Marion Owen Marion Owen
Global Food Alaska 2007
Soldotna, AK, June 13, 2007


To Control Our Destiny
Chocolate Soufflés, Mahatma Gandhi, and a Food Policy for Alaska


I grew up in Tacoma, Washington, one of five kids. Mom and Dad were fabulous cooks, though our favorite meal was as simple as it gets: Garlic bread, steamed artichokes, and a mountain of Dungeness crab. All finger food. We kids loved it because we could break the rules and play with our food; our parents loved it because was an easy, healthy and cheap way to feed a crowd.
When I was 12, I was promoted from tossing salads to creating desserts. One day, Mom came into the kitchen with her 1950 edition of The Gourmet Cookbook. Pointing to a recipe she said, "How about making this for tonight?"
I looked down at the page and panicked. "Chocolate soufflé?"
"Honey," she said, smiling, "if you can read, you can cook."
Before pulling the fluffy dessert from the oven, I whispered a prayer. It must have worked. The soufflé was a hit. A couple years later I served a similar dessert to Dan Evans, then Governor of Washington State.
I'm grateful for my parents' you-can-do-it attitude. Whether it's making soufflés or turning compost in a snowstorm, I know the answers I need will be there at the right time. By the way, I published a story about my Mom in Chicken Soup for the Gardener's Soul.
In October 2005 I drafted a Food Policy for Alaska, which addressed declining nutrition and rising health care costs, our dependence on imported food, and Finland's success at growing some 40 percent of its own food.
Two events inspired me to write this: Hurricane Katrina and a trip to Chicago. After Katrina, Americans learned that few households and communities had little more than a couple days worth of food stockpiled for any kind of emergency. Then last year, the Organic Trade Association invited me to speak at an international food conference in Chicago. Former ABC News Nightline anchor Ted Koppel was the keynote speaker, though we didn't share the same stage. The possibility of a bird flu pandemic was hot news. Mr. Koppel asked the audience of several thousand, "How many of you have two month's worth of food in your house?" Only a dozen hands went up. "If a flu pandemic occurs," he said, "the best thing you could do is stay inside your home. It's a lesson learned from the influenza pandemic of 1918 that killed 20 to 40 million people."
I'm revising the original Food Policy to include recent events and their sister issues, like spinach tainted with E-coli and contaminated pet food; local food versus organic food and Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." Here's a visual for you: The curtains are drawn upstairs at the White House. Sitting in bed with a bowl of popcorn in his lap, George Bush is watching Al Gore talk about global warming.
I'm a half-full rather than a half-empty kind of person. My radio show and newsletter, which connects subscribers in 70 countries, is called the UpBeet Gardener. Okay, I love beets. UpBeet is spelled with two E's and features a dancing beet as a logo. You'll find organic gardening tips, stories and interviews, and sneaky nutrition where I add healthy ingredients to otherwise normal recipes. My recipe for Double Chocolate Cake made with zucchini, carrots, and beets is included in the printout of my talk.
Today I want to highlight five topics that I'll be adding to the original Food Policy and at the same time, shed some light on the hidden powers of food.

1. The ability to grow at least some of our own food provides a sense of security and hope.
My mother was one smart lady, having graduated from Stanford in three years. When it came to raising us kids, she was ahead of her time. She didn't allow coloring books; drawing inside the lines after all, dampened a child's creativity, as did watching TV. Instead, we created our own canvases with finger paints, noodles, crayons and construction paper cutouts.
Though busy raising kids, Mom loved to garden. She often pulled weeds at night by the glow of her car's headlights. Mom also suffered from mental illness, eventually ending up in low income housing in downtown Seattle. One way she kept her life in order was by growing vegetables in a city community garden plot. Simple things made her happy, like eating a sandwich made with tomatoes and lettuce she'd grown herself. Once she told me, "I don't know what I'd do without my garden."
Which brings me to my second point…

2. "Let thy food be thy medicine" -- Hippocrates
The availability of healthy, affordable food can reduce health care costs by 90 percent.
A couple weeks ago, one of our dinner cruise guests, John, stopped by the galley as I prepared dinner afloat. John works for Eli Lilly, the large pharmaceutical company. "I sell drugs," he said, "but mostly I talk to people about diabetes prevention.
"We all own the country's health problems. Americans don't like to hear bad news. That's why we resist taking responsibility for our health. Exercise and diet? Too much work. We just want a quick fix, a pill. We think that watching what we eat and getting exercise somehow takes away from our happiness, when in fact it ensures our happiness. No one wants to be sick."
According to the American Diabetes Association or ADA, 40,000 Alaskans have diabetes and 30 percent of those people don't know it. What's more, Type 2 diabetes is becoming epidemic in the U.S. and it's on the rise in children, something that was almost unheard of twenty years ago. The ADA estimates that for the first time in over a hundred years the epidemic of diabetes could actually lower the national life expectancy. The cause: Our sedentary lifestyle, poor nutrition and the choices we make.
The finger of blame also points to what Senator Lisa Murkowski brought up several months ago when she expressed alarm at the shortage of doctors in Alaska. Doctors we can always use, but we need doctors and community health aids that are better trained in nutrition. The long-term results are enormous: Health care costs would decrease, as would everyone's insurance rates because healthy people cost less in terms of medical expenses.
We are what we eat and we are what we think. The Anchorage Daily News (May 20, 2007) recently stated that many Alaskans living far from the road system purchase most of their food and household staples from stores in cities hundreds of miles away. The top food sellers are Spam, Vienna sausage, boxed milk, Ramen noodles and pilot bread. In the villages, prices are high because stores must keep up with freight costs.
Who ever said food comes only from a store? And what kind of nutrition do you find in pilot bread, anyway? The only time I gagged down pilot bread was to prevent seasickness while working as a seaman and merchant marine officer on ships and tugboats.
Another problem: Too many choices at the grocery store. I don't know about you, but my brain gets overloaded. Besides, how does 15 kinds of peanut butter, 50 salad dressings and two aisles devoted to chips and crackers help solve global warming? Overwhelmed shoppers, I have a simple solution for you: Let's divide grocery stores in half: One side sells only healthy foods, the other side would sell, not-so healthy food.

3. Dangle a Carrot With Education
Affordable and accessible fresh fruits and vegetables can improve students' test scores.
Forget "No Child Left Behind." In mid-May, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, convened a summit at which experts on early childhood development schooled members of Congress. In a nutshell, research now shows that providing positive influences like good nutrition early on has the greatest benefit to the individual and to society. And good nutrition pays for itself. Think about it: How can a child focus on schoolwork when he's hungry or malnourished? A proper diet closes educational gaps and is cheaper than adding teachers. We know it's easier to prevent a problem than to fix it later, yet most of us grow up nutritionally illiterate. So in addition to reading, writing and arithmetic, I propose that students be required to learn cooking, gardening, and nutrition. No carrot bread, no diploma.

4. More grows in a garden than what is planted there.
Growing at least some of our own food reduces the cost of living, provides jobs and reduces stress--the cause of 90 percent of doctors' visits.
Alaska residents carry burdens in ways that differ from the rest of the United States. For example, did you know that 12 percent of the population doesn't know if Alaska is a foreign country, state or territory?
Seriously though, the publication, Economic Trends (June 2005) places three Alaska cities among the 20 most expensive in the nation with the high cost of living due, in part, to the high cost of transporting food. In Kodiak, fresh produce is not only expensive, it's in short supply in the local food banks. That's one of the main reasons we started Veggies at Work, a program where employees at local businesses raise vegetables at the office and donate the produce to food banks. It's a win-win partnership: Employees get to relax while putzing in the garden during breaks and they have a place to recycle coffee grounds. In turn, the food banks receive much-needed broccoli, kale, carrots and potatoes. All the produce is weighed and converted to servings. Did you know one kale plant can produce over 40 servings of vegetables?
Now Alaska might be part of the U.S. but we're still in our "ugly duckling" stage. Terry Chapin, professor of ecology at UAF stated in the journal Science (July 22, 2005), “Alaska has many of the properties of a third-world economy. An extractive economy subject to changes in the world economy, tremendous amounts of natural resources, diversity of cultures--and we’ve got the money and the wealth to solve the problem if we know what to do,” he said.
Intuitively, we know what to do. Close the gap between what we know and what we do. What we learn in this conference only matters if we do something with the information.
In the Anchorage Daily News (June 4, 2007), Governor Palin said, "Economic opportunities are needed in rural Alaska. We need to foster opportunities that create good jobs that will lead people to have hope in rural and urban Alaska."
Without hope, there's fear. Where's there's fear there's despondency, drug and alcohol abuse, domestic violence and crime. If you want to create jobs and improve the lifestyle for rural Alaskans at the same time, all you have to do is look at what people are accomplishing around the State. In Chickaloon for example, they've built a solar and wind-powered greenhouse to provide fresh vegetables year round. The village has also adopted an environmental program to restore land, air and water quality and re-connect people and food to the environment. As one director told me: "We tell people, 'If you're thinking about taking fish from the river, then don't throw your batteries in the water; if you want to eat vegetables from the garden, then don't dump oil on the ground."
Building and managing greenhouses in the north is not difficult. In fact, it's easier to heat a greenhouse than to cool one, as owners of a new, 25-acre greenhouse in Maine recently learned. Then there's Finland, which straddles the Arctic Circle. About 8,000 businesses, most of which are family-owned, produce significant quantities of vegetables, flowers, berries and fruit in open fields and in greenhouses.
Back to Maine. In February, the 25-acre greenhouse delivered its first batch of fresh tomatoes to supermarkets in the Northeast. Maine's Governor was present and as he munched on a ripe tomato he told the press, "The company is out to prove that a state notorious for its cold weather and short growing season can expand agricultural production by adopting technology that could signal a new direction for farming in Maine, while creating new jobs at the same time."
People around the world are pondering ways to protect the earth from the impacts of global warming, starting with reducing the carbon footprint on the environment.
According to the Associated Press, we have some catching up to do. Alaskans produce the largest amount of carbon dioxide per person in the country thanks to our flying, driving, shipping and so on. To call it a carbon footprint is being too kind. Alaskans produce a carbon buttprint.
I believe we all want to help, to be of service, solve problems and help make the world a better place. But most of us are too busy surviving. We need to stop and look at the choices we're making, even if it means reaching for the duct tape.
One day, while sowing carrot seeds at a Veggies at Work garden, the shop owner came out to help. She told me a story about her two stepsons, then age 6 and 8 who were chasing each other around the house. I told them, 'If you don't stop running around like wild dogs, I'm going to duct tape you to the floor!
"They were pretty cooperative until they realized they were really stuck. They wiggled around for 20 minutes and then I let them go. They were pretty quiet after that."
We need to examine the choices we make, which brings me to my fifth and final topic:

5. Food as a teacher
While pushing my grocery cart through the produce section one day, I overheard a conversation between an elderly couple. "Let's buy some of those," the man said, pointing to some organic apples. The wife quickly replied, "No, dear, at our age we need all the preservatives we can get!"
When it comes to recognizing the value of making conscious choices, Mahatma Gandhi was a master. He often included articles on diet and health in his weekly newspaper. The purpose of food, he said, was simply to nourish the body. Gandhi developed his own food policy, one he practiced throughout his life. Here it is: The control of the palate is a valuable way to control the mind. Simply move away from foods that don't benefit your health, and choose foods that do. This ongoing decision-making process proved to be an important training ground for Gandhi's nonviolent activism.
Daily choices determine our destiny, said Gandhi. To control our destiny, we need to harness our will; which means to do not what we like, but what is in our long-term best interest. If the will is strong, great things can be accomplished; if the will is weak, very little. In every endeavor, it's the person with a strong will who succeeds.
I recently lost 16 pounds, and I have more to lose. When I face food, I figure I've got two choices: what is pleasant to eat and what is beneficial. The first pleases me immediately; the second is often unpleasant at first, as anyone who has tried to change eating habits knows; but I realize it will improve my health and contribute to my peace of mind.
I try to eat wholesome food in moderation. Of course, moderation is always less than I want, which is why I have more to lose. But I also know that moderation and discrimination are important in order to strengthen my body. If my body isn't strong, I can't give the best of myself to society. We need to harness our physical, mental, and intellectual talents, not to make money or achieve power or fame, but to use these faculties to contribute to life. As Gandhi would say, "Your life is your message."
Here's to garlic bread, steamed artichokes, and Dungeness crab.
Thank you, and God bless you.



Double Chocolate Cake
Serve this at a gathering of unsuspecting friends or family.
By Marion Owen

1 package Devil's food cake mix
4 TBL unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cardamom powder (optional, but nice)
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup plain yogurt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 small zucchini, grated
1 carrot, steamed and mashed
3/4 cup mashed cooked beets (one 14.5-ounce can, drained)
Combine powdered ingredients in one bowl. Stir in grated zucchini and mashed carrot. Add yogurt, oil, eggs, vanilla and beets. Mix well and pour into a tube pan, 9x13-inch pan or two round or square pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes; add 5 to 10 minutes for tube and 9x13 inch pan. Test for doneness.


Pinto Bean Oat Waffles
These just might be the best waffles you've ever eaten. For pennies you get a million dollars worth of nutrition and health. Adapted from the recipe by Edyth Young Cottrel.

2 1/4 cups water
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 cup soaked pinto beans* (approximately 1/2 cup dry)
1/2 cup wheat germ, sesame seeds or ground flax seeds (optional)
1 TBL vegetable oil
1 TBL sugar (optional)
1/2 tsp salt
Soak beans overnight. Drain. Combine and blend all ingredients in a food processor or blender until light and foamy, about 30 seconds. Let stand and thicken while waffle iron is heating. Grease waffle iron (I like the Waring Pro waffle iron) with a cooking spray or high-quality solid shortening. Bake in hot waffle iron for a full 8 minutes. Top with fruit and yogurt, bananas and peanut butter or creamed broccoli and smoked salmon (my favorite). Makes 3 to 4 waffles. Tip: Soak extra beans, measure and freeze them for later.
* You can substitute soy or garbanzo beans.


Marion Owen, PO Box 1694, Kodiak, AK 99615; Phone: 907-486-5079
Email: mygarden@alaska.net; www.upbeetcommunications.com or www.galleygourmet.biz