KT: Why I'm doing this...

Not long after the holidays (January, 2007), I read an article by Michael Pollen in the New York times called "Unhappy Meals" (http://www.michaelpollan.com/article.php?id=87) about the disconnectedness of American consumers from the food they eat. Pollen makes the point that our decisions about what to eat are not guided by cultural values and traditions, like in most other countries, but by the media, nutrition researchers, and how they act synergistically to shape our perceptions about what we should eat.

[ASIDE: This quote really resonated with me -- I'm a nutrition researcher myself-- about the pitfalls of trying to isolate single health-promoting components in food, as opposed to a whole-foods approach:

"It's also important to remind ourselves that what reductive science can manage to perceive well enough to isolate and study is subject to change, and that we have a tendency to assume that what we can see is all there is to see. When William Prout isolated the big three macronutrients, scientists figured they now understood food and what the body needs from it; when the vitamins were isolated a few decades later, scientists thought, O.K., now we really understand food and what the body needs to be healthy; today it's the polyphenols and carotenoids that seem all-important. But who knows what the hell else is going on deep in the soul of a carrot?"]

Pollen's article really started me thinking about the industrialization of our food and the price we pay for being so far removed from the food chain-- from a taste, health, environmental and economic standpoint. The article lead me to some other reading about the Slow Food movement (a reaction against Big Food and fast food that started in Italy but has spread across the world), which inspired me to make a small change in my own life-- I gave away my microwave. To be honest, this wasn't an enormous sacrafice; I hadn't exactly been living on microwave dinners. But I felt like I was, in a tiny way, taking a stand against Big and fast food.

After liberating myself from my microwave, I felt lighter and liked the idea of simplifying my life... I got rid of my TV, just to see how much I would miss it. I didn't. And my living room no longer had a television as it's centerpiece-- even when it was off, it had been the focus of the room (and now that space is filled with magazines and clutter, which isn't really a ton better, but conceptually it works for me).

My mom told me about the "The Compact," (see http://sfcompact.blogspot.com/) an agreement to buy nothing new except essentials, in an effort to confront consumerism and also to reduce environmental impact. She proclaimed that she planned to make her own compact and do it for a year. A year! I thought it was a great idea, but that was too big of a commitment for me. I talked her into trying it out for three months together. She agreed and here we are, on day 1.