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Q&A: Jill Richardson |
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By Ashley Symons, Writer/Editor
Jill Richardson, blogger and founder of La Vida Locavore, and author of Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What we can do to Fix it, visited us at Equal Exchange in August. (Read her blog about it here.) This presented a good opportunity to talk to Jill about her new book, food politics, and how we can all work together to change this broken food system. Here’s my Q&A with Jill:
Ashley Symons: Your first book, Recipe for America, just came out in July. Kudos! The book not only addresses some of the problems in the United States regarding food, but also focuses largely on what people can do in their everyday lives to take back control of our food system. What has reception of the book been like? 
Jill Richardson: The reception for the book has been remarkably good. People are excited about the topic of food in general, and I am definitely providing them with concrete steps they can take that don't require sitting tight until the next farm bill comes up for debate. In particular, I've been focusing on food safety and school lunch in my talks, and I think those are two very basic things that all people can relate to. I would consider it a victory if my book contributes in any way to improving and passing the bills before Congress for either food safety or school lunch.
AS: What are three things folks might think about when food shopping?
JR: First, is it a whole food? Whole foods such as fruits, veggies, beans, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and - if you choose - meat, dairy, and eggs, tend to be healthier than processed foods.
Second, if you are buying meat, dairy, or eggs, were the animals raised on pasture? Animal products from animals raised on pasture are often healthier for a number of reasons than products from animals who were not.
Third, how will you feel when you eat the food? I find that whole grains, fruits, and veggies tend to leave me satisfied and full without a desire to overeat. If I were to buy a pint of ice cream, on the other hand, I would eat most of it in one sitting and then have a stomach ache from overeating. The ice cream might taste better than a plate of green beans or an apple, but the stomach ache lasts all day and the taste is fleeting.
AS: What do you find most exciting about your blog and the conversations happening there?
JR: I love to see the transformation in other people when they try something new and discover things for themselves. For example, when somebody decides to get their food directly from a farm for the first time and they are very excited about the food they are eating, how it is raised or grown, and the person who produces it. I love when people who grew up (like me) thinking that food came from a store discover how talented and wonderful the farmers who grow our food really are.
AS: What does your personal foodtopia look like?
JR: I'd like to see a more regional, decentralized food system with many small farmers growing a greater percent of the food using agroecological methods and making a decent living doing so. I don't know how possible this is in the near term because we get so much of our food from a more consolidated system that is set up to produce the maximum quantity of cheap food. If we're going to change that, we're going to need a lot more farmers and gardeners. And, in my opinion, we'll need to make sure farmers can get access to affordable health care so that the most popular farmers' health plan isn't "Don't Get Sick."
AS: What are a couple food- or agriculture-related hot topics you’re keeping your eye on right now?
The big two in my world are food safety and school lunch because these are bills that I think we can influence and they will be likely passed in the next six months or so. Beyond that, I'm looking at a bill to ban non-therapeutic antibiotic use in livestock, a bill to ban mercury in chlor-alkali plants (which has a good shot of passing), and the U.S. effort to "feed the world" by enriching American agribusiness corporations. That last one is a really big deal but I feel less optimistic about our chances of influencing it, since the entire U.S. government seems determined to continue heading in the wrong direction towards more free trade agreements and using biotech as THE answer to any future problems in agriculture.
AS: You recently visited Equal Exchange headquarters in West Bridgewater, Mass. Were there any surprising linkages between your work and ours?
JR: Yes, I was very impressed in what you do. When people say to Buy Local, I think the most important part of that is forging a relationship with your farmer. We can't do that for products that aren't grown locally like coffee or chocolate, so we rely on groups like Equal Exchange to do it for us. I actually became so interested in Fair Trade after my visit to Equal Exchange that I visited another Fair Trade coffee roaster, Just Coffee in Madison, Wisc. Both Just Coffee and Equal Exchange are Fair Trade coffee roasters and worker owned co-ops but beyond that there are many differences in the two business models, and there are advantages to each.
AS: At Equal Exchange, we’ve been talking a lot about “Big Change” to our food system. What might this change look like to you?
JR: The biggest thing is to get everyone at the table. Right now a small group of powerful interests make most of the decisions. If everyone with a stake in our food system were represented and we all had to compromise, things would look a lot different.
AS: Anything else?
JR: Yes. Equal Exchange's chocolate is AMAZING!
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