Alice Waters Blogs (Sort Of)
Alice Waters responded today to those of us who felt her assessment of the food at Farm Aid was overly harsh. (I blogged about it here last week.) Basically, she says her comments were misconstrued, that she truly appreciated the effort the Farm Aid folks made to get so much local and sustainably grown and raised food served at the site, and that her absolutist, uncompromising, visionary tendencies got the best of her.
In her own words:
I love seeing all the conversation surrounding the issues discussed on Kim Severson’s blog. I wish I had been clearer with Kim, and I’m afraid that the spirit of my comments may have been misunderstood. I was, in fact, deeply impressed with the food sourcing at Farm Aid.
I know that the logistics of feeding 40,000 people are enormously difficult, and the fact that more than half the food came from local producers is astounding.
To have been able to eat a truly fresh, locally grown peach or a Patchwork Family Farms pork chop was amazing. My critiques described an ideal, a version of an edible utopia in which all food would be (as the founder of Slow Food, Carlo Petrini, says) Good, Clean, and Fair.
But this is a utopia that we must work together to reach, and Farm Aid’s effort was an important step forward. It was an honor to have been part of it.
Of course, who wouldn't want all the food on our planet to be good, clean, and fair? I suppose the question worth asking here is whether Waters's idealogical purity compromises her effectiveness as a leader of the sustainable agriculture, slow-food movement. I would posit that both Waters and Slow Food founder Carlos Petrini would be able to accomplish so much more if they were less judgmental and more tactically oriented. What do you think?
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4 Comments:
Hrm. You ask a tough question, Herr Levine...
I have not made an exhaustive study of the tactics of Alice Waters or of Carlos Petrini. I do know that they both have lofty and admirable goals which I support. But you're likely correct that they might not be the best choices for functional leaders of their movements.
Within any movement it's critical to have a well-defined goal, but almost as critical is the ability to view the actions taken as small parts of a greater whole. The only place I know where you can see movements made in the blink of an eye is in movies (mostly involving Jet Li or those where Scotty mans the transporter). For everyone else it's a progression. When surveying the progress of any undertaking one shouldn't judge success by the answer of "Are we at our goal yet?" but rather "What progress have we made towards our goal?" The entire undertaking should be reviewed, progress applauded, faults acknowledged and future strategies reassessed in the light of the new knowledge gained. Baby steps are, after all, still steps.
Are Alice Waters and Carlos Petrini the sort of people to accept baby steps as the progress they are or are they of a more boolean mindset, where there is no "success" at all if it is not complete? Again, I can't say. I haven't worked directly with them and, as I already mentioned, haven't done research on the matter. I doubt anyone here has that kind of perspective, allowing them to make (and hopefully share here) a reasoned and measured judgment.
My own judgment right now is based only on what I read in places like this and my own experience with Slow Food. That judgment--or, more accurately, that opinion--is that right now the movement may be well served with different leadership. Leadership which understands that to make an impact on the American public it may, unfortunately, be necessary to consider taking a page from Madison Avenue's playbook and subtly work your way into the collective consciousness. This will likely allow the movement to make more progress and garner far more mindshare (read: raise awareness in a functional way) than can be accomplished by the seemingly evangelistic approach currently being taken.
Again, I do not know that Waters and Petrini are not already trying this along with their other tactics. If they're doing more than what I currently see (passing negative judgment against those who do not entirely meet their very high standards), then most of what I wrote above may be considered null and void and I'll have to reevaluate my current opinion. I, for one, would welcome the chance to admit that my opinion is wrong.
VMBrasseur at 10:27PM on 09/18/07
I'm not "for" or "against" either Alice Waters or Carlos Petrini just as I'm neither for or against what they represent as the singular path of redemption (yes, there often is a religious air around social-action movements but is that due to the leaders or due to the followers/supporters in the final analysis?).
Each of those individuals have captured the public's imagination due to a certain charisma held and performance accomplished. If there are calls out for replacements for either of them the question has to be asked is there anyone in the world of what they do that equals them in terms of charisma (that magic thing) or performance (i.e. getting things done)?
I honestly don't know. But it seems that someone with some pretty hefty creds would have to stand up to the plate in order to even make a dent in terms of what these two personalities represent and manage.
Karen Resta at 6:20AM on 09/19/07
Extremists tend to alienate people from an important movement like eating local. While Waters lives in an area where nearly all foods can be sourced locally except her coffee and tea, many of us can only eat locally for part of the year. I work on the Eat Local Challenge site. We have a much easier philosophy where we encourage people to source what they can locally and responsibly, without all the judgment. Even if it is just one food that you choose locally, you make a difference. This approach is realistic and embraceable by all. You see, your activism, as well as your food sources, should be sustainable as well if it is going to succeed.
ExpatChef at 11:04AM on 09/19/07
I think you need extremists and idealists to start a movement. The problem is, they're often not well suited to lead a movement once it gets some traction.
TAPrice at 2:15PM on 09/19/07