Is is just me, or do the 'frugal living' blogs discussing weekly food budgets freak you out? Real human beings feeding their families for $20/week "sounds" admirable/resourceful with a captial 'R', but when you look closer it's all processed food. Not a legume, wholesome grain or fresh/dried seasonal food in sight.
I've travelled to many poor countries where people with less than $20/month eat better than our neighbours here.
Coldplay's song 'Clocks' asks:
(am I)
A part of the cure,
or am I part of the disease
So I ask you, what's to be done? How do we help the young and helpless?
Saturday, February 9
food news rant
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3 comments:
this is so true
so true
I wrote about this in the summer
I want to feed my family the right way
and it is pricey
if I want to feed them the cehap way
it is not
I want chickens and a farm
we are going to have a garden this year at our new home :)
I have so many feelings about this! If you look at the history of the industrialized country, and see the push away from farms and the gathering in cities and city jobs, you see a change in food. It bothers me so much that our country doesn't support the farmer anymore. We import everything. That's why buying from local growers is so important. I feel like I can educate my kids and get involved in my community, but I don't know how to help the future generations in general. There are a couple generations now at least going on processed and pre-packaged foods. Most of them don't know any other options. When I was dating Jake, I made him some "real" mashed potatoes and he couldn't get over the flavor. He wondered what brand I used. I told him there were russetts. straight from the farm. (we have a potato farmer friend in idaho)He had never had real mashed potatoes before, the city boy. Jake works with a woman that has a large family and spends $50 per month on $400 worth of groceries because of this coupon program called penny pinchers. That excited me. But when I studied it out, I realized that it only works if you buy the things that are advertized such as fake-tasting cream of chicken soups, boxes of Mac and Cheese, etc. I would do that if I HAD to. Like if there was a natural disaster, but I don't want to feed my family that way. So for us, living in the "city", it's back to basics. Grow what we can grow, find local growers, co-ops, learn about our environment and what we can eat that grows wild and free even. We are that serious. Jake is big into Orienteering and survival, so he loves taking us hiking and teaching us what we can eat to survive, etc. and the kids love it! So, I'm telling you all this, obviously strong feelings, but I feel like it's such a touchy subject to people and I always shy away from offending people and I hate when people get weirded out or uncomfortable. Or even worse. They get offended because they think you are being a snob and that you are so much better than them for believing the way you do, but that's simply not the case. It's kind of like the parenting issues. Everyone has strong opinions or beliefs about the best way of parenting in all aspects and they get up in arms when a discussion begins. It's crazy! What's right for one family isn't right for another. But as far as our health goes, and what we are putting in our bodies, the nation could definitely be more informed. It just takes one or two "aha!" moments for someone to see that they can make a few changes and that although they may be doing pretty good health wise, most people don't know any other thing than what a magazine tells them or what they can buy on a grocery store shelf. We've become so media biased. Okay. Enough ranting. You know what I mean.
Amy - I can't wait to read about your garden, and see your creative-angle pics...what are some favourite, must-have-in-our-garden crops you'll plant?
Jamie - Awesome reply rant! Wild that you introduced Jake to real mashed potatoes. Way to support local farmers!!! That's the kind of thing we ALL need to do.
We stopped buying avocadoes a long time ago, one little step to avoiding imports, but, we can't see or know how to stop eating bananas. We eat so many.
Yes, the seeming like a snob point is well taken. I don't want to come across as a snob, I want to come across as an activist. I want to write letters to politicians, help keep farmers farming, make a healthy meal for a hungry child.
Let's keep this rant going all the way to congress!
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