I read a poem last November, when the world was wrapped in mono gray. It was the climax of MyTake: A Story to Nurture in Five Food Groups.
As nature squeaks into color, life, and growth, this protean poem unfurls tightly packed stanzas into the broad notes of spring.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One thing broke me;
two built me back.
Fall in FScN 4612, Human Nutrition,
each lecture softening the edges of my circumscribed truth.
Studies strive for stolid statements,
but humans refuse to cooperate.
We fictionalize what we ate yesterday,
we guess at how often we eat fish,
we tick the same box for grass-fed beef,
for venison,
for McDonald’s Hamburgers.
I crumbled under the weight of peer-reviewed articles,
at odds with each other,
squinting their way to the truth.
Winter, and I watched a dietitian speak with precise passion
of an ecological approach to food and health,
of environmental health and natural resources,
of starting with oneself.
Essential building blocks condensed
into a strand stretching
from a protein machine, bending and twisting
into a tertiary structure,
The Food System.
Summer, and I was swept along on a sustainability safari:
landing in locations
from labels off co-op shelves,
scuffling with scripts
from scholars and scientists,
facing furrowed facts
from farmers and foragers.
I transcribed novelty into neurons,
I put my hands into the blackness and pulled.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is protein?
Amino acids line up according to ancient instructions, attract and repel each other, furl into microscopic protein machines, group and grow to make this protein machine, complex and communal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fall 2009 in the Food Science and Nutrition department, each lecture of Human Nutrition with Joanne Slavin, Ph.D. softening the edges of my carefully constructed truths. Lecture by lecture, we marched through protein, lipids, and dietary fiber; through fat-soluble vitamins and water-soluble vitamins, major minerals, and trace minerals; through energy balance, weight control, and body composition.
This is when I learned the gritty details of how we derive stolid statements from complex, communal humans.
If I want to know what you have eaten, I have three evaluation tools:
Do you want to write down that you ate a sleeve of Ritz crackers at midnight as you tooled around on Facebook? Do you remember that you had two midmorning snacks before lunch yesterday? What does one serving of tilapia look like?
In a food frequency questionnaire, someone else decides what boxes you can tick, a well-educated zealot of the scientific method with a Western European heritage who can digest lactose just fine.
(There is one more option: I feed you everything. This happens in a metabolic kitchen and human feeding lab. This is expensive.)
If I want to know how what you have eaten affects your health, I have to play favorites. Do I measure BMI? Waist circumference? Lipid profile? Fasting glucose? A1C? Myocardial infarctions? Malignant tumors? (I only have so much time and money.)
How is your heart? Has it grown due to pulmonary hypertension, the right chambers pumping harder to move your blood to your lungs? Has it doubled in size with pride in your grandchildren? How is your blood? Anemic due to lack of bioavailable iron in your diet? Boiling because your partner just can't ever be on time?
Someone else decides what health is, what its markers are, and those markers must be measured.
I crumbled under the weight of peer-reviewed articles dealing in confounding variables and narrow definitions, peers seeking results that reinforce their reputations and replenish their resources.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is protein?
Endless variations on precise combinations of essential and nonessential amino acids. The essential amino acids are the ones this protein machine can't make, the ones for which I rely upon a community of plants and animals to provide.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
November 2009, and I watched Angie Tagtow talk of dietitians cultivating sustainable food systems and her essential words built me back.
My notes recall the complex, the communal:
Tagtow planted seeds in the nitrogen-rich soil of my brain fertilized by C. Claire Hinrichs and Thomas A. Lyson. They strung together 17 essays into the secondary structure of a book: Remaking the North American Food System: Strategies for Sustainability.
Remaking the North American Food System.
The title of audacious hope — that was my NPK. "There are methods and strategies," I wrote in my notes, "for attacking a branch of the food system and reforming it into something sustainable and rooted in community."
The scholars' calls to action spiraled in my head, spun the wheels in this protein machine. Stevenson, Ruhf, Lezberg, and Clancy laid out Warrior, Weaver, and Builder Work. I didn't have to do it all, I just had to start with myself and weave — have shuttle, will travel!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is protein?
It is nitrogenous, it is costly, it is the macronutrient we can't get enough of.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 2010 and I was applying to HECUA's Environment and Agriculture summer program. "Missing from my classes," I wrote in an essay, "has been a comprehensive look at how healthy food, the foundation of nutrition, gets to our plates. This program promises to flesh out my understanding, cobbled together through reading books and articles on my own, so that I can more effectively work toward just and sustainable food systems in Minnesota."
Julia Nerbonne bought it and brought me along on a sustainability safari.
From the swivel chairs at the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis to the grass fields of the 1000 Hillls Cattle Company and Cedar Summit Creamery (may they rest in suspension), we traveled as a group.
In pairs, we traveled to farms for a stay; quiet Quinn made a mix CD and we drove north north north to Seven Pines.
"After they got married," I wrote in my farm stay analysis, "Kent and Linda sat down to brainstorm ways they could achieve their goal of making their home a place of productivity, learning, and hospitality. Grass-based dairy was at the bottom of the list. [Yet now] the farm has forty-five heifers grazing the land, broiler chickens in chicken tractors, layers in a Egg Mobile, and six sows with their piglets."
Kent combined idealism with pragmatism in the way every small farmer must. On the first day, Quinn and I watched as put his hand into the blackness of a heifer and felt... nothing. He pulled his hand back, decided. The heifer would be auctioned, eviscerated.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is protein?
It is life; it is death. Renewal. Retooled. Remade.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The stanzas now unfurled to the broad notes of spring:
What harmonies do you hear? What melodies do you sing?
For more food-related lyricism, check out #rdpoet. For feelings-related poetry, check out my project Right Now Is Your Life.
What is protein?
Amino acids line up according to ancient instructions, attract and repel each other, furl into microscopic protein machines, group and grow to make this protein machine, complex and communal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fall 2009 in the Food Science and Nutrition department, each lecture of Human Nutrition with Joanne Slavin, Ph.D. softening the edges of my carefully constructed truths. Lecture by lecture, we marched through protein, lipids, and dietary fiber; through fat-soluble vitamins and water-soluble vitamins, major minerals, and trace minerals; through energy balance, weight control, and body composition.
This is when I learned the gritty details of how we derive stolid statements from complex, communal humans.
If I want to know what you have eaten, I have three evaluation tools:
- Ask you to write down what you ate or take pictures of it. This is food journaling.
- Ask you what you ate yesterday and write it down. This a twenty-four hour recall.
- Ask you what you usually eat and how often. This is a food frequency questionnaire.
Do you want to write down that you ate a sleeve of Ritz crackers at midnight as you tooled around on Facebook? Do you remember that you had two midmorning snacks before lunch yesterday? What does one serving of tilapia look like?
In a food frequency questionnaire, someone else decides what boxes you can tick, a well-educated zealot of the scientific method with a Western European heritage who can digest lactose just fine.
(There is one more option: I feed you everything. This happens in a metabolic kitchen and human feeding lab. This is expensive.)
If I want to know how what you have eaten affects your health, I have to play favorites. Do I measure BMI? Waist circumference? Lipid profile? Fasting glucose? A1C? Myocardial infarctions? Malignant tumors? (I only have so much time and money.)
 |
| Hemoglobin, a protein with four subunits. Photo credit: Richard Wheeler, 2007. |
How is your heart? Has it grown due to pulmonary hypertension, the right chambers pumping harder to move your blood to your lungs? Has it doubled in size with pride in your grandchildren? How is your blood? Anemic due to lack of bioavailable iron in your diet? Boiling because your partner just can't ever be on time?
Someone else decides what health is, what its markers are, and those markers must be measured.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What is protein?
Endless variations on precise combinations of essential and nonessential amino acids. The essential amino acids are the ones this protein machine can't make, the ones for which I rely upon a community of plants and animals to provide.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
November 2009, and I watched Angie Tagtow talk of dietitians cultivating sustainable food systems and her essential words built me back.
My notes recall the complex, the communal:
- [How do we make healthy foods the easiest choice?]
- "Good food" Healthy + Green + Fair + Affordable / Accessible
- healthy soil → healthy food → healthy people → healthy community
Tagtow planted seeds in the nitrogen-rich soil of my brain fertilized by C. Claire Hinrichs and Thomas A. Lyson. They strung together 17 essays into the secondary structure of a book: Remaking the North American Food System: Strategies for Sustainability.Remaking the North American Food System.
The title of audacious hope — that was my NPK. "There are methods and strategies," I wrote in my notes, "for attacking a branch of the food system and reforming it into something sustainable and rooted in community."
The scholars' calls to action spiraled in my head, spun the wheels in this protein machine. Stevenson, Ruhf, Lezberg, and Clancy laid out Warrior, Weaver, and Builder Work. I didn't have to do it all, I just had to start with myself and weave — have shuttle, will travel!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is nitrogenous, it is costly, it is the macronutrient we can't get enough of.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Julia Nerbonne bought it and brought me along on a sustainability safari.
From the swivel chairs at the Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis to the grass fields of the 1000 Hillls Cattle Company and Cedar Summit Creamery (may they rest in suspension), we traveled as a group.
In pairs, we traveled to farms for a stay; quiet Quinn made a mix CD and we drove north north north to Seven Pines.
"After they got married," I wrote in my farm stay analysis, "Kent and Linda sat down to brainstorm ways they could achieve their goal of making their home a place of productivity, learning, and hospitality. Grass-based dairy was at the bottom of the list. [Yet now] the farm has forty-five heifers grazing the land, broiler chickens in chicken tractors, layers in a Egg Mobile, and six sows with their piglets."
Kent combined idealism with pragmatism in the way every small farmer must. On the first day, Quinn and I watched as put his hand into the blackness of a heifer and felt... nothing. He pulled his hand back, decided. The heifer would be auctioned, eviscerated.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It is life; it is death. Renewal. Retooled. Remade.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now, feet planted in soil,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
eyes raised to the sun,
I throw my arms open to complexity.
The stanzas now unfurled to the broad notes of spring:
What harmonies do you hear? What melodies do you sing?
For more food-related lyricism, check out #rdpoet. For feelings-related poetry, check out my project Right Now Is Your Life.
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