What Do Don Draper and American Food Have In Common?
More than you think. Let’s consider Don Draper, the protagonist of AMC’s Mad Men. If you don’t know Don Draper, or the actor who plays him, Jon Hamm, then you’ve probably been living under a rock for awhile and I am not sure if your first entry into pop culture should be my blog.
But anyway, you’re here so let’s get back to Don. From the outside, Don is perfect. He is creative, wealthy, powerful and handsome. He is witty, wise, charming, strong and confident. Don has the perfect family, a beautiful, attentive wife, two children, a house in the suburbs.
For the mid-century American male, Don is the ideal. He represents American ingenuity, creativity, business and sexual prowess as well as conformity. It may be surprising to most American’s living in the post-counter cultural era, but there was a time, when conformity to social norms was seen as the height of achievement.
And yet beneath this seemingly perfect exterior, Don is a mess. He’s rotten to his core. He is, in fact, not even really Don Draper. He cheats on his wife, he’s detached, he’s repressed, he’s so far from his soul that he probably won’t recognize it if he ever happens to find it.
For the most part, American food, and especially produce, that is raw fruits and vegetables, are a lot like Don Draper. It has the appearance of perfection, it’s often shiny and smooth, smells good, looks good, even feels good in our hands as we heft. But like Don Draper, American produce is rotten to its core. As Nick Kristof said in his Times column today, where has increasingly been discussing the degraded mess that is our industrial food production,
I think I figured out the central problem with modern industrial agriculture. It’s not just that it produces unhealthy food, mishandles waste and overuses antibiotics in ways that harm us all. More fundamentally, it has no soul.
Perfection is a particularly dangerous illusion. And our endless strivings for food products that exude an illusion of perfection are no exception. Because by elevating perfect looking
So…I want lettuce that is dirty from the fields. I want leeks that are sandy. I want apples that are crisp, crunchy, fresh and occasionally misshapen. I want my tomatoes of the heirloom variety. I want my eggs fresh, from pastured hens, and I want to buy them with a loose feather on the inside of the box. I want my milk RAW, and I want it to be creamy, smooth, thick and aromatic. I want my beef grass-fed. I want heritage pulled pork. I want pears with an occasional worm in it. I want strawberries that don’t look as plump and juicy as the imported ones that Whole Foods tries to sell me, but that TASTE like strawberries. Not a factory concoction of what a strawberry SHOULD taste like. I want bugs and ants in the bottom of my canvas bag when I come home from the farmers market.
In short, I want food with soul. I want food that’s connected to the earth, the farm, the farmers who grew or raised it. I want food that doesn’t try to be perfect, because it knows that it never can be, and even if it could, wouldn’t want to be perfect ANYHOW. That is the food I want. So now…who is going to give it to me?
This post makes me want to put “Mad Men” on my Netflix queue.
LOVE your list, Zachary! May countless communities figure out that they, too, choose to eschew soul-less food, and join in sharing your 'want list'.
YES, YES, YES! Your last paragraph says it all! The first episode of my web show was about dark, leafy greens and one of the young apprentice farmers told us: “Don't be afraid of little bugs chomping on your leaves 'cause that happens. It still tastes as good….if your doing organic farming or gardening you're going to have to learn to expect that a little bit.” I always tell people that very same thing! The difficult part is helping more folks learn to expect and accept it.
Superb. Awesome comment. We really do have to do the heavy lifting of
explaining to people why this is necessary. Why natural foods aren't
perfect or 100pct sanitary. We don't want antiseptic food do we? I for
sure don't. Thanks again
I tell my customers that the bug holes are proof I'm not using insecticides. More that just a couple of people have stopped still and said out loud, “I never thought about it that way. You're right.”
We say at our booth that we're only charging for the vegetables; the bugs and dirt are freebies. Unless it's the occasional ladybug that makes its way onto the produce….I'll charge extra for the beneficials……
hehe
its really just a matter of presenting the bare truth to them in a way that
makes sense! thanks for the comment!
z
Last year my very nice neighbor complained to me that she was no longer going to buy lettuce at the farmers market because the last head of lettuce she bought there had a slug in it. Then she waited for my outrage and disgust. I had to laugh. News flash: Slugs like lettuce, neighbor lady! Remove slugs, wash lettuce, and eat! Or go to Fred Meyer and buy a pre-bagged lettuce with no nutritional content and a whole lotta chemicals. I'll take the slug.
Very glad to be catching up on the first 2 seasons of Mad Men, so I know exactly what you mean. Kudos for a terrific analogy and another excellent piece.
Yes my master.
I want food with soul, too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(smile)
David
thanks david! appreaciate the comment
Terrific post! I agree all the way. We grow most of our own vegetables, get raw milk from a friend's farm, eggs from a neighbor, and find grass beef when we can. It is difficult to navigate around the food industry. It takes more time and more effort–and, sadly, often more money– but we think that it is worth it. I only wish that people who are poor would be able to eat healthy. People on low incomes (and we are by no means wealthy–just better off than a family trying to eke out a living on minimum wage) are a real disadvantage in this marketplace as the cheapest foods are the ones least foodlike made of fillers, chemicals, and cheap calories. It is almost like genocide.
thanks for that excellent informative comment! it really does take more time
and effort to find, locate and buy healthy sources of “actual” food, but it
is worth it. and it only takes more time compared to the NO time it takes to
eat processed junk…