Author: Mike Lieberman

Thanksgiving is a little more than a week away. It’s a time for us to get together with our friends and family. One of the biggest parts of Thanksgiving is the food.

The Thanksgiving dinner is one of the main things that the holiday is based around, getting together to share and enjoy the company of each other over food. Whether that’s what happened with the Pilgrims and Indians is another story.

The preparing, sharing and giving thanks for the food are all big parts of the Thanksgiving tradition.

What better time of the year to prepare and share your harvest with others.

On the Urban Organic Gardener Facebook page, I asked people to fill in the blanks of the following sentence, “For Thanksgiving I will be making _______ using ______ that I grew in my garden or raised on my own.”

Here is what they said.

There are a few people that have raised their own turkeys for the holiday.
“Turkey,” said Pam Carrico. “Lots of it! Using the Bourbon Red/White Midget turkeys I raised on my own. :-)”

Same for John Bradley Foster, “Dinner and turkey!”

Michelle Gehlman Teeter added, “Turkey that I raised from a chick, in my backyard!”

Side dishes and soups
Wendy Ribelin is going to make, ” Butternut squash soup with the squash from my garden. (that is if no one requests it before Thanksgiving day; it’s been a big hit)”

“It’s a potluck this year,” said Bewilder Ness. “Pumpkin cheesecake from my garden and roasted root veggies from a neighbor’s garden. Sweet potatoes from another friend’s garden.”

Erin Garner Dentmon is making, “Apple pie using my dad’s apples! Probably something with my own herbs. I tried some pumpkins this year, but that didn’t quite work out.”

“Sweet potato casserole from sweet potatoes that I grew I’m my back yard :),” said Green Pete.

Beverly Amborski is hooking up some, “Stuffing using sage from the garden….”

BuffaLoam is making, “Pesto using basil that I grew in my garden.”

Not all of us have the space to raise a turkey or grow apples. It’s all about the love that went into the food. Every little bit matters.

Now it’s your turn to fill in the blanks, “For Thanksgiving I will be making _______ using ______ that I grew in my garden or raised on my own.”

Mark Bittman wrote a piece for the New York Times titled Local Food is Not Elitist. It’s American.

The food industry has done a great job of making it seem like wanting or eating foods from local sources is an elitist act. I mean no one wants to be an elitist and it’s easy to dismiss that way of eating if it’s deemed so. This justifies eating cheap, processed and imported foods.

Someone once said to me that they live in Chicago and love pineapples. He asked if he was supposed to give up his values and not eat pineapples anymore?

First off that isn’t giving up a value. Living in Chicago and having access to pineapples is a luxury.

That brings me back to the piece by Bittman. Isn’t having our food imported at the expense of farm workers and the environment, elitist? Isn’t that saying, I want (insert food here) for cheap and I don’t care what it takes. Wouldn’t that be more of an elitist type attitude?

Elitism has many different meanings, but in the case of imported foods it says, “I am an American and from a dominate country. Therefore, I have the right to this food at a cheap price.”

That seems pretty elitist to me. Me wanting to support my local grower, respect my health, the environment and those that grew the food. That just seems like showing respect…not elitism.

Maybe I’m wrong.

What’s your thoughts on local food being elitist?

I was asked to speak at Occupy LA about growing your own food. The speech touches on how the food industry is similar to the financial world and what we can do to bring about the change that we want to see.

Excerpts from the speech:

This Occupy movement that started out on Wall Street was started because of the outrage at the outsized power of the banks and financial industry.

As the movement has grown to other cities, it’s become apparent that this doesn’t only apply to the financial world, but to a lot of other aspects of our lives as well.

The power is in the hands of an elite few that have an interest in keeping us clueless and left out in the cold to maintain the status quo that benefits them.

When you look at the financial world, it’s pretty apparent. That’s why we are all here today.

When it comes to our food and food policy, the same thing can be said. Just like in the financial world, the food industry has lots of money and lobbyists pulling strings.

What does all of this mean though? One of the complaints that I hear about these Occupy movements is that there is no plan of action. It’s just protesting and complaining.

So let’s talk about some action. Any action that can be done.

Let’s talk about growing your own food. I’m not talking about completely living off the land and being completely self-sufficient, I’m talking about growing some of your own food.

How will that make a difference?

We live in a country that’s run on capitalism. Though dead for many years, George Washington is still a pretty powerful guy. He can help to change people’s minds pretty quickly.

When you grow some of your own food, you are voting. You are voting against the current food system and the monopoly that it is. You are taking a dollar away from those large corporations. You are becoming more self-sufficient and lest reliant on the system and corporations.

I’m not saying that just one person growing something, will make a difference. No doubt about that. But if I grow something, and you grow something and you grow something and you grow something and you all inspire someone else to grow something. That one + one + one + one effect becomes huge and on a larger scale makes a big difference. All of us taking that action, will help to shift some power and bring about change.

People, we live in LA where we can pretty much grow year round. Let’s take advantage of this and do something about this situation that we aren’t happy with. Let’s take action today and make some change that we all want to see.

Here is the speech in its entirety, including some dude heckling me for a quick moment. Hope you enjoy and chime in with some other ways that we can help bring about the change that we want to see.