I see his point, but I would charge that it's not elitism talking - it's privilege. Until he can extract his argument from that position of extreme privilege, he's going to continue making the mistakes that get labeled 'foodie elitism.' The changes I see him advocating are, to put it over-simply and polemically, changes that equate to 'everyone should have the same food and monetary priorities as white men who aren't poor.' It just doesn't fly.

The only qualm I have with this article is that purchasing "ethical" food - in whatever form that may take - is NOT the same as activism.

Yes, you can change markets by purchasing power, but with the widening income gap in the U.S. should tell us that our neighbors have less money to spend and less time and energy to spend making trips to the farmer's market and cooking scratch-made meals.

We have a long, uphill battle to fight in this country if we want more people to have greater access to healthful, whole foods. But I gotta say it DOES strike me as rather snobby indeed to pretend that purchasing groceries locally/organically/whatever is making things better for our less-fortunate neighbors, friends, and citizens in real-time.

Vote with your feet. Organize. Get involved. Learn about the hurdles to getting healthy foods to the masses, and work towards dismantling them.

I have to argue with you, Thygatromeda, because I don't think it's "white privilege" to be able to purchase local food. I think it's actually a two pronged problem - local food vs big box food AND healthy, home-cooked food vs processed food. It's not just minorities that have to do grocery shopping on low income budgets. The problem is that, somewhere along the line, someone fed misinformation into the system (advertisers, I'm looking at you) and convinced us, as a nation, that pre-packaged, chemical laden "dinners" where better for us and our wallets. It's a flat out lie. Sure, I can get a box of Rice-a-Roni for $1 and it will feed two of us for a night. But for $5, I can get a 3-lb bag of rice that will feed us for two or three weeks. For an additional dollar, I can get a half a pound of broccoli that will last us two meals and it's healthy!

Additionally, many, many inner cities are pushing local movements, including community gardens and farmers markets, to bring better food to their communities. If more people started buying locally, more big retailers would start sourcing their product locally - people need to prove that quality is better than quantity.

So, I don't think it's white privilege to want better food. Do a lot of white people have access to this movement? Sure, I can't deny that - but every single person, regardless of skin color, is a consumer. Make demands on your local grocers and put your money where your mouth is and EVERYONE will have access to better food.

Very thought-provoking. I agree with many of his points, as well as with the additional comments above. My only big complaint is his equating money spent on veterinary care for pets with money spent on overpriced designer clothing, KFC, soft drinks, etc. I don't think I need to go into the details of why--and I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds that equation offensive.

I don't think he's a snob for wanting to make certain food choices, I think he's a snob for denigrating peoples' choices to spend money on other things. I know that it was an example but picking on jarred baby food screams privilege on his part.

Ditto Thygatromedea. He seems to think that everyone has the option to choose local, organic, high quality food and that simply isn't true. It IS more expensive than commercial processed foodstuffs, and it DOES take more time to prepare.

Let's equate choosing high quality food to high quality, organic, "natural" makeup. High quality makeup is better quality, better for your body, and in some cases better for the environment. But do we look down on women who make the choice not to spend their money on $100 natural, organic, eye cream and go for the "mainstream" option instead? We would say that that eye cream is a luxury. I would call caring about high quality food a luxury as well, and I call what Joel is talking about foodie elitism

I'm a foodie elitist myself! I will continue to choose high-quality foods, but that's because I can afford it and it fits into my lifestyle. At least I know that it's a privileged lifestyle!

(I wish I had found this quote before, but I'm sharing it here anyway, because I think it's the crux of the argument)
"At the risk of sounding uncharitable, I think we need to quit being victims and bring about change ourselves. Don’t complain about being unable to afford high-quality local food when your grocery cart is full of beer, cigarettes, and People magazine. Most people are more connected to the celebrities in People than the food that will become flesh of their flesh and bone of their bones at the next meal.

The other day I saw precooked bacon in a box at the supermarket—for $30 a pound. Do we really have to buy precooked bacon? If you took the average shopping cart in the checkout line and tossed out all the processed food—everything with an ingredient you can’t pronounce, everything you can’t re-create in your kitchen, and everything that won’t rot—and substituted instead locally sourced, fresh items, you would be dollars ahead and immensely healthier"

Brooklynnina - you obviously haven't seen what I have seen, where people using food stamps to buy their groceries are covered in gold necklaces and wearing designed jeans, while their kids play on brand new Nintendo DSs. There is inherent fraud in the system, especially in Michigan. Recently, we've had not one, but two cases of people who won hundreds of thousands of dollars in the lottery and continued to draw their food stamps benefits "just because they could". Obviously that speaks to a problem in the communication between Lottery and DHS, but it also speaks volumes about the our culture of entitlement. His analogy really isn't that far off.

Oh yes, because poor people are NEVER affected by environmental disasters. Can you say Hurricane Katrina? Drought in Africa? Farmers losing their crops to floods? No one is suggesting the truly poor buy stuff they can't afford. But ask yourself this: do you walk out of the store with $50 or $100 worth of junk food? Do you drive a nice car? Then you can afford to buy produce that won't harm the environment. And by the way, all of us can afford to eat less and lose a few pounds. I know that first hand.

I agree about the vet comment. Seriously, he would choose to buy a cat or dog and then leave them to twist in the wind when the pet is sick or injured?

I agree with CLOGGIEGIRL...No one should feel bad for choosing to care about buying local and/or oragnic food. But it is elitist to look down on others who choose to spend their money on other things. Those "other things" might not always be healthy choices, but preaching isn't going to make people change their mind.

On the other hand, yes, (most) people should not complain that they can't afford local/organic food. They should realize that they're simply choosing to spend their money elsewhere.

I've had to realize that....I've felt guilty for NOT choosing to buy more local/sustainable/organic options. But I keep myself on a very tight budget, and I know that by saving on groceries I can have a little more for entertainment or eating out. (which does NOT equal junk food)

We also have two different things being discussed here...One being local and/or organic food, and the other being simply unprocessed food. Yes, you can get food and produce at the grocery store that's cheaper than boxed dinners. But the oragnic food choices are more expensive than the boxed dinners.

And you have to know how to prepare the food that doesn't come ready to microwave. So there is a lot of education that needs to happen. But yes, first the culture of entitlement to welfare has to change. And I don't know how that will ever be accomplished without hurting those who really need the help.

Gypsyk8 made a couple of good points--there's a huge difference between making lifestyle choices for yourself (buying local and organic, buying designer labels, buying pre-packaged food, etc), and judging others for their lifestyle choices. To me, that makes the difference between a foodie and an elitist.

I'm also glad that Gypsyk8 pointed out that some people are bound by budget and really do the best they can with what they have. I'm privileged to be in the middle of the middle class, but my husband and I have other financial obligations besides buying organic food. I make a concentrated effort to buy whole, unprocessed foods and do a lot of home cooking, but I still can't afford to go all-organic and local. Elitists will try to make me feel bad for these decisions, even though I'm already doing my best, and that's where they go wrong.

The only reason people should feel guilty is because of damage to the environment / social issues and buying organic / local is only one small step in an ocean of problems. People can buy whatever they want. I just hope we ask ourselves if we're looking ten years into the future and thinking about what our actions today will do to the environment and future generations tomorrow.

Brooklynnina - you obviously haven't seen what I have seen, where people using food stamps to buy their groceries are covered in gold necklaces and wearing designed jeans, while their kids play on brand new Nintendo DSs.

First off, who are you to judge? how do you know these weren't gifts? How do you know that these things were not bought by the family during flush times? How DO YOU personally know???

This is classic dog whistle for poor people are gaming the system, therefore let's make it suck for everyone who needs help. Talk about elitism and class warfare.

The fact is the anecdote of the Reaganesque welfare queen is a alive and well, even though statistics don't bear out the one or two EBT cardholders buying steaks while texting their druggie boyfriends on their Apple iPhone you may have saw.

Quit your pearl-clutching sanctimonious judging.

Ultimately, I wish everyone in this world could simply respect that we all have free will to choose how we want to live our lives (to an extent). I'm not speaking of things we generally cannot control, but even in a bad situation we have choices to make.

I often feel guilty for being in a position to choose the best foods for my body, the freshest, most nutritious items. This especially makes me feel uncomfortable when we serve with our local community food that has been donated for those less fortunate. I am standing there serving food items to people and families that I myself would not eat for a number of reasons. The biggest reason because I just don't eat processed foods and sadly, that is what gets donated due to long shelf lives. But, even in that food line, we have fresh food items to give to them. They don't always take them. They choose the junk food. So even they have A choice, granted not the BEST choice, but still... a choice.

All of life is choices and we should be kind in our thoughts towards one another. While foodie elitism CAN and DOES exist... it really bothers me when someone who doesn't care about not only what the crap they eat is doing to them, but also to the environment calls me an "elitist" because I'm NOT snubbing my nose to anything nor do I share my views about food with anyone (unless THEY ask).

I just want to eat REAL food, whole foods that are as close to their natural form as possible. What's elitist about that? Isn't that the most basic way to eat?

I love Joe Slatin and I think he makes wonderful points.

If you spend any time reading parenting/frugality message boards you will find there are many, many people living close to the bone who also choose to priortize good, clean, healthy food for their families.

Three things:

1. While I appreciate the irony of someone judgmentally calling someone else judgmental, can we try to be grownups and keep the vitriol out of the conversation, please? It is quite possible that someone who has had different experiences than you has something valid to say. That doesn't necessarily make them elitist, and an adversarial attitude brings nothing useful to the conversation.

2. Regarding the abuse of welfare, I was a cashier in a grocery store for seven years, so I feel qualified to confirm that it's way more than one or two people gaming the system. I'm not going to try to attach a percentage to it, but I swiped enough food stamp cards to pay for shrimp, steak, and other foods that I can't afford even now to be thoroughly disgusted with how food assistance works in this country. Though it's not a reason to make sweeping assumptions about the poor, it absolutely IS a problem.

3. This was the original point I was going to make before the comments distracted me: While I do try to keep myself on a pretty strict food budget (which I am very fortunate to be able to fudge occasionally), someone once said something to me that has stuck with me and informs the way I buy food: What's more important to spend your money on than the food that keeps you alive? That doesn't mean I blow all my disposable income on gourmet food, but it does make me prioritize how I spend my money so that I keep in mind how important food is to my health. So, no. I don't feel bad about paying attention to what I buy and what farms/companies I support with my hard earned money. I've decided to make that a priority in my life. If other people choose a different priority, it's their life. They can judge me all they want, and I'll just be over here, happily oblivious.

In most other countries I can think of, even poorer ones (perhaps with the exception of the UK), it would not be considered elitist to care deeply about the quality and provenance of your food. Is it coincidental that, of all the countries that records such data, the US has the lowest percentage of income spend on food?

I'd just like to follow up and say that there are actually a LOT of prerequisites to being able to purchase good-quality, whole foods, and often the hurdles to getting there is not limited to sheer willpower.

You have to have money for pricier groceries. You need a grocery store a) close by or b) have a car or the extra time and hassle of taking public transit (provided it even exists). You have to either work a job that gives you some extra free time and doesn't entirely sap your energy and will to live. You have to live somewhere with a functioning kitchen (I always automatically assume that a kitchen will have plenty of storage and a stovetop, but that is certainly not always the case, even in the US). You have to have cooking skills, or the time, energy, and will to learn.

There are lots of people in this world that live in massive food deserts in both rural and urban environments, where the only food stores are convenience stores stocked with highly processed foods, or the grocery stores are a long ways away, even by car.

(Growing up, my mother would drive 45 minutes to the grocery store every two weeks - it was our only option other than the Walmart that was 20 minutes away, but poorly stocked and more expensive. We had our own animals butchered for meat and had a huge garden that supplied us with veggies all year, but you can't pull dried spaghetti or gallons of milk from the dirt.)

Is eating healthy food elitist? Absolutely not.

Is strawmanning those who do not eat healthy food? Yes.

Getting good food into populations where it's just not available is a challenge that entails all of those pieces - access, cooking skill, time, budget - and judging others for not having the perfect cocktail of those things is CERTAINLY snobbish.

I don't think anyone should feel bad about it buying things they value that they can afford, unless you actually ARE elitist and are judgmental about other's food habits. There is nothing wrong with liking nice things and spending the money you have, but there is plenty wrong with being a douche about it and looking down on people who don't have the same values, or don't have the budget to have the same values, that you do.

@Litnerd People that receive food stamps aren't given unlimited funds, they are given an allotment. Shouldn't they be afforded the dignity to determine how to manage that allotment? I don't understand what's wrong with buying steak and shrimp, in fact I applaud it.

@ROBIENNE1 - "Quit your pearl-clutching sanctimonious judging."
Thanks for giving me a laugh, I'll have to use that. :)

I love how someone nose dived this comment thread into how folks on food stamps don't dress like they think poor people should, and don't buy what they think they should buy.

There are more than enough poor folks that can't get food stamps, or those of us on the slippery edge of poorer middle class. We have to think about every cash dollar we spend. I gave up on some of the higher end places because I simply can't buy enough groceries if I shop there, even if the food quality, and local farmer access, is better.

It does come off as elitest to not take into account that these things cost more, and not all of us are able to budget more.

That said, I do think you can do better by picking a middle of the road grocery store, with an eye on their produce and meat department. I'm a big fan of scratch cooking, and won't shop at places like Winco and Walmart because the produce and meat are not of the quality I want. It does cost me a bit more to be careful like this, but not enough to blow my whole budget. I find I make up some of that cost, by cooking almost all of our meals at home. This again is a tradeoff, because I don't have kids, and don't work full time. I can do it whereas a mother with a full time job might need to rely on a boxed mix because she's justifiably damned tired from all that entails. I would never judge her, because I am not walking in her shoes.

All this bickering misses the point that the poor will also suffer first and foremost from climate change. Instead of being beholden to big chain grocery stores we need to get govts to initiate urban and suburban gardens, multicrop growing and provide people with FREE local food or even teach people to grow food at their home in containers and be totally self sufficient of big markets.

Sorry Joel Salatin, but if my pet gets sick I'm gonna live on ramen for a few months so I can take them to the ultra elite vet service.

The point we should all be arguing is that clean, ethical, local food should be a RIGHT, not a privilege.

Americans pay a smaller percentage of their income on food than any other nation in the world. We've been trained to think of food as an expendable budget item, especially when times are hard and all our other expenses (rent, insurance, car payments, student loan payments) are inflexible.

I'm not saying that I don't enjoy indulging in the occasional packet of fast food french fries or candy bars and I think everyone has a right to choose how they eat, but many people, especially lower income people living in food desert areas, will choose to buy fresh fruits and vegetables if they can afford them. And even poor people will choose organic food if it is only marginally more expensive than industrial food. Hence the success of farmers markets that accept SNAP benefits (aka food stamps).

All Americans should know how to cook whole, fresh, local foods from scratch. If they choose not to do so, that's their purview, but they should all have the choice.

I love everybody in this thread who commented in favor of caring for your pets properly. <3

I agree with Gypsyk8 that there are really two issues here: buying unprocessed, nutritious foods and cooking them for yourself, and buying local, organic foods. I make an effort to do the first; I can't afford the second most of the time; I accept that other people who also can't might just have low incomes, not problems with priorities and responsibility. It's one thing to talk about replacing the Cheetos from the grocery store with asparagus from the farmer's market, and it's another thing altogether to say people should replace the asparagus from the grocery store with asparagus from the farmer's market that costs 25-50% more. And then...repeat for everything in the cart. The amount people waste on "unnecessary" things may still not be enough to cover that kind of regular, weekly increase in your food bill, especially if it's far above the American average of 5% of income or whatever.

Wanting to buy good, environmentally friendly, local food is not elitist. Assuming that others who don't shop that way are just making bad choices is.

Joel is right. I do not have health insurance. It is a rip off. Insurance companies do not care about me or you or my children. They are a business. I have lost 85lbs and dropped my cholesterol, bp and lowered my heart rate drastically in 17 months. I walk 4 to 5 miles a day and ride a bike 10 to 15 miles a day and play basketball. I am on know medication at the age of 52. I eat fresh veggies, fruits, nuts, grains, seeds, fish, water, tea, the only milk I drink is raw milk when I get can it. No red meat, chicken or pork. No fast foods in 15 years. I am looking into grass fed beef. I will have locally farm raised lamb once or twice a year. Hippocrates said it best: Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. I have never felt better. The money I save on medication and doctors and insurance go into my food. I plan on living to be 110. I have 3 children 16, 18 and 20. I see them changing also. They see how it has helped me and they are investigating a life style change. The best thing I have enjoyed is all the new flavors and foods I have been eating. The herbs and spices I use make eating amazing. I sit down and thank the earth for what it has given me. I promise to be good to the earth and then I savor every bite. Life is good!

Mowst of you are missing Joels whole point. I work at a Walmart I dont make much money and my husband is disable, that being said I dont have tons of money. I raise my own chickens for eggs for me and my family. I garden. I buy local food any chance I get. I buy raw milk from an Amish lady that cost less then milk I can buy at Walmart. Joel is not looking down on people he is trying to raise people up. You are taking his words out of context. What he is really saying is do you need to but a pair of jeans that cost 100 dollars? Do you really need to go out to eat all the time? I know that its alot easier to stop by McDonalds to but a hamburger then to go home to make it. I work crazy hours at Walmart. My schedule changes weekly. Some days I work 2-11 some days I work 6-3 but I choose to make my family home cooked meals over stopping to grab something. I choose to get up at 6 am to let my chickens out and feed and water them so they will continue to provide me eggs. Yes its much easier to grab some eggs from the store but is it better for my family? You can get fresh vegetables even organic while you are on food assistance. Dont buy the PopTarts. Dont buy the colas. Then you have the extras for good quality food. In our town you can get vouchers to spend at the farmers market to get fresh veggies and fruits if you are on food assistance. Like I said I work at Walmart I see how people shop. These are choices we make. Joel is not looking down on people he is trying to wake people up. Stop allowing someone else to make our food choice for us. It is my right as an american citizen to decide what goes into my body. If you want good quality food then choose it. If you want twinkies and coke then choose that too. I myself want to be healthy not that I dont like junk food once in awhile, but I'll make me a cupcake or my own version of a snack cake where I can make a whole batch for a dollar then to give 1.00 to hostess for one.

I am happy to say that New Orleans has many accessible farmers markets. They are all over the city including the 9th ward and Hollygrove, Mid-City, Uptown, Downtown, French Market.... Even better is that 80% of them offer matching incentives for those that are on government assistance and depend on food stamps, snap benefits, etc to purchase produce...So, if you have $20 in benefits, the farmers market lets you walk away with $40 worth of produce, rice, fresh yard eggs, etc.. That's pretty fantastic and it goes a long way. Regardless of socio-economic status, these resources are available to ALL walks of life. I am a perfect example of it...Farmers markets (well the ones here anyways) are cheaper than the grocery stores and definitely cheaper than whole foods. Lets spread awareness to everyone else in our communities to let them know what they Do have access to...Obviously, many people work odd hours but just because that is an obstacle doesnt mean there isnt a way. There is always a way if you believe there is..Team up with a neighbor, cousin, or friend..We can do this together!! Much love to all..Peace

I didn't get the impression that Joel didn't think people should spend money to take their pets to the vet. I understood that element as a commentary on how money is spent in different countries. I have a cat and I love her very much, and when she got sick I took her to the vet and paid the medical bills, which meant budget cuts elsewhere for a while. Yet I read Joel's comments and was not offended, because I don't believe that is the point he was making. I see it as more of a challenge to view how we spend our money and if it reflects what we truly value. I value my pet, of course, and I also value my health and my body... all much more than I value designer jeans and alcohol.