France Flexes Its Food Muscles
And Flirting with Vegan
In November, for the last week of our stay in France, we shared a fabulous meal at Ebullition with our friends Leo and Marie-Pierre; we enjoyed this meal on what would have been Thanksgiving Day in the US. In the middle of our meal, Marie-Pierre pointed out that we were being “very French”: eating a fabulous meal while talking excitedly about our plans for the next meal. It’s no secret, food is front and center in French life.
I read an article in the New York Times this week explaining that Carrefour, France’s largest food retailer, had dropped all PepsiCo products, placing signs in their stores notifying shoppers “We are no longer selling this brand due to an unacceptable price increase.” This is huge news; PepsiCo makes Pepsi-Cola (of course) and several other soft drinks but they also own Lay’s (chips and salty snacks), Quaker (oats and cereals), Gatorade (sports beverages), and numerous other brands.
The French government is working with retailers to fight against high food prices because high prices harm French families. Good for them! They are also attempting to combat “shrinkflation,” the practice of reducing the size of a product while maintaining the same (or an even higher) price. Does anyone else remember Andy Rooney kvetching about this in the 90’s?
The French think differently about food than we do here in the US. Population size is an obvious driver of the difference. France’s food system has to feed about 68 million people, the US has to feed 330 million - a factor of five! But the difference is more than just scale, it’s about valuing high quality food and a belief that access to good food is a human right.
After reading the NYT article I started to wonder about how accessible good food really is in France for lower-income residents. Do they have food deserts - areas (typically low-income) where fresh foods are simply not available in the local stores? I found this study (of Montpellier!) which addressed my exact question: “Our results highlight that few neighborhoods are deprived of F&V (fruit and vegetable) outlets. They also show the diversity of the “everyday practices” by which inhabitants move throughout the city to obtain affordable, quality, and culturally appropriate food.”
This is just one city, but it confirmed my hunch based on what I have seen walking and shopping in Montpellier: food stores are everywhere, and even small stores carry fresh fruits and vegetables along with basics like rice, milk, and eggs. And the excellent public transportation systems mean people can get to larger shopping hubs easily.
Carolyn and I have recently been thinking about our own eating habits. We were moved by a series we watched on Netflix, You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment. The show follows several sets of identical twins through an experiment in which they are given prescribed diets (one eats an omnivore diet, the other a vegan diet). Both twins are given workout programs, and they are tested before and after the experiment for body composition (lean muscle, body fat, visceral fat), cardiovascular fitness, arousal response (genital blood flow), cognitive ability, and a host of other metrics down to the length of the telomeres on their DNA. As we follow the twins adjusting to their new habits we see short segments about different aspects of the American food system. There’s a segment on the development of a vegan cheese brand, one on UC Berkeley’s Alternative Meats Lab (a fascinating program that’s a hybrid school/incubator), and several sections on factory farming of cows, chickens, salmon, and hogs.
The show was inspiring, the people developing new products, the factory chicken farmer who couldn’t stomach the treatment of the animals and converted to mushroom farming, the twins who saw their health and metrics change after only a few months of a new diet/exercise regime - it left us excited about the new technologies, new industries, and new possibilities.
After watching the show Carolyn and I agreed that we wanted to start moving towards a more plant-based diet (I mean immediately after - I think the credits were still rolling on the last episode). Some of our desire for change is prompted by health; we want the longer lifespan, improved cognition, and other benefits that come with plant-based eating (c’mon - more genital blood flow sounds good to everyone, not just me, right!?), but a lot of it is also ethical. We love animals. We can’t stand the sight of the chickens in those factory farms, or the salmon pent up in nets swimming through clouds of their own shit and covered in sores, fouling the natural body of water in which the farm operates.
I don’t know if we’ll eventually go fully vegan or not. But we’ll be doing ourselves, the animals, and the environment some good even if we just cut back on our consumption of animal products and purchase what we do consume from humane, small-scale producers (we have lots of farmer markets here in Austin).
As we discussed this change, my big concern was dairy for coffee. I love a good café latte and I look forward each morning to my French press coffee with a splash of whole milk. This morning I’m experimenting with Califa Farms “BetterHalf” a plant-based substitute for half-and-half. Last night, I cooked vegan tortilla soup which we zhuzh-ed up with plant-based sour cream, plant-based Mexican blend cheese, and corn chips. (The soup was good, but I made it a little too spicy.)
If we can afford wonderful things like international travel and a second home in France, we ought to have the resources to eat more ethically.
Jusqu’á la prochaine fois (until next time),
Roberto and Carolyn
Footnote: The sub-title of this post “Flirting with Vegan” is borrowed from an Instagram account by the same name, run by an old friend of mine in New York City. Please check out some of her recommendations, use her discount codes to explore vegan options, or take one of Tamar’s classes if you are in the area!
Buy us a cup of coffee? We’re offering a New Year’s Special that will give you 50% off for a whole year! (which means only $2.50 per month.) Offer ends January 15.
Coconut milk is deelish.
Vince here Roberto, we also are in a major diet change to plant base after being confronted with a life changing diagnosis this fall. Watched the Netflix documentary Forks over Knives and Prime documentary ,Game changers. Have Joel Furhman M.D., Eat to Live cookbook and his Super Immunity.