Here is a photo of our breakfast today. Crepes made with organic flour, organic free range scrambled eggs with herbs, Rising Moon Organic Olive and Asiago Pasta Sauce, Tillamook Cheddar Cheese, organic mushrooms, and organic avocados. All made at home in less than 45 minutes.
One thing I'll miss the most about living in Eugene are the food options. However, now that I know how to choose healthy, organic, local food options I hope to search them out in Oklahoma. They will be there, they may be hard to find, maybe in cities that are far away, or maybe right from a local farmer or farmers market. But what I've learned about food since I've been here is that you just can't cut corners on the things you put in your body. Fresh, local, and organic options are not cheap and they come at a cost that not only affects your wallet but your time as well.
The cafe I work at strives to serve local and organic food. After being there for six months now I've come to realize that the food industry didn't get where it is today with high food costs (organic food) and high labor costs (what it costs to pay your employees to make fresh food day in and day out). In fact, the industry did just the opposite, paying for the cheapest "foods" in order to create
economies of scale. The idea here being that you buy large amounts of food and freeze them. Food that is frozen in box and can be stacked nicely in a freezer is much easier to handle than fresh organic food from a local vendor that has a short shelf life and needs costly hours of prep work to get it ready to serve. Then you come up with the fastest way possible to take the food from a frozen state to someone's plate, this allows you to keep you labor costs down. It doesn't take much time to drop a frozen piece of meat into a fryer, it's not difficult to drop a "perfect looking" slice of tomato or romaine lettuce (that has gone through a chlorine bath*) onto a sandwich. On the other hand, taking ingredients that cost two to three times as much and paying your workforce to spend hours everyday prepping the food so it's fresh is not cheap. I've witnessed my boss make cuts in his organic options for this very reason. We no longer have organic tortilla chips (to costly), we no longer have organic tomatoes (way to costly), and every organic ingredient is constantly under the microscope for it's opportunity cost. Customers look at us like we're nuts when we tell them we'll have to charge them a dollar to add organic romaine lettuce to a sandwich that already costs $7.
My boss tells me we have to start getting more work done without adding more employees to the shift. He says there are two places where you loose money in the food industry, food costs and labor costs. I'm starting to wonder how long his fresh, local, and organic posters will be hanging on his wall.
Eating healthy, fresh, local, and organic is an investment in your body. I remember when Mallory and I were in our first few months of marriage and we were deciding how much money was appropriate to spend on food. We both liked the idea of organic food but decided that was something that would have to wait until we were in a little better financial situation. "Yeah, someday we'll buy all organic food but it costs so much that it just doesn't feel like the most appropriate way for us to spend our limited funds." That was how the conversation went a year and a half ago. Now, the market we shop at down the street only has organic produce and I'd say there is an organic option for just about everything else. I don't even look a prices anymore when we go to the store and it feels great. Does this mean we haven't had to make sacrifices in other areas? Of course not, Mallory and I aren't making much more money than we were eighteen months ago, so we've cut back in other areas. It's an investment and I've come to find that the dividends are well worth it. I find it interesting that many Christians in my generation were raised to understand that people who would use alcohol or tobacco products were, "making poor decisions" and not, "treating their body like a temple". That very well may be the case but at the same time 80% of the people in the congregation were overweight. And if not overweight, they had no problem putting food in their body that was clearly unhealthy. You don't need a degree in nutrition to know that Sunday lunch at KFC is not good for our temple.
When Mallory and I come back you will notice our eating habits have changed. We know that some of the best moments with family and friends are spent sharing food. Please don't take offense if we prefer not to eat fast food, eat out at all in some occasions, eat meat that comes from unknown sources (i.e. not fresh, local, and grass fed), or produce that is not organic. Of course we will do our best to comply with everyone, we do not expect everyone to be on the same page as us and we won't make a fuss when our preferences can not be met. We won't force our eating habits on you and we ask that you don't ridicule us for making decisions that go against the grain. We would never invite people over for dinner and persecute them if they turned down the wine if they prefer to abstain from alcohol. It's the same idea, our outlook on food has changed and some of the things that we would gladly consume before we left for Oregon may no longer be an option for us. This also doesn't mean that if you make food choices that we do not that we will think you an ignorant or foolish person. Your choice is just that, your choice. We hope to bring a new perspective home with us and if you find it interesting we invite you to join us. We promise to be considerate of all and ask for the same courtesy back.
You do have to admit that plate of food looks pretty tasty and all those organic ingredients are strangely intriguing.
Can't wait to see everybody!
-Trey
*Lettuce served in many fast food restaurants goes through a chlorine bath before it ever reaches the store. They say the levels of chlorine are minimal and don't cause harm, they may be telling the truth, but they don't ask, "would you like your lettuce to have a chlorine bath before we put it on your sandwich?" They ask, "would you like fries with that?"
