Alice Waters on 60 Minutes (file under Everyone has got a dream)

I just finished watching Alice Waters on 60 Minutes. And what can I say that I haven’t already said. At first I was unsure about the interview because it seemed that CBS and 60 Minutes were trying to diminish her impact on the way that food is viewed in the United States.

It covered the precocious Waters development into the marvelous dreamer that she is today, was then and always will be. It touched on her push in the Slow Food movement and the resultant Slow Food Expo 2008 which took place outside of San Francisco’s City Hall as well as the Edible School Yard Program. Both of which I have written about here before. One point which she made loud and clear and that I also have written about here is that the food we are eating is at worst killing us and at best making us sick, all in the name of profit.

What struck me was the timing of the interview. In fact, Leslie Stahl outright said, that organic is expensive and that in these times it may not be possible for America to wake up, so to speak, to the organic, slow food, REVOLUTION that she helped to form in the United States. The reason I found this interesting is that the other day I read an article which regaled McDonald’s with praise for turning a 14% larger profit in the last quarter. For me, this was a telling statistic, and a very sad one.

In the current economic reality, jobs are being lost in the United States, so too are homes and the fabric of society is being tested. Yet, in this reality, while other companies are slashing jobs and finding ways to bolster their bottomline, McDonald’s is, on the other hand, reaping the profits of misery. At least that is the way that I see it.

You see, the economic reality is forcing people (though Americans have rarely needed a reason to eat fast food) to choose the easiest method for food intake. That method naturally being fast food.

I am guilty of eating McDonald’s every now and again. But since I have become acquainted fully with the organic and slow food movements I find myself eating it less and less. Now nothing more than a momentary guilty pleasure.

I loved the interview with Waters. I thought it was on the whole balanced and represented a much grander exposure for Waters. The one part I was especially fond of was when she was asked about the White House having an edible landscape. A garden. She spoke of the symbolism involved with installing such a feature. And I couldn’t agree more. Change you can believe in. If you know what I mean.

Are you dreaming big and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM