food science
November 17th, 2008
Not TOO long back we didn’t get our dinners in a box. Or a styrofoam package at the fast food joints either. Anybody remember TV dinners? Looks like those awful tasting funny looking tin trays of dyed muck finally got the last laugh….I guess if we’re gonna eat our microwaved food on the couch with a channel changer shaped like a fork and dishwasher safe, about ANY processed dinner’ll do.
Nowadays our food gets made in a lab. Genetic enhancement. Strawberries that wouldn’t freeze on Mars. Corn that bugs won’t eat but people will. Potatoes that grow in strips perfect for the fryer. Smart grains with silicon chips that can turn your TV on.
We got phony butter, fake fats, chemical sugar, salt substitutes, diet pop, lo-cal salad dressing, lean cuisine, irradiated meat, superpasteurized milk, bioengineered corn flakes, growth hormone meat, bleached flour, dyed salmon, antibiotic chicken and low cholesterol eggs. This isn’t a grocery store – it’s a science experiment!
On the South End we still grow a little of our food. It’s primitive, I know. Lacks the hygiene of a sterile petri dish, but I tell you what, a tomato grown in manure tastes a lot like a tomato, not a rubber ball. You grow the dang stuff, you pick it, you prepare it, you cook it, you sit down to the supper table and you eat it.
I’m not gonna tell you busy people to quit your jobs and start growing cantelopes or harvesting nettles or hunting the wily gooeyduck. But we got to draw a line somewhere in the sand before cars start coming with built-in microwave ovens and the only vegetable anybody eats is purple catsup…..
Entry Filed under: roadkill culture (south end two lane blacktop)
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