Jan, 2021 : “THE FATE OF NATIONS HANGS UPON THEIR CHOICE OF FOOD.”
an editorial in conversation with excerpts from An Edible History of Humanity by Tom Standage
(ty for the book-lend, AHA).
Food is wealth. Control of food is power.
Food is more than sustenance: ITS SOCIAL - POLITICAL - ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION.
We connect through food-exchange; wisdom-sharing through food’s sensory story. Food leads to communal storage & resources, centralization, & thus, civilization. Agricultural traditions set foundations for state religion & politics. This is true, yet must be re-imagined.
The unhealthy American food system encourages large-scale-everything. This creates food deserts & so many left relying on handouts for lack of access. Food handouts define & reinforce power structure.
Let us consider solidarity with solution rather than charity reinforcing privilege.
Healthy trade routes lead to fields as complex & elevated as architecture, science. These trade-routes are so important to evolution they can be seen from satellite.
Grassroots systems are in place to reconnect us, foster diversity, sustainability, equity. Let us simply choose to use them.
The Crew at Bloomsbury Farm outside Nashville, TN
By exploring nonconventional grocery-buying, even for small purchases, you foster a more equitable, sustainable world. Seek food at your local market, produce stand, community-sharing pantry club or CSA, food truck, or bodega.
coming soon : list of Middle TN farm CSA’s & pickup locations (community supported agriculture)
Jan, 2021
In December, we generated enough EATreats pre-orders to relaunch with our new website! We’ve downsized & decided to continue doing pop-ups throughout the spring. We are currently taking January & February orders!
May, 2020
Dear customer family,
We write to inform of Everyday Adventure Treats’ closure during Covid-19, as well as update you on current endeavors & dreams.
In May 2020, we made the decision to close EATreats for a number of reasons. This may be permanent or temporary. Here is the reasoning:
As essential as EATreats is (you customers have confirmed!), making space in the Mesa Komal commissary made sense, while also given the opportunity to reflect on 7 years in business; in this economy, society.
We began selling snack bars in 2013 out of necessity & demand. As a coach, Rebecca travelled weekly while also training. The body required more than was available by bus & walking proximity. We realized that food access while traveling without a car is similar to a person who doesn’t drive.
It became our fascination to study food maps in dozens of cities across the country. It became clear:
1) food access is terribly stunted in every state
2) the problem is fixable
3) through grass roots interest we will achieve this
In 2013, we set out to make a snack loaded with elements hardest to find on the road:
1) portability
2) non-meat protein, iron, vitamins, nutrients
3) delicious & fresh
We created a production & sales system that employed a staff of 6 people, created more direct trade routes, & impacted the food system entirely, even in small ways, through these principles:
1) handcrafting - pays people
2) direct as possible from farmer to consumer
3) considering the whole cycle
We believe in paying people to use their own hands when the work is good, & this work is delicious. (Think tearing open fresh foils of cinnamon & picked pecans). Perhaps every other large scale snack bar uses a machine to produce & package up to 1,000,000 bars per run.
More direct sourcing means more wage to the farm & more value to the customer. Consider how sluggish our food system has gotten when the average produce is transported back & forth across states, up to 6 different shelves, over 3,000 miles! We’ve made our mission that every ingredient at EATreats is received within a step or two.
After many a syrupy mess in the first year, these elements evolved into the best snack bar in the world. The demand rose quickly around town, & the country.
This leads us to here, 2020. A wild year, one for reflection & pause in many cases. Here we’ve noted:
1) EATreats production peaked yearly at over 100,000 bars sold in 2015 (our 3rd year). This meant we were neither a new budding business or a giant corporation. This meant no supplies nor machinery, nor space was set up for our growth, steady as it was; we’d hit a ceiling.
For example, our starter equipment cost $500 for a dehydrator & sealer. The next tier was $15,000, which we purchased, & if we were to outgrow that (we got close enough to consider), the next tier of equipment was over $100,000.
Now consider that in order to sell half a million bars, like we did, in the current model means are margins are slim! We pay:
close to $0.50 / bar in packaging, & distributers have 15%-20%. Major customers want case discounts of 10-20%. Additionally, retailers often ask for a refund for unsold product.
Then— consumers who are used to paying $1 for the 10/$10 snack bars made by machines, can’t understand why pay more? Ask yourself, who then, is making any money on this? The answer, basically, is everyone & no one. Though, we’re all quite busy.
And the consumer is left with poor quality made from an unsustainable system that continues to pay farmers less than minimum wage; everyone else, not much more.
2) I’m calling out this model to say:
The American food system ought to be better. We know how to get this done. We invite you to stay awhile. Join us in this journey to better, more accessible food for everyone.