FESTIVAL OF PURE FOOD: COMMENTS

On Tuesday and Wednesday night, May 27-28, 1997, I attended the "Festival of
Pure Food", in Berkeley and Oakland (California), as a representative of the
San Francisco Living Foods Enthusiasts (SF-LiFE: our local raw foods group).
My comments on the Festival, are as follows.

* Tuesday was a seminar on the spiritual aspects of diet and health. The
program was not as good as I expected. However, one of the speakers - a
local minister in the Nation of Islam ("Black Muslim"), was an excellent
speaker. He said something folks on raw-food/veg-raw might find interesting.
Specifically, he recommended a 3 day DRY fast to help people stop smoking.
He said you are so miserable on a dry fast, that you forget about cigarettes.
Interesting! He also recommended herbal colon cleansing programs, as well.
(Note: most fasting experts advise against dry fasts - approach with caution).

* Wednesday was a "Feast of Pure Food". Attendance was lower than expected;
however I did have an interesting conversation with a very nice African American
woman. She wanted to know if you needed to drink wheatgrass juice to be in
SF-LiFE, or if you had to shop at expensive health food stores to have a raw
diet. I explained that wheatgrass was an individual choice - many members use
it, but not all. Also wheatgrass juicers can be expensive. I told her that
we encourage organic, but recognize that not everyone can afford it. (She
said she was on public assistance, and had little money.) I also told her
that some of our members had elitist attitudes about organic, and were a bit
self-righteous about it. She thanked me for being honest with her.

My conversation with her, and others that night, reminded me that our raw world
is often very closed and narrow. People of color, people living in inner cities,
and lower income people could gain much from learning about raw/living foods.
Much of the time, we rawists consume expensive, even "exotic" foods, forgetting
that others cannot afford such luxury. Was it Marie Antoinette who said the
peasants should eat cake if they can't afford bread? I suspect some rawists
would tell the poor to eat durians, or to make expensive, organic fruits
the staple part of their diet. Another example is wheatgrass - the poor
cannot afford $500-700 for an electric juicer. (The best answer to those on
low incomes appears to be sprouts - good food at an economical price). At times,
we seem to be a privileged, spoiled and somewhat self-centered bunch. We
think our (often expensive) raw diet is the answer, forgetting that others
cannot afford some of the foods we consider to be staples (e.g., avocados).

SF-LiFE is interested in outreach and education, and wants to take the
message of raw/living foods to people of color, and others. We will participate
in every community outreach program that we can.

Comments on the above are welcome.

Regards,
Tom Billings
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