It’s hard to imagine that much of the way we eat and drink today is linked directly to the political workings of America’s legislative bodies. We belly up to the table thinking we’re the ones with the agency to dictate the how, what, and why of our food and drink; but in some circumstances those decision were made for us long ago.
In light of current legislation that could change USDA regulations, and Republican opposition to new government programs created to support small farms, it’s important to remember that the political decisions we make today will affect the way our grandchildren eat and drink in the future, for better or worse.
For proof, simply look to two recent books: Mark Schatzker’s Steak: One Man’s Search for the World’s Tastiest Piece of Beef, and Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by Daniel Okrent.
In an article in the Wall Street Journal last Saturday, Schatzker made this observation:
All anyone seems to know about steak today is this: It doesn’t have much flavor. The great American steak is great in name only. It has become like its hated nemesis, boneless chicken breast: bland.
The steak he’s referring to are the prime graded cuts commonly found for premium prices in your local steakhouse chain or at the your grocers meat counter. His claim is that steak hasn’t always been so ho-hum, in fact the steaks of the 1920s were much different than the steaks of the 2010s. What changed? The USDA’s institution of a grading system that put primacy on fat content (basically, “the more the better.”), which essentially changed the cattle industry and everything connected to it:
In the 1950s, cattlemen began sending their cattle to feedlots to get fat. A feedlot is a vast sprawl of fenced-in pens where tens of thousands of cattle eat grain—usually corn—out of concrete troughs. Soon after, cattlemen started using growth promotants—hormones and steroids, basically—to get cattle fat faster, and fed them antibiotics so they could eat corn in amounts that, under normal conditions, could kill them.
And the end result:
An average carcass now yields 40% more beef than it did just 30 years ago. In short, the beef industry has experienced a tectonic supply-side shift. Production has become vastly more efficient. In 2009, beef cost 30% less than in 1974. Yet the average American is eating 20 pounds less of it per year.
Schatzker does offer hope for steak eaters: They simply need to look for cuts from small producers who know how to fatten a cow on grass. Luckily we in Portland have fairly easy access to producers like this. However if new USDA testing regulations we’ve discussed here before go through, those producers could become a thing of the past. Which would apparently make John McCain a very happy man.
Sometimes the political decisions related to food and drink have far reaching consequences that no one could have expected. Such was the case with Prohibition, which changed forever the way we drank, the way we ate, and the way committed crime.
Yesterday, author Daniel Okrent was on Fresh Air with the amazing Terry Gross to talk about the far-reaching repercussions of Prohibition, such as the way it changed how Americans drink with one another:
Prohibition changes everything. The saloons become speakeasies, and because it is an outlaw operation, it begins to behave in outlaw ways. Women start to come because it’s an exciting thing to do. They’re accommodated. That means they have to put in tables, because you can’t just have the women standing at the bar, so table service begins. Music shows up for the first time. If you have men and women drinking together, you have to have music. Jazz, the outlaw music, is rising at that very same time. There were no bars in the pre-Prohibition era that had live music. It just didn’t happen.
It’s some unintended good from a complete political failure, but a good based on people breaking the law. And as laws change to further bolster industrial food and clamp down on small farms and food producers, law breaking may be just what’s called for to make sure certain food systems survive.
Check out the whole interview transcript here, or listen to podcast—it’s fantastic. And, as always, I welcome your discussion in the comments.
In piecing together the components of this post, can I deduce that our decreased consumption of meat correlates strongly with a decline in flavor? Or does health shape people’s choices? If so, how much relative to meat’s increasing blandness? From where does the “Americans are eating 20% less meat” statistic come? Are these giant meat production numbers? I ask because the proliferation of smaller beef producers over the past 15 years seems to belie that stat.
Fascinating topic.
If the new USDA regulation passes, what do YOU think will be the result, PAC? Will raising and slaughtering our own properly grass-fed cows be the only way we can ultimately afford good beef? Will restaurants stop pimping Blah Blah Farms beef on their menus and revert back to the fold with more generic item descriptions? Will places like Laurelhurst Market try charging even more for quality cuts? Will we all turn vegan? IS THIS ALL A VEGAN CONSPIRACY?
Seriously, I blame the uncertain fate of our food supply on the fact you didn’t finish that Double Down sandwich. You were the chosen one (for some reason) and you failed. Great selection, grass-fed cow gods!
@TSW
So many questions! If only I had answers! I think small farmers will begin breaking the law before they cease producing, and I think they’d continue to be supported by local businesses and individuals.
Either that, or we’ll see more organizations like the Portland Meat Collective: http://www.pdxmeat.com/
I think they’d be supported locally as long as prices didn’t soar. No one’s going to pay 34 bucks a dish. Well, some will, but not enough to pay the bills.
How would organizations like PMC skirt the new regulations? I don’t see how they’d get around them.
What would breaking the law entail? Much like restaurant food inspectors, they will eventually come for you.
I’d definitely go to an underground speakeasy and listen to jazz while eating an illegal grass-fed, drug-free hamburger.
This movement by the FDA is making it more transparent than ever that our current government’s aim is to support big business. Any more, the so-called “laws” of this nation seem like little more than a nuisance best ignored.
p.s. FU McCain.
@lew
Spoken like a true American! I’m with you. And for future reference, it’s completely okay to say “Fuck You, McCain” on Blogtown. No need to clean it up for us!
To think that I once supported McCain. At least until he hooked up with Palin.