Editor's Note: This is a recurring feature in which comedian and admitted horrible person Alex Blagg documents his attempts at becoming a slightly better individual.
Everyone has to eat, but I like to think of myself as something of an Eating Enthusiast (while this may lack the brevity of "foodie," to me it sounds less like a fat cartoon character from a magical world made of cheeseburgers). So as a liberal-arts-degree-carrying urban-dwelling food obsessive, I am deeply committed to making sure that everything I eat is organic, farm-raised, free-range, wild-heirloom, micro-batch whatever (at least when I’m not making secret masochistic runs to the Del Taco drive-thru).
But where does one load up on all of these super-sustainable double-organic highfalutin' gluten-free food stuffs? Fancy high-end grocery stores, of course!
There is something unspeakably appealing about being able to get top quality gourmet ingredients with supermarket convenience in an atmosphere that has been meticulously designed to facilitate a sense of sustainability and eco-friendliness—often with free samples of classy cheeses. And as a self-described bad person, it is comforting to know that feeling a little bit better about myself is sometimes no more difficult than strolling into a fancy food store and buying a $4 kombucha tea.
The Problem With This:
There’s not really a “problem” with this. I mean, these stores can be overly expensive (Seriously, $4 for a bottle of tea? There should be a federally regulated price cap for single-serving non-alcoholic beverages that tops out at $2.50), but they do tend to offer more responsible consumer choices than the industrial processed garbage you find at most supermarket chains.
However, those “organic” labels we enlightened food enthusiasts always look for sometimes don’t tell the whole story. Your raspberries might be organic, but if they were organically grown in Chile then shipped all the way to your local health-food chain here in the States, you also have to account for the environmental impact of transporting the food, not to mention its diminished freshness by the time it finally makes its way to your mouth. At this point, the premium prices we were happily paying the faceless corporate fresh food superstores for our organic produce start to make less sense.
How I Tried to Be Better:
As I mentioned before, I have the distinct privilege of being married to a classically trained chef (who, as you might imagine, is even more food ingredient obsessed than I am), so when my wife—the benevolent provider of the many wonderful meals I’m so blessed to eat every day—announced that we were now members of our local CSA food co-op and would be getting our produce from the friendly people at Silver Lake Farms from now on, I had no choice but to... um, cooperate?
Findings and Observations:
—As a person concerned first and foremost with his own material interests, I was delighted to discover that buying produce from a CSA is way cheaper than getting it from fancy food stores. After paying a $125 fee, we are entitled to 10 pick-ups of two big grocery bags filled with fresh fruits and vegetables every other week. So that breaks down to about $6 per week for our produce, which is less than I’ve paid for a single tomato at certain aforementioned food stores.
—The food you get each week is determined by whatever was most recently grown, picked and harvested. So you end up with a bag full of stuff you might not ever have thought to buy if you were just checking things off a shopping list. In our first week, we got Jerusalem artichokes, banana potatoes, Romanesco, acorn squash, dandelion greens, and other interesting ingredients that encouraged us to think outside of our comfort zone when planning meals—and yielded delicious results. Even if you’re a creature of habit, this is a pretty fun and effective way to figure out “What’s for dinner?”
—The freshness and quality of the food was impeccable, even held to my lofty standards as an Eating Enthusiast. I don’t know if it’s because the food freshness legitimately makes it more delicious, or it’s a psychological effect of knowing the food I’m eating was taken from the ground yesterday less than two miles from my table, but the fact is: everything we prepared with local farm ingredients simply tasted better.
—You get to meet and know the people who are providing your food, and whose livelihood will benefit from your patronage. Here in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, that means hipsters helping hipsters, and I take comfort in the knowledge that my grocery purchases might be subsidizing the indie rock of the future. As much as fancy food stores try to create the illusion of homespun neighborhood-ness, the fact is you don’t know where your money is really going, or what corporate agendas you might be supporting.
Conclusion:
No matter how you look it—environmentally, financially, or Eating Enthusiastically—buying food from your local farmers is one of the best (and easiest) lifestyle improvements you can make. While fancy food stores will always have their place (free samples of classy cheeses), they simply can’t beat the feeling of paying less money for fresh food from the people who grew it.
Now if I can just cut out those occasional masochistic Del Taco drive-thru splurges, my Eating Enthusiast cred will be impeccable.
Alex Blagg is a writer and comedian in Los Angeles. Most recently he created the satirical website BajillionHits.Biz, for which The Daily Beast called him the "Stephen Colbert of New Media." Prior to that, he was the founding Editor-in-Chief of MSN's Wonderwall.com, won two Webby Awards for his work running Vh1's "Best Week Ever" blog, and was included in The Huffington Post's list of "50 Funny People You Should Be Following On Twitter." He is truly a horrible person.
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