Fast Food Graduate Turns Slow Food Worker

As inevitable as eating food is until a short time ago I never put much thought to the role food played in my life. Whether under the supervision of my parents, my community, or my university, the cultural, political, and environmental facets of the food I put into my body seemed a distant and irrelevant part of the food chain far from the end I occupied. Simply put, I was indifferent to the world of food. But recently I have been talking, thinking, and working around food every chance I get. First at a local coop in Philadelphia (at the encouragement of my mother), then at an organic food coop on my university campus, and now on an organic farm in Northern California. To say the least, my journey has been full of what most peoples life is comprised of: love, hate, and confusion. The only difference is I live those emotions out on a farm. Every morning I wake up looking out my east-facing window to see the sun climbing; its rays pulling my eyelids up and I feel love. Waking up with the sun leaves me feeling ready to work with the earth to create what we all inevitably need: food. In other words, using the power of the sun and the earth to energize my mind and body, I can cultivate energy for others.

Apart from working and learning to operate and tend a farm, I look forward to investigating and exploring the natural systems of life all around me. Whether it be my food and the ground it grew from or my own body I hope to see more clearly the infrastructure of the biosphere I inhabit and the infrastructure of the biosphere that is my mind and body. Recently it dawned on me, if 'you are what you eat' and I have no hint as to how my food is produced, how much do I really know about myself?

Having graduated college 3 months ago I found myself with most of the same questions about food and a golden opportunity to get to know the rest of my food system better; first hand. Amazingly, with my newfound experiences I have found myself with all new sets of questions regarding the way I had been eating/living and how some of my favorite foods were created; sometimes by scientists rather than a gardener or a butcher. Needless to say, my journey on the farm may have begun 2 months ago but it stretches far into my past and my future.