Oh, Poppycock.

The Soul of Slow Food: Fighting for Both Farmers and Eaters - Atlantic Mobile

This is some depressing shit.

I would add that it’s not just the people who grow our food who can’t afford to buy what they produce — the people who make our food (cooks, chefs, and restauranteurs) are often economically insecure as well. I’m speaking anecdotally here (though I’d like to find the actual data) but as someone who grew up in restaurant kitchens and whose parents are/were both professional chefs (one of them was even a very minor “celebrity” chef in his day), I can say that in many, many cases restaurant workers cannot afford to eat regularly in the establishments where they work. In fact, many cooks — and especially bus boys, dishwashers, and others lower down the restaurant totem pole — make poverty wages. And, like farmers, they work long, grueling hours. Their schedules are often unstable and can be especially difficult for parents and caretakers. And the conditions are often dangerous (to use my mom as an example: she’s singed her wrists on oven racks more times than anyone could count, she once suffered severe burns after dropping a stock pot of boiling water on her foot, and she’s cut off the tips of at least a few fingers).

I’m not trying to compare hardships here. And of course it is true that many people who work in restaurants do so for the love of food and feeding others. I just wanted to note that we really undervalue the people who bring us our food at every level.