Apples to Apples: Newsweek Explores Park Slope’s Eating Habits

We are self-righteous about food.  After all, we live in Brooklyn, where we have an unlimited batch of restaurants to choose from, bakeries and specialty markets to frequent, and farmer’s markets and co-ops to pillage for fresh, local ingredients.  If we don’t feel like using our legs, we can get Fresh Direct delivered directly to our doors.  

We are spoiled.   

So, surprise, surprise: Newsweek’s current cover story, “Divided We Eat” is written by a Park Slope resident and features a look into the fridges (and food philosophies) of three families across Brooklyn.  One in Park Slope, one in Red Hook, and one in Clinton Hill.  I bet you can guess which family is the most obnoxious.  

Alexandra Ferguson (of Park Slope) believes that “eating organically and locally contributes not only to the health of her family, but to the existential happiness of farm animals and farmers—and to the survival of the planet.”  

This lady will be easy to pick out at the co-op, she’s the one wearing the superhero cape while buying kale and quinoa.

The concept behind the story is interesting—the writer, Lisa Miller, seeks to shine a light on the classism associated with eating locally and organically.  

The truth is, you can sit around and talk about organic apples and steel-cut oats all you want, but the USDA reports that more than 50 million people in the US live in homes that are “food insecure” (which means that they often run out of food before they have the money to replenish their supply).  New York City accounts for 1.4 million, and 257,000 of that statistic live right here in Brooklyn.

And yet, in Park Slope, Miller writes, “the contents of a child’s lunchbox can be fodder for a 20-minute conversation.”  No kidding.  

“This is our charity.  This is my giving to the world,” says Supermom Ferguson, as she packs her kids’ lunches.  “We contribute a lot.”

I bet.

Miller goes on to say, that although the Fergusons are not wealthy by Park Slope standards (yeah, neither am I), they spend “approximately 20% of their income, or $1,000 a month, on food.”  

Forget about organic, local food—what kind of crazy neighborhood do we live in where a family who spends $1,000 a month just on food isn’t considered wealthy?  

Contrast this with Tiffiney Davis, a single mom living in subsidized housing in Red Hook, who spends $100 a week and is on food stamps.  She says she doesn’t buy fruits and vegetables because they’re too expensive, and when cooking a meal for Newsweek to observe, we get a rather condescending account of what’s being served up: “fried chicken wings with bottled barbeque sauce; yellow rice from a box, black beans from a can, broccoli; and carrots, cooked in olive oil and honey.”  

“Yellow rice from a box?”  As opposed to what?  Rice from her rice paddy out back?  For God’s sake, she lives in goddamned subsidized housing, where is she supposed to get it from?  

What it comes down to is a problem that is obviously not localized in Brooklyn.  Shitty food is cheaper than healthy food.  We know this.  

And sure, Superhero Ferguson is feeding her family healthy food and helping local farmers—that’s all good.  But we’ve got families all over the place who are eating ho-hos because they’re cheaper than a head of lettuce, and a pronounced attitude about whether a bag of regular apples is better than a bag of organic apples.  Who the fuck cares?  Just eat an apple instead of a bag of Doritos.  It’s a step in the right direction.      

Miller closes the article with Jabir Suluki in Clinton Hill, who stretches his $75 a week food budget to include healthy food.  He says, “To get good food, you have to sacrifice a lot.  It’s expensive.  But I take that sacrifice, because it’s worth it.”  He regularly takes his food stamps down to the farmer’s market to stock up on vegetables and fruit.

Suluki goes on to say, “We can’t just attack this problem as individuals.  A healthy community produces healthy people.”  In an effort to practice what he preaches, every weekend, this guy cooks up a big pot of rice and beans and brings it to the local food pantry.   

Talk about contributing to the survival of the planet. 

To read Lisa Miller’s full article, go here.