Chicken and Beer

Before his verse on that Justin Beiber song “Baby,” Ludacris laid down one of the hottest and most forgotten records of 2003, called simply, “Chicken-n-Beer.”

This title has stuck with me for some reason, as has the album cover, a lovely image alluding to sex, fried chicken and generic American beer — essentially a celebration of some of the chief things that make America great: faster and cheaper meat than ever before and beer that costs much less that bottled water by the ounce. If that isn’t the dream, I don’t know what is.

Unfortunately, this bounty of meat and beer comes from fossil fuels, cornfields and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), all of which contribute to extreme environmental degradation, as well as to the general misery of the humans and animals needed to turn a mountain of corn into a much smaller mountain of McDoubles and Quarter Pounders.

For more information, I’ve had to venture outside of the rap game toward authors like Michael Pollan who understand some basic truth about everyone’s favorite foods: our meat is fed by corn, which makes the animals extremely sick, and in turn wrecks our health because corn feed alters balances of omega 3 versus omega 6, while adding more trans and saturated fats. Coors Light, and even the hipsters’ beloved PBR, is essentially water, corn alcohol and that elusive taste of hops coming together in a drinkable can, ready to take care-free first-years by surprise as those 15 pounds start developing.

While this may seem rather obvious, the effects go well beyond the remunerative fitness bars and days of rabbit-like feeding: the collective waistline of America is growing at an alarming rate, with obesity set, according to Harvard researchers, to crest 42 percent by 2050 if we keep eating and living as we do.

This might seem surprising, given that Middlebury’s obesity rate is practically non-existent, owing in large part to the wealth, education and proximity to real food that we enjoy, but this national trend towards obesity has everything to do with us.

In terms of direct economic effect, it isn’t hard to imagine the societal costs of supporting 42 percent of Americans who are chronically ill and less able to work: efficiency and production will decrease while hospital bills soar, raising healthcare costs and other revenue requirements to sustain a country full of sick, low-functioning people.

This scenario proves that combating obesity is something we should have an interest in, which includes our culpability in furthering — and not fighting — a food system driving heart attacks and diabetes through the roof. (The Center for Disease Control and Prevention predicts as many as one in three Americans will have diabetes by 2050).

While some have no one to blame but themselves for their weight problems, it is not the majority who are constrained by financial and geographic access to real food. The bottom line for millions of Americans who struggle with obesity is that they don’t have grocery stores, much less dining halls, and have to rely on some combination of Midd Express and the Grill for sustenance. I don’t think even Ludacris would choose that.

The problem is that our food system has been shaped over the last 40 years to serve the wealthy few while impoverishing those it purports to serve: the consumers. People aren’t making bad decisions with how they eat; convenient-stores and supermarkets are full of bad decisions, rigged by corn subsidies that make the unhealthy calories cheap and the healthy calories comparative luxuries.

My challenge, and one that I offer to you, is to revolutionize the way we live — starting with your own caloric consumption.

Though it’s often not popular, I want to say, “try becoming a vegetarian!” as it makes moral and economic sense. But if you aren’t willing to sacrifice taste, as I am not, simply stop eating the meat that is killing us: go local. Just because there are no golden arches doesn’t mean that a burger at Ross is all that different from a burger at McDonald’s. An animal lived a terrible life knee-deep in its own feces, eating corn its body can’t process properly, resulting in a burger more reliant on antibiotics.

These moral and physical atrocities we’ve accepted as a part of life should not be the way we run our bodies. Let’s not be the first generation to die younger than our parents. Our country is sick, and we are the ones who will either alter this trend or continue to kill and further impoverish the poor in the U.S. and around the world. Our impact can be immense.

Who knows, maybe one day Ludacris will release “Quinoa and Kambucha.” What glorious album art that would make.