Become a Sustainavore!

Eat for your health, the planet, and your values.

Become a Sustainavore!

Eat for your health, the planet, and your values.

Is it Your Way or the Highway? Who Wins When We In-Fight?

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but lately I’m realizing more and more that there are many different solutions to a problem. I’m not the only one who’s “right” and maybe other people’s perspectives should be considered – crazy, ha?

Let’s take sustainability for example. In the process of raising money for my film, I’ve encountered some interesting feedback. Some “real food” leaders are just clearly blowing this off and just don’t care, which is unfortunate. Others are so stuck in their specific interpretation of a diet or what “sustainability” is, that they can’t possibly get behind the bigger picture. This is incredibly sad to me.

I live on an organic farm and eat mostly grass-fed meat from my backyard, organic vegetables from the fields, all cooked from scratch. Do I think EVERYONE needs to eat this way? Nope.

I’m also a dietitian, and work to help people improve their health. Do I think everyone needs to cook every meal from scratch in order to be healthy? Nope.

Are there some people who can eat gluten, dairy and the occasional (eek) dessert and be healthy? Yup.

So when I read a comment this morning on my Instagram feed, criticizing The Good Kitchen for not being sustainable because they ship their meals, it made me super frustrated. The fact is, most of my nutrition clients don’t cook every meal from scratch from grass-fed beef and organic vegetables, but they want to stay healthy. In fact, the Harvard Business Review reports that only 10% of Americans love to cook, while 45% hate it and 45% are lukewarm about it. People are busy. They don’t all live on farms and have tons of time to spend in the kitchen. Yes, we need to get people excited about cooking again, but we also need solutions for those currently avoiding the kitchen. (This is why I also love the Instant Pot!)

Yes, we should cut down on our use of plastic, but the person criticizing The Good Kitchen sells frozen meat wrapped in plastic. Now, I don’t insist people raise and kill all of their own meat and wrap it in burlap sacks, but a company that wraps meat in plastic, uses energy to freeze meat and gasoline to transport it is not a closed loop. If pre-made meals with ingredients from regenerative farms, shipped to someone’s door works for them, that’s great.

A similar argument has come up with the sale of Epic Provisions to General Mills.  The fact is, it’s a huge challenge to be a small brand in a fiercely competitive market. General Mills invested $4 million in North Star Bison, a grass-fed bison ranch that sells 25% of it’s meat to Epic. This article highlights some of the benefits of that relationship, and states that “sales of fresh grass-fed beef soared from $17 million in 2012 to $272 million just four years later.” So while purists want everyone to shake the hands of their meat producer, others are doing great work on a huge scale. If we’re going to take grass-fed beef to the next level, we need larger companies to get behind it.

I had another situation with a leader in the “real food” movement not wanting to support the film because of a disagreement with another health expert’s opinion on “what is real food”. I see this all the time. Everyone likes to think their way is the “only way” and that they “own” their version of health, sustainability, movement, etc. Folks, this is crazy! The food movement has become like a religion where small differences mean nobody can support anyone else.

[Tweet “When we in-fight, the only one who wins is CHEMICAL FARMING.”]

Now, I don’t have an issue with folks who choose to avoid all meat because of personal preference, but I do feel that everyone who believes in “real food” should be in the fight for better meat. Let’s face it, the world will not stop eating meat tomorrow, so ignoring the problem of factory farming by opting out or not being part of the conversation is not affecting change. I’m trying to bring everyone together to make change. Red meat is NOT the villain here, hyper-palatable processed food is. And while factory farming is clearly not a good solution, there are sustainable and more humane ways to produce meat.

So while everyone else is bickering about whose philosophy is “right”, or gossiping about who has the best abs, I’ll be over here trying to help fix the system. So whether you’re keto, paleo, primal, soak your grains, or avoid meat all together, please support others who fight for real food.

And PS – I’m a busy mom and I love my weekly Good Kitchen Meals and Epic snacks!

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6 thoughts on “Is it Your Way or the Highway? Who Wins When We In-Fight?”

  1. Absolutely! We can worry about the smaller details later or at home, but there’s far too much work to be done in moving towards healthier people by promoting healthier animals, less factory farming, eating more vegetables, etc. If these groups work together, that can provide powerful pressure where needed…

  2. Good points, Diana! I love this perspective. A friend of mine recently suggested the same thing to me: saying, in essence, that a house divided cannot stand. So, yes, let’s get together and stay strong. 🙂 Thanks for all your’e doing!

  3. YES!!!!! Have been working with some clients that DO NOT LIKE to cook, period. I’m suggesting services like Good Kitchen Meals. I really would just like to see them eating some quality food instead of fast food. One client in particular has a lot going on with her health with many meds. I am suggesting meal services as quality food just may help her eventually get off of a couple meds. I cook, love to cook, raise my own food and absolutely realize very few have any desire to do even a small part of that. Isn’t the goal for most people just to feel good and be able to do what they want and need to do? Shouldn’t there be multiple ways to achieve that goal? We are all very different people. What works for me just may make someone else sick or just not thrive. There’s always been people that do not cook or raise food. And, there’s always been people that cook and raise food for others! The “fight” should be to get access to quality food for all. Then, if a person doesn’t want to change then that’s their choice. It’s about all HAVING a choice.

  4. Why would you criticize people working hard towards the same goal because of an inquiry on your IG feed? I’m certain my opinion or inquiry won’t effect the Good Kitchens business. The demeaning nature of this post seems quite hypocritical of your attempting point to be made. No reason to get frustrated and blog about a company you apparently don’t care about because we aren’t large enough to positively affect your campaign. I’m sure you would have done this to butcher box had they simply asked you a question you didn’t agree with. I was hoping you were part of the solution but now I’m concerned you are just another privileged individual who is just part of the ever lasting problem. Simply dragging out an issue by seeking recognition for being “the change.” I’m sure this will help pay your bills or at least make you feel better about yourself. Egos drive me nuts.

    We distribute only to inner city on battery powered vehicles if we can’t do it by bicycle. Local to local. Utilizing 1 x 30$ tank of gas every week if you wish to continue your comparison. Meats are wrapped in plastic but until farms begin investing in their own slaughter houses instead of shipping to slaughter houses – 2 hours away and not across the country mind you – this will readily be a difficulty to change. But we are working on it… a business you decided to put down simply because they made an inquiry about a friend or contributor of yours business.

    Looking forward to the future! Good luck with your campaign. I’ll still support it in hopes you are as genuine as you come off in your online outlets. Makes me tired to even say those words and even more exhausted that I feel the need to defend the group of people around me working hard to “just maybe” improve on what you think is the best option. Sorry I asked for your opinion.

    PS. Im a poor husband and father living in an area donating farm fresh food to my neighbors who can’t even consider this food because of cost and whom are forgotten about in all our discussions. I also refer my buyers to EPIC pork lard if I can’t find the time to render the quantities needed and if our farmers don’t happen to have any on hand. It was an inquiry.

    Thanks for the encouraging words!

    1. Your comment on my feed towards a The Good Kitchen was insulting to them. They’re great people doing good work. I also think Epic is a good company doing good work. You weren’t asking a question, you were accusing them as “the last thing I think about is sustainability” and how the nutritional integrity of their food is gone because so many hands have handled it, how this is not the meaning of “organic” – those are not innocent words – those are accusatory and simply incorrect. I stand by my defense of The Good Kitchen and the buyout of Epic by GM is a GOOD THING. I’m sorry you don’t seem to like the idea of companies scaling up and doing MORE GOOD WORK but your words were not an innocent inquiry to provoke a conversation, they just sounded like they were coming from someone who thinks that they are the only ones who are right and unless everyone does it your way, then they’re not “sustainable” enough for you.

      I never pointed out your specific business in the post. And yes, actually, I did point out to some high profile meat vendors I work with, situations when I felt they were not following their mission, and there were articles about this I was quoted in. One reacted properly, apologized, and the other did not change so I am not working with them any longer.

      In closing, I fully support meeting people where they are, and if this means healthy food in packaged being shipped, then that’s what works. Life is way too short to be quibbling over who is “more right”. There are bigger issues that I’m trying to tackle.

  5. This may seem OT, (I’m new here) but I’m 71 years old and 25 yrs ago I went to the Labor Temple in Seattle to hear Alex Cockburn speak about his (long) time in the liberal/progressive/lefty scene. The one thing I remember him saying is that ‘lefties’ like nothing better than cutting each other off at the knees. It shocked me, but since then, I’ve seen it happen in every area of politics, local and national, and here it is again.
    The deep (sinful?) gratification of Self Righteousness seems to be irresistible. It would be OK except for the tragic waste of effort, good intentions, etc. that it engenders. The result is that ‘the perfect (someone’s ‘perfect’ anyway) is the enemy of the good’… so the bad wins. The enemies of good food couldn’t have planned it better – we do their work for them.
    Is there no self-appreciation, self-love without standing on someone else? Capitalism supposedly runs on competition (don’t believe it), but WE should be capable of cooperation! or cooperation will never be viable in our society!
    Looking forward to checking out your work Diana…. I resonate strongly with your position.

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