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Who Grew Your Food?
Do you like Pop-Tarts? We do. There's something about waking up late, tearing open that little package and firing up the toaster. It just makes the morning better. Then we pour ourselves a nice glass of Florida orange juice, or a cup of Nicaraguan coffee. Or maybe both. On a cold winter morning a typical breakfast might be a steaming bowl of instant oatmeal with some plump California strawberries. And lots of that coffee, of course.
One of the great miracles of modern life here in America is the variety of food we have. This not only means many different kinds of food, but also many different ways to get it. When you're on a road trip and you're driving early, an Egg McMuffin just seems right.
And we get all kinds of raw fruits and vegetables year-round. Asparagus in the winter? We think nothing of it. Citrus in the Pacific Northwest? Even us older folks grew up with that. And we get to experience food from all over the world, like Thai and Greek and Chinese.
Our ancestors a hundred fifty years ago would have dropped over in amazement if they could have seen the food we have today. And our food is much safer than theirs was. Whatever you may think of giant food processing companies, their facilities are much more sanitary than many of the home kitchens of our ancestors.
The advancement of food transportation has been a godsend for our local farmers. Much of the wheat we see growing around us will end up being consumed on another continent. This ability to sell crops worldwide has allowed our farm families to prosper like they never could have otherwise.
But those ancestors had something that most of us miss out on when we tear open our pre-packaged breakfast. Their food was fresh (it had to be), and fresh food tastes better. And not only does fresh food taste better, but it's better for us. Cooking food before it's packaged and shipped takes away a lot of its nutrients.
And the miracle of food transportation doesn't come without cost. All those trucks and trains and planes and ships carrying food around the world are burning fossil fuel and harming the environment. And a lot of our food is now refrigerated as it travels. That takes lots of electricity, and making that electricity burns even more fossil fuel.
Eating local food has other advantages that we're just waking up to. We're helping local growers increase their income, which encourages them to grow more food. That all helps our local economy. And if you shop at the local farmers' market, you get to actually meet and talk to the person who grew your food. Our ancestors would also be shocked at what a novel idea that seems like today.
Here at Blue Mountain News we're not giving up our lemons and limes or our Hostess Cupcakes completely anytime soon. But we'll be trying a little harder to fill our diets with more locally grown food.