Food- A Quality Decision

I just bit into an apple wedge that I pulled from a bag purchased at a big food retailer. No joke, the apple was crunchly but tasteless. It didn’t really have an identifiable taste but the closest I can come to is, “non-sour.” And can I say that as a flavor, non-sour is far from my favorite.

It brings back a memory of a specific lunch I had while I was in the Navy. The cooks had fried up the awesome greasy hamburger that we called, “sliders,” and I was lined up with my crew mates to pass down the line.   The line was setup in an orderly fashion with plates and silverware, then the standard hamburger vegetables; onions, lettuce, pickles and tomatoes, then the buns and sliders. When we got to the huge tray of tomatoes I saw that most of them were a pale red, not really a pink, more like a “non-pink” and when I stuck the fork in a slice to retrieve it I found that it was crunchy. I exclaimed to the guy next to me that when I go home to Indiana next I hope its during the Summer so I can get some nice fresh, ripe tomatoes and not these crunchy ones. He looked to me and said, “I thought all tomatoes are crunchy!”

Since then I have learned to describe tomatoes a bit more than I would have thought necessary previously, so when I tell you that tomatoes are NOT crunchy, they are sweet and juicy and messy if ripe and eaten correctly- sliced, between two pieces of multi-grain bread with a little bit of mayo, salt and pepper! Again, tomatoes are NOT crunchy, and just as a side- neither are peaches, nectarines, plums or pears… NOT crunchy!

We have become so wrapped up in our modern notions of agribusiness, and food acquisition; retail grocery stores, wholesale clubs, etc. that we’ve actually stopped remembering- or are too young to know -where food comes from and what it really tastes like. Perhaps we are setting ourselves up to mimic the 1973 Richard Fleischer movie, “Soylent Green” where unbeknownst to the community at large, humans where being recycled back into food cubes to feed the starving masses of an overcrowded world. All Soylent waffers basically tasted the same.

Please hear me, I am not slamming agribusiness as such. I think that good, wholesome, tasty and nutritious food CAN be grown on large business oriented farms. They just aren’t, and why? Because YOU don’t care! Yea, thats right, I said it, you don’t care about your food because there is one thing that I know for sure, agribusiness is all about money! You want wholesome, tasty food and you decide that you are not getting it at Wallyworld or KrazyMart, the business side of agribusiness will feel that and will find away to get you back. It is what they are all about.

Now, I’m not a crazy promoter of ‘grow all of your own food’ sometimes its not possible due to health or geographic situation, or time.  Sometimes you can’t grow enough to make a substantial difference in your lifestyle. Nor will I tell you to stay away from anything at a retail grocery store. Nor vault to the other extreme and tell you to ONLY shop at a “whole foods” store. But I will say that it would be wise to find a couple whole foods stores in your area, and to see where the Farmer’s Markets are located, or even stop by the old guy on the side of the road selling watermellons, tomatoes, or whatever.

Buy a sample and taste it for yourself.  Ask some questions, ensure that the produce is actually locally grown, or you may just be getting the same unflavorful, unnutritious food you would have at your local retail store.  I asked the owner of a local well established Farmer’s Market where they got all of their produce and she told me that during the Winter they have to import it in just like everyone else, but in the Spring/Summer they only buy 100% local.  Hey, as long as they’re honest about it I’ll support it!

I believe that if we begin to buy our produce from a vender who is getting it closer to the source, and purchasing less from big business who is in it for the dollar, then big business will begin to feel it and come back around. Big Agi will produce what sells and as long as we continue to pay for a lower standard product we will get a lower standard product.

Cheers- Tony

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