The Patriot Cooks

Americans have done a lot of great things since our forefathers limned our democratic identity, but we’ve never collectively known how to eat. American culture developed fast, without centuries of agricultural subsistence to define our landscape and our habits. Unlike any other nation, we came of age in the post-industrial era, when great things were accomplished on assembly lines. In less than two hundred years we went from being colonists to being consumers. Now, we get what we want, whenever we want it — especially when it comes to food. But the belief that we can have it all, with no reverence for the natural restraint of seasons and regions, has created a food culture that is destructive for our bodies, our society and our land.

Because America existed for just over a solid century before industrialization reshaped the food landscape, our regional and seasonal eating patterns did not have time to fully take hold. Gumbo still defines Louisiana cuisine and New Englanders love apple pie with cheddar cheese, but by and large, we are without the lasting culinary specialties that characterize virtually every other culture. Without strong traditions borne from seasonal and regional limitations, Americans have adopted the only diet in the world that is killing rather than sustaining its people and natural resources. Although diets across the globe are completely variable, all have managed to sustain a system of human life in conjunction with the land. What other food cultures have in their unadulterated form is a unified understanding of how precious food is to grow and prepare. Eating with delight, appreciation, community and pleasure comes with an understanding of the cost and value of real food.

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