New Ways of Thinking
Plus a Butterfly Shaped Melon Salad 🦋
If I ever need a reminder of why I love living in NYC, this past Thursday’s talk at Archestratus between
and Jerusha Klemperer of Foodprint will be something to think back on.ÂIf you don’t know
, she is a prominent food writer and author of No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating. She has been a guiding light for me these past couple of years as her writing offers a much-needed perspective on food, and her convictions and purpose in eating plant-based reminds me why I do what I do.ÂThe conversation opened with a question about why food media continues to be so disconnected from recipes. What Alicia referred to as cognitive dissonance is so obvious that I couldn’t believe I had never heard it this way.Â
The example used was the New York Times and how every couple of years they will do an investigative piece about the horrors of the shrimp industry and the human rights and environmental violations. But when it comes to recipes, they will consistently promote shrimp without ever offering a link or connecting the dots on how to source more sustainable or ethical shrimp options. This is actually funny and disturbing if you think about it. On one hand, we are exposing serious issues about the food industry, but a few weeks later, it has been entirely erased from our short-attention-span brains, and the pictures of pretty pink shrimp dishes take over.
And this is exactly why writing about the food system can be so unappealing. Except when we preach to the choir, not everyone wants to learn the horrible things happening behind the scenes to get food to our plates, and they just want to scroll for Easy 20-Minute or One Pot Dinners. This is understandable. But to Alicia’s point, it’s not that the exposés about the shrimp industry are saying you should never eat it again; rather, the journalists have actually done the research to better understand the labels and sourcing practices of shrimp to help you make more ethical choices. The same goes for meat as well, most articles today are not demanding you must be vegan, they are suggesting you eat less meat, especially red meat, so we can begin to claw our way back from the damaging effects the meat industry has had on the planet.Â
The audience was clearly a group of food nerds, as the Q&A was one of the most engaged I have ever seen. I asked the speakers how we can write about food without being a buzzkill and causing anyone to feel shame about what they want to eat. Not everyone wants to read about the impending doom of climate change and how our food contributes to it. Alicia’s answer? Just continue to show how a life of eating more plants can be enjoyable and fun, and this is something I can do.
If you are ready to learn more about more sustainable shrimp options, check out Foodprint’s guides to buying seafood and labels.
America’s favorite seafood is shrimp; We eat nearly four pounds per person per year. Unfortunately, the vast majority of shrimp is imported and may have been farmed with a lot of antibiotics, or in some cases, with forced labor. Stick with U.S. shrimp and look for labels you can trust.
If you don’t already follow Alicia, sign up for her newsletter now. As described in the Atlantic:
Her newsletter, From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy, was one of Substack’s early hits. It is, essentially, a one-woman magazine that mixes cultural criticism, food writing, and food-world interviews with personal meditations, recommendations, and recipes that Kennedy develops in her home kitchen in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where she moved in 2019
Gems of the Week ✨
The people who feed America are going hungry - The Atlantic
New Whole Foods partnership aims to reduce food waste - This is very exciting. Check out Too Good to Go if you don’t already know it.
Have you heard of the documentary The Grab? A friend recommended it to me and it follows journalists from the Center of Investigative Reporting as they uncover how investments in the food system have become more strategic than oil as securing food and water becomes an issue of natural security.
Make these blender muffins. This recipe is very versatile. Instead of bananas and pecans, I added more chia jam (my obsession).
Butterly Melon Salad 🦋
This salad does not actually have to be in the shape of a butterfly, but if you have any cookie cutters at home, canteloupe is a great canvas for making shapes.
Ingredients:
Cantaloupe
Cucumbers
Pickled Onions
Feta
Mint or Arugula
Vinaigrette (Olive Oil, Lemon, Champagne Vinegar, I added butterfly pea powder for color)
Steps:
Try and get flat blocks of melon if you want to use a cookie cutter
Slice cucumbers thin
If you don’t already have pickled onions, do this
Top with feta and any herbs
Dress right before serving
