sowing prosperity

A Recent Podcast Appearance has Me Thinking about Food

What do you do when your world is turned upside-down by a cancer diagnosis? That was the question confronting Logan Duvall, father of four and small business owner, when his five-year-old son Lander was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. His answer? To go on a quest to learn as much as possible about food, health, and lifestyle, and to share that knowledge with others.

“From the beginning, I said, ‘God will do his part, the doctors would do theirs, and I, as a parent, would do mine.’” As a partner in the Me and McGee Farmer’s Market, a family business in North Little Rock Arkansas, Logan began to stock health food and personal care products in an area of the market called “Lander’s Corner,” and began spreading the knowledge he’d learned on Facebook.

Soon the message grew, and today Logan is the host of Sowing Prosperity, a popular podcast and YouTube channel with tens of thousands of subscribers. According to their website, “The Sowing Prosperity Philosophy is all about being the light for oneself and others. It emphasizes personal prosperity in health, family, friends, and finances as the foundation for a thriving community. Through regenerative practices and education on local, nourishing foods, the philosophy aims to strengthen both individuals and the local economy.”

Recently, Logan was kind enough to invite me on the show to share my story and to talk about my book. You can find the interview here:

I can’t thank Logan enough for having me. It was a stimulating conversation, and I really learned a lot.

One thing that we discussed is the satisfaction of eating local. I do try to favor local produce and meat whenever I can get it, and I prefer to support farmers that I know and believe in, although I admit, it can be tricky at times. But not impossible. In fact, a 2015 study done at UC Merced shows that up to 90% of Americans could be fed entirely by food grown or raised within 100 miles of their homes.

The fact that we don’t do so is a testament to how industrial — and how fragile — our food system has become. I’m afraid that the expense, effort and time involved in righting this particular ship may be more than we as a society are willing to pay. Some scary headlines a few months ago told us that Americans spent more of their income on food in 2022 than they have in 30 years: 11.3% of our collective paycheck goes down our collective gullet. (For reference, the all-time low was under 10% in 2010).

In most outlets, this was pitched as a story about inflation and consumer confidence in the economy. Zoom out, though, and it looks to me like much of that increase is driven by food eaten in restaurants, and is particularly pronounced thanks to a big dip in food spending during the pandemic, and a rebound after.

Zoom out further, and food is still historically cheap. In 1961, food accounted for 17% of the typical family’s budget. In 1950, just under 30%. Back in 1900, it was more like 40%. So I guess I’m saying that it’s all relative.

Stack this up against new data that 86% of our $3.8 trillion healthcare budget goes to chronic disease — most of it preventable — and you have to ask, are we trading short-term savings for long-term spending? For that matter, how much should we be spending on our food? Is less always better? Hit us up with your thoughts in the comments below!