What the hell happened to food?
Where did straight up wholesome goodness go? Can we go back to the time when No Additives and No Preservatives meant it was probably safe to eat–for your health and for the general sustainability of natural food?
As a society, are we stupid enough to believe that consuming the cheapest edible substances will have no negative consequences? Apparently so. And I’m not talking about the dangers of high fructose content or empty carbs or cholesterol. I’m more concerned about the fact that we can barely even recognize food these days, and we’ve all but let the cheap stuff run our quality meals out of town.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no stranger to the concept of thrifty spending. And I admit that I wasn’t always so concerned about the quality of food that I purchased. In fact, when I was in college and faced with the dreaded decision of chain supermarket (give it to me cheap; give it to me in a big-ass box) or posh food boutique (relatively pricey but clearly health-conscious), I stuck to the cheap stuff that I knew and loved from childhood. Besides, it was an utterly uncomplicated starving student decision: cheap food = extra cash = more beer and sushi. But this was 10 years ago, and food still kinda looked like food then.
I simply can’t believe the freakshow that cheap grocery stores have become! It’s a veritable cornucopia of dressed-up science projects. I mean, how natural is it when all 600 of each variety of fruit can be stacked neatly on the 1/2 mile shelf because they’re all the same g-damned size? Try this: go to a fruit farm–a real one, not one of those mono-culture, lab experiments they call farms these days; one with natural seeds and farmers and baskets and stuff–and pick some fruit for a couple hours. Try to find 10 pieces of fruit that are both ripe and about the same size and shape. Then try to find 20. Then try to figure out how they can line every shelf of every store in a given franchise with fruit that’s the same exact color and rotund shape!
(And speaking of color, when did it become ok to eat neon shades in your frosting or cereal? Agh. Another time.)
I tended to steer clear of granola-eatin tree-huggers–and basically everyone fighting for a cause–during college, so this battle is a little new to me.
Nonetheless, the US food industry has just gotten way out of hand, and not enough people seem to care.
Technorati Tags: health, perspective, food, rants, nature, sustainability
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