About

I first became interested in the food industry as a freshman in college. I had always been suspicious of fast food, as well as foods that didn't really seem like food (what are those tiny "onion" things inside a can of green peas?). I stumbled across Fast Food Nation in the bookstore one day, and so began my food journey. I've always enjoyed cooking, and my college roommate was a vegetarian, so we ate pretty well most of the time (certainly better than most of our peers). Though Fast Food Nation forever changed the way I think about food, I didn't become passionate about food issues until, for my 24th birthday, my best friend gave me a copy of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She had not read it herself, but had stumbled across it and thought I might like it. It changed everything. Though I knew that some foods in the supermarket were not really food and that fast food was gross and bad for you, I did not know how the food industry and the way we eat is tied to so many other issues: environmental issues, energy independence, health & healthcare, etc. ANd, it was news to me that there is profit-driven corporate influence at every level from the USDA food pyramid to school lunches to farmers' seed supply. I read AVM and after that, I watched Food, Inc. And I read In Defense of Food and Food Politics. I'm still reading and researching and have become more passionate about food issues than I've ever been about anything. And regardless of what your priorities in all this may be (health, freedom from corporations, saving the planet, helping small time farmers, energy independence, saving money), what I've learned is this: the way we eat is directly related to our happiness and personal well-being. This goes to our culture of eating, not just what we eat, but how we eat. MOst of us do not cook at home very often, and if we do eat at home, it is usually pre-packaged. We eat on the go, in the car or at our desks. We rarely socialize during family meals, often eating in separate areas of the house or in front of the television. Not only is this a huge part of why so many of us are overweight and unhealthy, it's also a huge part of we all feel disconnected and anxiety ridden. If we can all slow down enough to know what we're eating and where it comes from, and take the time to cook and eat together at the table, I think we'll see major cultural shifts, in more areas than just our eating habits. Maybe we'll start paying attention to other things as well and start demanding better pay, more vacation time, and better healthcare because we've realized that we can, in fact, change things. We just need to wake up and smell some locally grown, home cooked food.

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