As Zen Master George Clinton immortalized that phrase in the bridge of one of his sonnets put to funk, one must wonder, day in and day out.

More specifically, I think we can all agree that race and class, with sexuality nipping at their heels, are the paramount issues of any social gathering.  Who has the authority?  What is that authority based on?  Is it: Who inherited the rights to the coconut tree?

Who makes the rules?  The person with the pen and paper factories?

So, that said, when we write and think about food and limit the conversation to palate, are we in  danger of becoming wankers?  Who wanks among us?

One of the strongest statements regarding food and human rights came from another Zen Master: Bob Dylan.  When he sang: “I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s Farm No More,” wasn’t that weaving agriculture into the Civil Rights movement?

So for all this talk about sustainability and organic products–ask any small purveyor about the impact of these marketing terms on their business–we might add broader context by including more pertinent matters like race, class, and sexuality.

There I said it.

Going back to organic for the moment: Here’s a good example of the point of the term.  Stonyfield, a huge company, is organic.  That’s good, right?  But why?  Why especially when they were sold to Danon a few years back and have products that simply don’t taste as good as the much smaller Butterworks.  Here’s what’s really happening: Companies are taking over terms to corner the market and ultimately increase the prices.