It’s likely that I’ll title most of my posts as puns because I enjoy clever phrases.

To me, the phrase “vote with your fork” is powerfully symbolic. It embodies the American ideal and in many ways the American reality. For most consumers in the United States, we are lucky enough to be in the position of being able to choose what we eat. We have access to a plethora of food streams, from grocery stores to farmer’s markets to restaurants to convenience stores to locally owned businesses to vending machines. We live in a world where our food selection is shaped almost exclusively by demand. The majority of Americans are not constrained by access to food in the same way that citizens of developing countries are, though there are food deserts. Americans aren’t limited to the crops that survived; we have access to most varieties of food year-round. We don’t have regular food shortages and most importantly, we don’t lose a large portion of our food due to poor transportation and storage facilities. Capitalism is often criticized for different and valid reasons, but it does work in the sense that we get to vote with our forks and our dollars. For the most part, we do get to vote with our forks, and that’s not something I take lightly.

The problem with all of the choice and freedom is that it masks the underlying issues, one of which we are making many bad food choices. I am just as guilty of this as the next person. I respect the food movement because it aims to reconnect Americans with their food. I’ve said this before on the blog and I’ll say it again. We have become so disconnected with our food that we barely recognize what it actually is or where it comes from. One of the most incredible things to me is that the agricultural sector is still exempt from many labor regulations because most people have an idealistic view of farm-life, and by extension their food sources. If the food movement is able to bridge that gap even a little bit, then I think that it’s a positive change. People need to be willing to pay more for food that is fairly, respectfully, and healthfully produced; other countries may see the movement as elitist or non-essential, and they may be right. However, the core values of the food movement are necessary, and will become increasingly important.