From chef and food activist Alice Waters, an impassioned plea for a
radical reconsideration of the way each and every one of us cooks and
eats
In We Are What We Eat, Alice Waters urges us to take up the mantle of
slow food culture, the philosophy at the core of her life's work. When
Waters first opened Chez Panisse in 1971, she did so with the intention
of feeding people good food during a time of political turmoil.
Customers responded to the locally sourced organic ingredients, to the
dishes made by hand, and to the welcoming hospitality that infused the
small space--human qualities that were disappearing from a country
increasingly seduced by takeout, frozen dinners, and prepackaged
ingredients. Waters came to see that the phenomenon of fast food
culture, which prioritized cheapness, availability, and speed, was not
only ruining our health, but also dehumanizing the ways we live and
relate to one another.
Over years of working with regional farmers, Waters and her partners
learned how geography and seasonal fluctuations affect the ingredients
on the menu, as well as about the dangers of pesticides, the plight of
fieldworkers, and the social, economic, and environmental threats posed
by industrial farming and food distribution. So many of the serious
problems we face in the world today--from illness, to social unrest, to
economic disparity, and environmental degradation--are all, at their
core, connected to food. Fortunately, there is an antidote. Waters
argues that by eating in a "slow food way," each of us--like the
community around her restaurant--can be empowered to prioritize and
nurture a different kind of culture, one that champions values such as
biodiversity, seasonality, stewardship, and pleasure in work.
This is a declaration of action against fast food values, and a working
theory about what we can do to change the course. As Waters makes clear,
every decision we make about what we put in our mouths affects not only
our bodies but also the world at large--our families, our communities,
and our environment. We have the power to choose what we eat, and we
have the potential for individual and global transformation--simply by
shifting our relationship to food. All it takes is a taste.
