“There is, then a politics of food that, like any politics, involves our freedom. We still (sometimes) remember that we cannot be free if our minds and voices are controlled by someone else. But we have neglected to understand that we cannot be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else. The condition of the passive consumer of food is not a democratic condition. On reason to eat responsibly is to live free.”
—Wendell Berry, The Pleasures of Eating, 1989
I tend to agree wholeheartedly with this statement. As a New Hampshire native, freedom is has always been an important aspect of my life. (For those of you who do not know, we have to the best state motto EVER: Live Free or Die.) But as I learn more and more about what I don’t know—and what I can’t know for that matter, I begin to question the ability for freedom.
As we live in a democracy, every conscious action (or in-action, for that matter) we take can is a political statement. But, if we do not know the conditions of our food or the origin or path, can we be expected to make an educated decision, or statement with concern to our choices. How can we begin to make responsible choices and freedom?
I suppose my point here is, question the freedom of our choices. We are free to make choices, but with our limited options and our limited knowledge about those choices—is it really freedom we have?
good question. i think we have freedom to choose where we get our food from but that is limited to certain stores or farmers markets. so our freedom is cut short when we walk into those places. we should just grow our own food!
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