Ethical Issue: "What Is Food?"

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/enlarge/freshfoodsafety.html healthy and nutritious living food

Searching for Fulfillment

About twenty-five years ago I started to notice that the produce at my neighborhood grocery store did not smell like produce anymore. I also noticed that all of the fruits and vegetables looked exactly alike one another. I often felt a bit uneasy pushing my shopping cart through the produce department, looking at the produce bins, not only was the “home grown” aroma missing, but there was also an added unnatural vibrancy to many of the colors I saw as well as a military uniformity to the shapes and sizes of the items. The meat department did not ease my mind in the least bit either. I would walk away from the packaged chicken area wondering how all those perfect little chicken legs in the airtight packages got from the farm to the grocery store looking as if they were produced in a factory instead of raised in the fresh outdoors and in a chicken coup.

I realize now what was happening to me in 1982-83. My past was on a collision course with the present as well as the future. I was wise to be concerned but ignorant as to what it really meant in the bigger scheme of things. Since the early 80’s much has changed agriculturally; many say it has progressed. Today in my “supermarket,”( rarely are they called grocery stores anymore), not only is the farm fresh aroma missing from the fruits and vegetables, but now we even have the man-made sound of a rain shower over the produce bins to alert us to the artificial misting for "longer shelf life" and better curb appeal.
I grew up on a farm in rural Iowa in the late 60’s and 70’s. My family were not typical farmers because my folks worked in the city and they did not farm the fields. We raised and butchered our own animals, we planted a huge garden every year, my Mom canned enough to feed all the people of Polk County, Iowa plus some, we stored vegetables in the root cellar and we harvested fruits from our orchards and robbed honey from the bee hives. We made jellies, wines, saur kraut, home made ketchup, head cheese (boiled pig head), pickles, and gathered our own eggs. We were poor in financial wealth but rich with a full pantry, full freezer, and full bellies.

My parents grew up very poor and in large mid western families. I am sure that they went without more often than not. I remember many times that I would see that pleased look on my Mom’s face as she was wiping down the last of the dozens of full canning jars to be “put up for the winter.” She instilled in me a sense of contentment and joy when it came to preparing, eating, and sharing home made foods. Meals were a gathering time for my family and we would talk and visit during our meals. We typically had meat, potatoes, vegetables, salad and a desert. Left overs were always eaten at the next days lunch meal.

I am so grateful for my farm upbringing today! I am blessed by the values I gained from my parents and also from my childhood experiences. I have been able to carry on some of my family traditions, especially at the holiday season. I love to make cookies and fudge and then put together Christmas plates for friends, co-workers, and neighbors. Every year when I do my ritual, I feel my Mom’s presence with me and it brings me great joy and peace. My Mom passed away 15 years ago and often in the hustle/bustle of my life I forget to “feel” her around me. For me there is a definite Spiritual connection between food, family, love, and Spirit. She gave that connection to me along with many other gifts.

In the world today, I sense an emptiness and an impersonal vacuumed quality about food preparation and manufacturing, its not even really “growing” food anymore. It is difficult to find “real” foods in supermarkets. Companies can create, vitamin fortified, high fibered, natural flavored, 10% natural fruit juiced, products that are meant to replace all the fresh produce items that are not as profitable to the big manufactures any longer.

The fast paced life style of our society has affected how we think about food. Fast food is almost a daily staple item for most people. Convenience, speed, and easy access propel many people to accept “fast food” as real sustenance in their daily lives. I’ve personally known a small boy, about two years old, who actually knew the McDonalds golden arches before he knew big Bird or Barney! The empty calories that are manufactured and sold as food at restaurants are not filling to a persons stomach or their soul.

My final thought is that food production today is immensely different than it was even 20 years ago. We now have at least one entire generation who has only been exposed to this mass production, mass marketing of unnatural food product. I don’t think they realize what food and nutrition have evolved to at this point in time. I think with marketing strategies and advertisements the overall opinion is that food is more nutritious today than its ever been. I for one, am not in agreement with that sentiment.