It just makes sense to eat a diet of natural foods whenever possible. Come get some at the Brownsville Farmers Market this Saturday morning – fresher than you will ever find in a store!

My sidekick Max is on vacation this week, but he pressed his Mom and his little sister Molly to observe, record and pass on these fine reports:

Hi Jack,

Erin here, (otherwise known as Mom). Here is a list of what was seen at the market last week: It’s beginning to look a lot like harvest time in the valley! Our growers had turnips, chiles, mixed lettuce, squash, squash blossoms (yummy in your soup, lovely on your table), cilantro (truly just-picked pungent, not aroma-less like the store stuff), banana leaves to make ready for tamale season, and broccoli. There were different varieties of radishes, green onions, bok choy, Swiss chard, sweet potatos, arugula, mustard greens, avacados, pecans, and citrus. Also peeking out of shopper’s bags: michihili cabbage, eggplant, tatuma, corn, cucumbers, sprouts, baby salad greens, Chinese mustard, and red spinach. Also seen were happy people hugging watermelons all the way out to their cars.

We have two new growers, one of whom is Acacia Farms out of Bayview. They practice all-natural, sustainable agriculture. The other growers I did not get a chance to chat with, as they were surrounded by customers snatching up their delicious looking baked goods and citrus. We will catch up with ya’ll next time!

Ruth, in addition to her herbs and veggies, is adding table linens to her line of home-sewn products, just in time for the holidays. She also has some lovely little fabric bags that slip right over a bottle of wine and tie at the neck with lovely cording and charms, perfect for holiday hostess gifts.

Alice has raisin-cranberry bread in process to adorn holiday tables, and Rose’s cranberry piquin and cranberry savina jams were flying off her table.

Mrs. Dickerson had some plump little pumpkin breads, and her key lime pie (her secret ingredient being valley grown key limes, of course).

Stand by for a report from Molly on market events (Max is on vacation this week).

Hi Mr. Jack,

Last week, I helped the people from the Texas Department of State Health set up their table. They wanted to show kids how to cut vegetables and fruit safely and how to plant seeds . They had supplies to help children learn to garden. They had some wooden fruit and vegetables to teach the cutting.

They had the book, The Carrot Seed, to hand out. It is a book about a little boy who is trying to grow a carrot. He plants his seed and everyone tells him it won’t grow. But he waters it and pulls the weeds and one day a big humongous carrot pops out of the ground.

Healthy Communities of Brownsville were judging trash cans that were decorated by different people. One was a jungle scene, and another had a Dr. Suess Cat-in-the-Hat on it. There was one done by a Girl Scout troop. I told my mom I didn’t know how they were going to judge them!

The week before I talked to the Driscoll ambulance people. They take children to the hospital in Corpus Christi. The smallest baby they have picked up was about 6 inches long. The baby’s arm was smaller than Mr. John’s pinky (Mom’s note: John is one of the paramedics Molly spoke with). Mostly they pick up babies that are not breathing and they have to give them oxygen in a special baby bassinette. They also often get calls about children that suddenly cannot walk or are very, very sick.

The inside of the ambulance has a TV with DVDs for kid’s to watch. Mostly they have High School Musical, Sponge Bob, and Charlie Brown. They also had diapers, pads, braces, and masks. The ambulance is very colorful and the number on it is #2008.

It takes two and a half hours to drive to Corpus. Mr. John drives, and Mr. Jose sleeps..

See you Saturday,
Molly Graybill (age 9)

Thanks Erin and Molly!

Your humble correspondent,
Jack Moffitt

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The Brownsville Farmers’ Market

Saturdays from 8am – Noon
Linear Park
Harrison St. between E. 6th and E. 7th