My Obsession with Food

“Slow Food aims to be everything fast food is not. It's slow — in the making and the eating. It's fresh — not processed. It's from neighborhood farms and stores — not from industrial growers such as Tyson Foods … or retail goliaths such as Wal-Mart ”-Hopkins

My past seven months have been completely revolved around food--not surprising for those of you who know my family.

But it has been different from my usual planning meals weeks in advance…hah

I want to know where my food comes from: Who is making it? Who is selling it? Who is benefiting from it?

There is no doubt that my love for Root Capital (an agricultural investing company) and fair trade companies like Taza Chocolate had a part in my curiosity.

But in January, I met someone and his obsession with farm to fork challenged me to learn more.

We started cooking together every night and slowly his habits rubbed off on me.

No more Shaws, only Whole Foods and farms.

No more chicken breasts, only whole chickens.

No more boxed processed food, but perishable food grown in New England.

At first I felt a little stuck up, but the more I read about Slow Food, the more I realized the benefits it had on our local economy, health, and environment.

7 months later, I’m hooked but there is still something that weighs on my mind…International Trade & Development (typical I know)

If we start buying local, what does that do to the farmers in developing countries trying to export their goods to the United States?

By eating locally grown food I am valuing my local economy over developing economies abroad and to be honest, I don’t know that we are the ones who need it most.

I advocate for agricultural development and free markets but then put up boundaries that harm these workers.

Some argue that by saving the environment we are protecting those farmers’ crops from climate change so it balances out, but I can’t get over the feeling that we are taking their market and opportunity away.

Even more people claim that the farmers in those countries never receive the economic benefit and it gets taken by the middleman, but I know that Root Capital partners with cooperatives that are receiving that benefit and thriving!

I haven’t found an answer.

I wrote a research paper on the topic and read article after article hoping I would find the missing puzzle piece but I’m still looking. Nothing is black and white.

The bottom line is that our choices as consumers have an affect on producers all over the world…even more that I expected.

I’m trying to find a balance of eating locally and buying organic internationally, but its not always easy.

I am grateful that I am now a conscious consumer but as they say: ignorance is bliss.

Homesick for a place I cannot go

“I need Africa more than Africa needs me”

I have been struggling these past few days. There is an ache for Ghana that I just cannot satisfy. It’s the kind of ache that has taken over my whole body and won’t let go.

I’ve spent the last 8 months since I was there making a plan; a plan to be successful-to learn and grow. I have been making a plan to not fall into the inefficient patterns of non-profit organizations but to learn the best business practices to make and measure my impact.

But my plan has lead me to a very different place than I expected: co-op in Boston, classes for six months, GMAT, graduating in December, professional job for 2 years, MBA program for two years…and then get started. But how did I forget to put Ghana in the plan? When did I all of a sudden have a five-year plan that excluded Ghana?

I know that this is what I need to do. I know that in order to be someone capable of creating change, I need to do this; it is just much harder than I thought.

I am putting my life in Ghana on hold and there is no saying what will change there while I am away. There is no saying who I will see again and who will have moved on.

And there is no way to explain to the people I love so much why I am not there. The longer I am gone the more they feel like I have forgotten and abandoned them just like the last Obruni.

I can’t call very much anymore; it is just too difficult to hear the questions of when and why. It is hard to live your life with half your heart in another country.

But I have not forgotten. And I will not abandon them.

But for right now, I am simply homesick for a place that I cannot go.