Organic food makes up less than 3% of food in this country.There are times I think it would be best to gather up that premium food - the best, cleanest, organic food our country can make - and feed it to those who need it most - the sick, those in nursing homes, very young children. Whatever is left over, all the hormone- and antibiotic-fed CAFO meat, pesticide-ridden produce, mercury and PCB-laden seafood, and all the boxed processed junk, would be fed to the healthiest and wealthiest among us, those whose bodies and situations could handle it better.
You can bet your bootstraps there would be a sea change in how food is produced in this country then.
7 comments:
HA - no kidding! I just found your blog thru the dr over at the heartscanblog and for the last few days have been catching up.
Today's post is OH SO TRUE! Thanks for putting a voice to this movement. Great stuff!
Thanks for saying that, Biz. I had reservations about posting it, so I'm glad at least someone felt it.
Definitely a good point here, not that it would ever happen--you should write a novel about it.
Love the new header!
Applause! Applause!
I do not suppose it would surprise you that I wrote a piece a couple of years back in favor of Wal-Mart's move into organic foods. My point being that everyone deserves access to high quality food, not just the boutique grocery shoppers. Since then our local Wal-Mart has all but given up trying to woo organic shoppers and has but a few organic offerings, but ya know what? I still shop for organics first at Wal-Mart.
I'm not sure what to say, what to advocate for at the moment. But I'm finding it increasingly distasteful ... when there is so little of this food to go around ... to swoon over it. It's like Marie Antoinette swooning and telling everyone how GREAT cake* is and how they all should be eating it. You know?
We're going to have to improve conventional farming and get rid of some of this value-added trash if we want more people to be eating better.
Honestly, it's a privilege to have fresh, local, organic food.
* I recognize the historical error:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/550/did-marie-antoinette-really-say-let-them-eat-cake
But the analogy I think is still a good one.
May be not wasting food or Rationing ( a concept little strange for a country like US)there would be more food to go around !
While I agree there are elitist aspects to our food system, good food itself is not elitist. Stores like Whole Foods are, I think, part of the problem, catering to boutique-y-ness rather than, say, the plain truth, good food approach of the food co-ops of the 70s and 80s.
Also, I think consumers who are willing to pay over $4 a doz for 'fresh organic cage free eggs' that are produced in much the same way as the less marketable traditional eggs --and which therefore are no higher quality and offer no better nutrition-- are part of the problem. Willingness to over pay and over charge for food is elitist, you ask me. :)
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