Grab GRUB for organic food answers

Back in the day - the mid 70s - I was pure vegan. I had picked up “Diet for a Small Planet” at the original Borders on State Street in Ann Arbor and made it my mantra. It just made so much sense. Eat higher on the food chain and you and everything else are better off for it. It was tough to do. There weren’t the selections then that we have now and after a couple of years I crossed back over into land of carnivores.

Fast forward a few years (ok a few decades) and I’m wandering through Borders again. This time I’m in Orange County at probably their 257th location and I see “GRUB, ideas for an urban organic kitchen.” It was perfect timing, not only was I going back to my vegan ways, but I volunteer at a teen mom shelter raising organic veggies with the girls. I needed something to inspire me and them.

As I start flipping through it, it was feeling fairly familiar and then I read why. GRUB is written by Anna Lappe and Bryant Terry. Anna is the daughter of Frances Moore Lappe, the author of “Diet of a Small Planet.” I laughed out loud. I guess the soybean doesn’t fall far from the bush.

Anna partnered up with Bryant Terry. They both had an interest in food and farming and creating a book that would bring those two worlds together in an interesting way.  Bryant’s party menus in the back half of the book are worth the read. Not only do you get an original lineup of dishes that make meat a non-issue, but they add a soundtrack selection to set the party tone. What a great idea! I dare you to read  “Down in New Orleans” a poem by Michael Molina on page 225, and not  taste the Big Easy in all its steamy pre-Katrina decadence.

Anna tackles the more serious issues upfront, enlightening readers about big business and food. She breaks it down into “The Six Illusions” that as consumers, we want to believe.
- The illusion of choice
- The illusion of safe and clean
- The illusion of efficiency
- The illusion of cheap
- The illusion of fairness
- The illusion of progress

When I was growing up, I had no illusions. My “choice” was to get out in our garden and hoe a row under what I was sure were unsafe, unclean and by all means unfair practices of my parents. I picked so many green beans that I didn’t grow my own again until I was 40. Progress was ok by me, but with Anna’s well documented research; I’m questioning the price of progress from a new viewpoint.

A telling and scary chart in GRUB compares companies to nations. Nestle is at the top with about $66 billion in revenue. That’s just slightly less than the country of United Arab Emirates with a gross domestic product of $70 billion. I told you it was scary.

Who owns what? We love Ben and Jerry’s Organic ice cream, but does it lose it’s appeal when you know it’s now owned by Unilever? Anna includes a pie chart of 12 mega companies with the organic brands that they manage. "Back to Nature" really should be Back to Kraft.

In general, consumers don’t trust large corporations, but they do trust labels… sort of.  The USDA Organic label is a trusted seal, yet it too has levels. Anna outlines the differences between 100% Organic, Organic, Made with Organic Materials and Organic ingredients. The lines blur and companies are constantly trying to blur them further to get more of their product line covered.

Your best bet, Anna concludes, is to eat “whole” foods that come packaged in their own skin “and not worry about the fine print on the box.” Simple is good. When you think about it, eating organic solves many problems at once, i.e. weight control, less packaging and expense.

Most people won’t believe that last one – low cost. Organics always have a higher price tag when you compare apples to organic apples. Anna dispels that myth brilliantly with a typical day of eating fast food and prepared items, compared to eating organically. A day of eating from out of the box came to $21.15 and a day of GRUB eating from the co-op came in at $10.95. What a bargain! Good for the body, good for the planet and good for the wallet.

GRUB is well documented and accomplishes its mission of bringing facts to the discussion table where they can be chewed over and digested along with sumptuous meals. It’s a great read and resource for born again vegetarians, gardeners, or professionals needed lists of sources on the organic market.  Anna and Bryant gave us a book we’ll all want to dip into often.

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Mary Hunt is a midwest X-pat living in Orange County where she writes and develops business for sustainable products. She believes in putting Purse String Theory into action - what women want and buy will change the business climate and also the global climate. Reach Mary at her blog: www.InWomenWeTrust.com

Comments

[Steve Sherlock]

Thanks, Mary. 'Fast Food Nation' was required reading for all on campus at my daughter's college a couple of years ago. It was so disgusting in description of the corruption and business explotation that exists in the fast food industry that while I made it 3/4 of the way through, I never finished it. This one sounds much more appetizing.

[Rosa Say]

Sounds like there are a lot of marketing lessons in this book for those of us who do naturally gravitate to the non-fiction business genre as a habit Mary. However your review also makes me think that I need to broaden my own reading choices!

I wonder about the title though, for frankly I don't think of it as the most compelling choice for the market they're trying to reach! Do they authors mention why they named the book Grub?

[Mary Hunt]

Rosa - I'm not sure on the title, I already gave the book away and can't double check. I believe GRUB was in respect for the basic foods that sustain us.

[Blaine Collins]

Thanks for bringing our attention to this Mary. I like the turn toward food that the Love Affair with Books has taken with Rosa's review of Setting the Table and now your review of GRUB.

Grub appears to be a fitting title because it is (dually) organic to the topic; as a noun, a slang for food and, as a verb, meaning to dig up by the roots. The title implies something about getting back to our roots, which seems to fit the organic movement audience. Having said that, there does seem a disconnect between GRUB and URBAN, and the title will be hard pressed to expand the base.

I find the business of organic food marketing fascinating, including the recent moves by Walmart and others to compete directly with Whole Foods Market, etal.