FOOD
It was a typical night, where I am cleaning the living room of toys and art supplies from the floor and table in the living room after my kids’ whirlwind of playtime once again. One by one, I place the toys back on the shelf, and the art supplies back into the nearby desk. The squawking from the talking heads from the news plays in the background on the TV left on. I usually do not pay too much attention to the information, but this night was slightly different. The images of police and ambulances screaming across the screen as whole hospitals look to be in a panic. The words at the bottom of the screen scroll by and read, “…new virus infects thousands in China and now Italy…”, being aware of the new virus coming out of China, I ignored this mostly as most people would living in America. Still, it wasn’t until I saw Italy, understandably not a third world country or fascist government, with citizens who have access to the latest healthcare being in terror. It was the Italians in confusion along with the English dub on the news that made me pay attention. Quickly grabbing my laptop, I searched online for more information on the new virus. Reports from other countries were pouring in as the virus is spreading across the world. One account has the US with a handful of cases, but understanding the chaos in Italy, I wanted to make sure my family was safe.
Not knowing exactly what the virus was or what it could do, I knew that food supplies could be scarce, and I optioned to do some late night shopping. Going to the place with most of everything, Amazon, I started to add items into my cart. I do not usually panic-buy, but after seeing the problems these countries were facing, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t stuck without food. Peanut butter, rice, beans, chickpeas, water, applesauce, and more items that could last on the shelf if I over-purchased in a panic. Within thirty minutes, I got messages that items were being sold out, and they could not honor my cart. I knew right then and there that we were heading towards something more significant than we had ever seen before. Heading to bed at 2 am after a night of purchasing hundreds of supplies, I turned to my wife and said, “we need to go to the grocery store early tomorrow.” She lifted her head in confusion and complete tiredness and went back to bed.
The next morning, we dropped the kids off at school and went to the grocery store. To my surprise, the shelves were stocked entirely, and everything was available. Maybe I was wrong, or perhaps I was early, but I decided only to purchase what we needed and usually purchase due to the several hundred dollars spent the night before. It wasn’t until the next week when we ran out of fresh fruit and meat; we went back to the store. By this point, the Newscasts dominated with horror stories of this new virus, and it hit me as I was getting ready to watch basketball, and the NBA had postponed the season. Perhaps this was the turning point in America when a major corporation decided to cancel games during warmups — not caring if they lost the revenue or made fans unhappy. It was the calling card of the virus in mid-March. Back at the grocery store, the shelves were now bare from the rampart purchasing of meat, dairy, fruits, and vegetables. The only thing left is all the junk food in the middle aisles like cookies, crackers, pasta, chips, cereal, and other sugary snacks that supply little nutrition. We were now in full panic mode in my city!
Calling local farms in the next few days looking for fresh produce and any type of protein to accompany it, I was mostly informed that their stocks were near depleted, and limited supply was available. Now surviving on the supplies I bought just a few weeks before on Amazon, I went back to the site to see what was available, but the shock of the price threw me back in my seat. Nearly a 400% markup on most items, and hardly any availability on some of the things. For much of the early weeks of the pandemic, we were eating more junk food than we have ever done before.
Talking to my friends and family, they seemed to be alright with the food scarcity as their pantries were still stocked full of these non-perishable foods like the cookies, crackers, and all the other corn-infused, sugar-filled, non-decaying foods that can sit on the shelf for years. Others relied on restaurants for the first few weeks as food supplies slowly returned to the grocery stores, but still in limited quantities. Understandably many of my friends gained weight, were stressed, and overall in bad health. It might have been the virus that created the food shortages, but it was the foods we were stuck eating; that was the thing that genuinely was making us sick. Many of my friends didn’t know what else to do, they were in this new world where they needed to survive on their own as many businesses were now being shut down, and without knowing how to cook or get food any other way, they ravaged the pantry full of snacks. The lack of quality meat and fresh produce hit my area hard, and I finally understood what food really is.
My generation doesn’t know how to eat. What I mean by this is that people today do not know what food is. Ask someone what their favorite food is, and frequently you will get a response of pizza, cookies, hamburgers, or some other food full of corn and sugar. Even though restaurants had food at this time, people were eating hamburgers, chicken wings, and pizza nearly every night, foregoing fresh fruits and vegetables as many of these restaurants were of the fast-food variety. Their pantries stocked up with the food left in the grocery store, but nothing of real substance. To them, this was food, but to me, I understood that this was a severe problem.
Our general thoughts towards food are not one that has been true for the vast majority of humankind. It was only until the last century that we lost our connection to food. The processed foods that dominate the grocery shelves are lab-created, addictive, and hollow of any nutrients. Even those that recognize that some of these foods are unhealthy still get tricked into thinking that “low fat,” “sugar-free,” and “lite” foods are better alternatives than their regular counterparts. We have lost our idea of food over the years by being bombarded by advertisements and their constant innovations in dietary flavors. These Frankenfoods are then put into stores and marked so cheap that many people are lured into purchasing them. Our very idea of food has been transformed by large industries that dominate our food supply. But what about the fresh foods like fruits, vegetables, and meats?
During the pandemic, these fresh foods were the first to go while the rest of the processed foods were still in supply. Understandably there are far less fresh foods than processed foods, but one area that suffered during the pandemic was in the supply chain itself. Farms were still producing, but the packing plants and distribution centers were not. One of the significant issues large grocery stores had was resupplying the fresh foods from those distribution centers that carried the produce and meats. Even though the local farms had some supplies, these were not reaching shelves of the stores in my area. Understanding that many of the fresh produce and meat does not come from the region I live in. Often the crop is grown in other states and sometimes even in other countries. The major disconnect from the local consumer to the worldwide market is another aspect of our broken food supply chain.
Eating a kiwi any time of the year feels like a luxury, but if you look a little deeper, this is something to be worried about. As people were going hungry over lack of food supplies, there were millions of pounds of food waste that never made it to stores as the distribution centers closed. Getting fresh food from halfway around the world is how we do business, but should it be the norm? As supply chains came back and the stores were operating at standard capacity, we as consumers went back to our old habits without ever thinking twice about where our food comes from. Our food supply has many flaws, and, in many cases, it is also unsustainable, as shown through the events of the 2020 pandemic. Understanding these flaws on a deeper level will help to shed some light on the system itself. Only a few major companies run the majority of our food supplies through mega-farms and enormous buying power, pushing back on the local farmers. Many times countries are without food and water due to the amount of export they have to make more money. Eating an avocado has more implications than just your health. Someone, somewhere, had to grow that crop and ship it to you, but that farmer is most likely poor and starving himself. The exploitations of the markets supply our grocery stores with year-round fresh food, but it never crosses the minds of the consumer. This needs to change, but how can we take back control of such a large entity?
When the pandemic hit in early 2020, it only took me about a week to realize that I needed to create a better living situation for my family. We live in a crowded suburban area with minimal land at all, but this didn’t stop me from bulldozing two large flower beds and creating a small orchard of cherry, peach, and plum trees that would produce fruit over time. This action was for the future, while in the present, I reorganized my garden to have higher yields. Although I already had a garden, I typically used it for specialty crops like hot peppers and various herbs. This time I wanted to grow enough food to supply my family with good healthy produce through the summer. With roughly one hundred square feet of garden, mostly in the form of vertical space, I learned about high-density crops and that I could get a very high yield from a limited space. Planting spinach, lettuce, beans, tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, potatoes, and a bunch of various herbs and berries, we were able to fill the garden with plants that will produce food for us. In this garden, my family and I understood what it means to grow food on our own.
One of the most rewarding aspects of creating a garden is teaching my children about food. They often hear us talk about junk food and why it is terrible, but they now understand the difference between quality healthy foods like the ones from our garden and the junk food found in boxes and bottles in the middle of the grocery store. My children understand how hard it is to take care of a garden, but it is also rewarding in itself. The food tastes better, has more nutrients, and was grown right in the backyard. My children have taken such pride in our garden and the food that we produce, they started to talk to their friends about creating their garden. We have now sampled enough real fresh foods to distinguish the difference in food quality from the grocery store and our garden. Just recently, I made a batch of roasted garlic rosemary potatoes using store-bought potatoes, and my children picked up on the lack of taste of the store-bought variety.
Food is a big topic in my household, and I hope it is starting to become a topic in which our community can take a larger role. Food should be a right to the people, but we have elected to pursue food as a commodity. Through the large corporations and industrial agriculture, we have lost the meaning of our food. For the last million years, we as humans have eaten only fresh organic foods that we have hunted, picked or grown. It is only in the previous one hundred years that we have changed our diet. It is now making us sick, overweight, and under-nourished. Getting back to the connection with our food is essential. It took a global pandemic for me to see how vulnerable the food supply is and how we, as a society, see what food is. To most, it is just something to supply calories to keep moving, but to others, it is much more. Growing your food will give you a sense of pride and a close connection to your food. Not only does it taste better, but you will know for sure if fertilizers and pesticides were used. These agrichemicals seep into our food, and we consume these on a cellular level, which contributes to poor health and poor nutrition in the foods. If growing your food is not something you are interested in, I highly urge you to look at local farms in your area.
Local farms used to be the backbone of the community, supplying not only fresh produce and meats but also jobs within the community. Our society has distanced itself so far from farming that many of you may not even know that there is a farm in your town that supplies food. Everyone needs to take a long hard look at what they consume daily. Understand where and how that food has arrived at your lips, what is it made of, is it even real food? If we do not act now, we may lose many more farms and the ability to supply quality foods to our communities. Not only is the food from local farms more nutritious while tasting better, (yes this is true!), but it keeps the local economy turning as well. I urge everyone to plant at least one crop, an herb even, as a way to get started. Once you connect to your food, you will be less likely to consume the trash foods that have become synonymous with our American diet.
