"600 words by Esther J. Cepeda"

Small potatoes, big dust-up

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

If I said po-tay-toe, you might say po-tah-toe, or you might say "Irish potato famine." You might say "baked, covered in butter, sour cream and chives, sitting next to a filet mignon" or even say "McDonald's," if you're the sort who'd know they're the single largest purchaser of potatoes in the U.S.

Me, I say South American comfort food – not what immediately springs to mind, I know. I'd never presumed to pinpoint the potato's exact origins but Peru and Chile are doing it for me, trying to lay claim to birth-place bragging rights and J.R. Simplot is no longer around for comment, may he rest in peace. Let me back up.

Picture this: Andean highlands, brightly wrapped, broad-faced peasants cultivating tasty tubers while sikus (pan pipes) play gently in the background. Those are the origins of the potato.

Sunday's New York Times ran a story about Peru and Chile being at odds about who can claim the spud as their's first at this most delicate time: the U.N.-decreed International Year of the Potato. According to the International Potato Center (I didn't know either, but don’t miss clicking on the potato song!), annual production approaches 300 million tons and more than one-third of the global potato output now comes from developing countries.

To top it off, the site says potatoes are the "third most important food crop in the world" because its "a major carbohydrate in the diet of hundreds of millions of people in the developing countries.

That alone is a biggie right now as food manufacturers look to the potato as the price of corn skyrockets – Peru has already started putting potato bread in schools. Which brings me to Mr. J.R. Simplot who passed away May 25 of this year – a mere five days before Peru's National Potato Day – at the ripe old age of 99.

Though I doubt he can be credited with the development of the delicious potato-flour bun which graced the long-defunct Arch Deluxe, Simplot – a Dubuque, Iowa native who died a billionaire – will be remembered as the man who perfected the method of freezing the French-cut potato, forever making them a staple of the fast food industry. The man loved potatoes like no other, and oh how I wish he were around to weigh in on this tater tiff.

My dearest dad – not a potato baron but raised in the more bucolic parts of Ecuador – remembers eating potatoes of many shapes and sizes nearly every day because corn and wheat products were out of his family's financial means. "Every once in a while we'd have some fresh cheese with them," he told me over a rare potato-sparse Sunday-night dinner.

And that's my fondest memory of the humble potato – freshly fished out of a kettle of boiling water, served steaming hot along with a chunk of white cheese and a salt shaker. On special occasions they'd be mashed, colored with the oil of the Achiote seed, studded with pieces of brick or viajero cheese and fried into potato pancakes: my southern comfort food.

But rather than being the beacon of peace and indulgence Simplot considered the spud to be, the tubers are a sore spot. The Associated Press reported that Andres Contreras, a researcher at Chile's Austral University in Valdivia, said archaeological studies have found the first evidence of human potato chomping dating back 14,000 years in southern Chile, long before evidence emerges of spud consumption in Peru. The AP also quoted Juan Risi, the head of Peru's National Institute for Agricultural Innovation, calling Chile's potatoes mere "grandchildren" of Peru's tubers.

A shame that things had to get so ugly – it's not like Chile and Peru don't have more pressing social issues to address – but it is a matter of national pride. Luckily, neither I nor Simplot, "America's Great Potato Baron," have to pick sides. He will, by now, have learned all the potato secrets of the universe he craved during his earthly life, and I will satisfy myself with the knowledge that national borders won't keep me from being proud of my potato ancestry.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Zeh fuwah guwah

by Esther J. Cepeda

"Pregunta del Dia" translates to Question of the Day and today’s comes from R.L., a Stickney reader who, in response to another recent column, asked:

Q. "Are you a vegetarian?"

A. Me a veggie? It only takes two words to make this girl happy: cheesey-beef.

But even if that weren’t the case, and I believed firmly in the right of animals to take precedence over humans in the food chain, I wouldn’t try to ram my ideology down your throat. Which brings me to Chicago’s now defunct ban on foie gras in the city.

For the uninitiated, foie gras is the fattened liver of goose or duck, otherwise known as what Julia Child talked me through the preparation of in her distinctive voice on so many lonely childhood Saturday afternoons. Its sale had been banned in Chicago in 2006 and was quietly rescinded last Wednesday.

I got no beef with the foie gras even if some consider the force feeding of these animals cruelly inhumane. This usually comes from people eating eggs and wearing leather shoes, or who routinely make their children sit at the table until ALL the asparagus has been consumed. If that’s not cruel feeding, I don’t know what is.

Nevertheless, I’m thrilled the menu item I’d never dream of ordering is now legal again because the ban made us all look like a bunch of backwater rubes. Chicago is trying for the 2016 Olympics, partially to gain recognition in the world as a place that has more to offer than Michael Jordan and Al Capone memorabilia. Now we won’t even have to imagine the snickers from the rich tourists: "Zeh Chicagoers don’t allow zeh fuwah guwah? Sacrebleu!"

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Not even if you got ‘em

by Esther J. Cepeda

“Pregunta del Dia” translates into Question of the day and today’s comes from a loyal reader who lives out in cyberspace, J.O. who asks:

Q. You’re not a smoker, are you?

A. Let’s put it this way, J.O., I am not addicted to nicotine. And I don’t like the stinky smell. And the only time I buy cigarettes its to give to my friends…who share.

Smoking isn’t good for you but business gets done on a smoke break, and much like you wouldn’t have a business lunch with someone and then refuse to eat, well, let’s just say I don’t mind puffing every now and then.

That said, the pressure to do so has gone down significantly. The no-indoor-smoking laws have made for fewer opportunities to feel pressured to light up.

The Associated Press recently reported that a Massachusetts study has linked the indoor smoking bans to reduced smoking in teens age 12-17. “Youths who lived in towns with strict bans were 40% less likely to become regular smokers than those in communities with no bans or weak ones,” according to an article in May’s issue of the archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

We can make a few assumptions and take it farther, will the number of pre-teens who never take up the habit skyrocket?  Will the number of smokers who quit and never take up the habit again rise and stay steady? Will the smoking ban craze catch on everywhere? Maybe.

While that may not be good news for smokers who have to brave the fierce elements, but its wonderful news for the cost burden on our health care system and group insurance premiums in the coming decades. A worthy trade, I think!

send your preguntas to questions@pregunta-del-dia.com 

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Five-o day mayo-nnaise

by Esther J. Cepeda

“Pregunta del Dia” translates into Question of the day and today’s comes from Enrique, a Norridge, IL reader who asks:

Q. Why do Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Mexicans care way more about September 16^th, the day of Mexico’s Independence.

A.  Enrique, most Americans think May 5^th is Mexican Independence day, but it’s just the commemoration of a short-lived win against the French at Puebla.

Why celebrate it at all? Because we Americans, above all, are party-lovin’ consumers. After New Year’s Eve we had to wait only until the Super Bowl for an alcohol/food binge. From there it was a short jump to Valentine’s Day for candy and champagne, and only a few weeks to St. Paddy’s day corned beef. How to fill the great gaping hole between the green beer and the Fourth of July barbecue?

You guessed it, buddy, Cinco. Besides, what better time to highlight all the “Latinized” consumer products available at a store near you? So when you go buy food for the feast and a case of Corona, the worst-selling beer in Mexico, to share with your non-Mexican friends, pick up some Jalapeno mayonnaise to slather on the homemade quesadillas Martha Stewart calls “Mexican Fondue with Chorizo and Chiles.” What could be more melting-pot-American than that?

Esther J. Cepeda writes the “600 Words” & “Pregunta del Dia” columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. “600 words” is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Twenty-dollar Cheetos

Can Global Food Shortage + Obesity Epidemic = better nutrition?

"600 Words" by Esther J. Cepeda

Food prices are through the roof. It's gettin' ugly out there: Australia, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Haiti are all facing severe food shortages.

But why leave the Americas? Millions of Mexicans took to the streets last year because the Sponge-Bobian fantasy that cars running on corn would save the world drove the humble tortilla into caviar-land.

Too "third world" for you? How about the rice restrictions at Costco - ahhh, now they're hitting us where it hurts! You don't pull basics from overly-lit suburban temples of excess without grabbing a headline or two.

But where some see another kick to the groin of our ailing economy, I have a grand vision: the Twenty-dollar Cheeto.

First some facts: according to the Endocrine Society of America and the Centers for Disease Control, obesity is "the number one health threat facing America." Based on numbers from 2004, they say obesity currently results in an estimated 400,000 deaths annually and costs the U.S. nearly $122.9 billion bucks. Think globally, and we're talking over 1 billion overweight adults and 300 million clinically obese. Ouch.

And corn prices - you could pick up 56 pounds for $2 in January 2006, by January 2008 the predictions looked closer to $5 per bushel, according to the USDA National Agriculture Statistics Service. Meat that starts out as cows and pigs eat...well, you get the picture.

Which brings me back to my fantasy: the twenty-dollar Cheeto.

I loooove Cheetos, who doesn't? Poor people who buy their food at the corner store love 'em, working class folks who get groceries from the food shelter love 'em, rich people who didn't fill up at Charlie Trotter's love 'em.

Now take higher demand and lower supplies of corn products, add it to the US and Mexico - the numbers 9 and 19 fattest countries in the world, according to the World Health Organization - factor in a plunging economy and 24-hour news cycles, and that equals a prime teaching moment for getting people to eat healthier.

Inexplicably, spokespersons for the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Health Department, the American Heart Association and the few med schools I called hadn't even considered the possibility that the challenge of global food scarcity might be a perfect opportunity.

But never mind the policy wonks, the wheels have already started turning at food banks and pantries.

These are the people who beg the industrial food complex for left-over mac-n-cheese, canned ravioli, and pretzels to give to people who can't afford it otherwise. People like the good folks at the Greater Chicago Food Depository.

"Rising costs for food is affecting everything we do," Bob Dolgan of the GCFD told me. "Our most recent numbers show we're up 12% over last year - it's really affecting our pantry and soup kitchens."

But like me - worried the processed, packaged food the poorest of our communities swallow in even greater amounts during an economic downturn creates more health problems in later years - Bob sees the up-side. And GCFD had already decided to wean themselves off the corn.

"With higher costs for food producers we're relying less on donations and more on fundraising. But that lets us control the nutritional value of the products, so we're actually purchasing more fresh fruits and vegetables."

Bob didn't want to speculate what sort of ultra-effective nutrition education campaigns this conundrum could spur, instead we took a moment to savor the possibility of the twenty dollar Cheeto - so delicious, so expensive. A lunchtime staple today, a pleasant, distant memory running through the minds of 1.3 billion thinner bodies tomorrow.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also a Director at the Chicago-based United Neighborhood Organization. Her reporting and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of UNO. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com