Preserves Become Ideology in a Jar

Good article by Leslie Scrivener about how canning your own food is becoming a political act.

"It is more than simply putting up food from the harvest, or the back garden. Preserving is an ideology, a political act, a hands-on vote in support of local farmers and their produce. It is a way of withholding, even in small measures, from the vast corporatization of our food. And in its subtle and serene way, it is a link to the past."

She quotes Wayne Roberts of the Toronto Food Policy Council: "The whole concept of the ideal life in which we do no labour has been proven erroneous. We're not burning all of the calories we consume, and we are not a happier species. It's resulted in mass obesity and mass dissatisfaction and under-utilization of the hormones that flow when we are working.

"Why is it when you know someone well, you move into the kitchen, not the living room?" he continues. "You involve them in doing some work. The reality of who we are as a species keeps bumping up against the commodity nature of food." ::The Star