The One Kitchen Revolution

Which came first the seed or the fruit? In any case, this circular movement of reproduction and continuance has fostered the planet we see today. Circular orbits, circular patterns of seasons, circular concepts of DNA to seed to parent to seed and so forth. This is the revolution, true revolution. It is a complete circle.

Of course, revolution itself conjurs up many images of past events: American revolution, French Revolution, the cultural revolution in China. Each of these had a similar feature: each movement cast off the previous regime, and installed a new one, from one to the next.

Our modern 'revolutionaries', like Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann, have very little in common with this type of revolution. There is nothing to follow up their dissatisfaction with 'the way things are.' There is no answer to what we ought to do once we have revolted, as like always, life must go on. People still need to eat. People must mate and have babies in safe and secure places or the revolution is devolution, and ends in death, with no reproduction or continuance.

It is, in fact, Will Allen, leading voice of the food revolution that we should be watching instead (http://www.growingpower.org/). So what is the food revolution? First off, the food revolution asks a very important question: "Where does your food come from?" Let's try that one again:

"WHERE DOES YOUR FOOD COME FROM?!?!?"

That question, in and of itself is revolutionary, though our great grandparents would be shocked to see how quickly our connection to our food roots has been severed, or at least severely sprained. Where does your food come from? It used to come from the backyard or the neighborhood farmer. In Portland, Oregon, where I am lucky to be alive, the food is often local. We are a few steps ahead in the march toward food safety and awareness here in our little corner of the NW USA, but we still have many miles to go yet.

And that is the crux of this writing. Revolution is circular. Where does your food come from denotes a single direction. At this juncture I must ask:

"Where is your food going?"

Americans throw away 40% of the food they purchase (http://uspoverty.change.org/blog/view/americans_waste_40_of_their_food). If this seems like a lot, it is. Think about it. We are pissed off because we pay 30% of our wages to taxes. That means you are working for the government for 1/3 of your working year. Outlandish, indeed. But throwing away 40% of our food? First of all the waste must end. But second of all, we have to stop looking at our by-products as waste at all.

In the city of Portland, residents are allowed up to three hens for egg production. Kitchen scraps make great chicken scraps, leftover vegetable bits (yes, even the melon rind) make excellent stocks. Why use water when you can use a more flavorful liquid? Not only does this process capture any remaining nutrients from otherwise wasted items, it helps to break the vegetable matter down in advance of the compost, making an easier time for the worms and mycelium.

Scraps of meat leftover, which cannot be composted, can certainly be turned into soup and canned. I used to be so intimidated by the process of canning, but it is really quite simple and can be done for any amount of food, from one quart of leftover soup to 40 quarts of marinara sauce to last two years.

"Where is your food going?" This is the One Kitchen Revolution. No matter how much green local sustainable organic, bio-dynamic, no spray, non-GMO food you buy, what you do with it matters. We have to complete the cycle of knowing to complete our revolution. Start today, start at home. It is the only logical place on which to stand our ground and start the battle of a lifetime.