A sustainable food system

In restaurants as well as markets

By Culinate staff

January 22, 2013

In an acerbic column earlier this month, the New York Times writer Ginia Bellafante skewered NYC’s young people, who she thinks are spending way too much money on food, both at the grocery store and in restaurants. (She does not discuss the fact that everything is expensive in New York City, including food, nor the fact that food costs overall have skyrocketed in recent years.)

Meanwhile, on The New Inquiry, Willoughby Cooke took foodies to task for a much more serious equality issue: the fact that very little of what’s spent on food these days actually goes to the people who produce, cook, and serve it. Cooke chastises the restaurant industry for its factory mentality and declares that if we really want our food to be sustainable, we need to pay living wages, too. And yes, that means that we need to pay more, not less, for our food.