If you’re reading this post, then you’ve either stumbled here accidentally or perhaps you’ve actually enjoyed my blog enough to read through its entire history. Either way, hello!
I first got to thinking about ‘food issues’ a few years ago, after reading David Suzuki’s ‘From Naked Ape to Super Species’ and Eric Schlosser’s ‘Fast Food Nation’. At the time, I was a raised meat-eater, loved coke (particularly the diet variety), indulged frequently in greasy take-out, and while I had mild interests in political and environment realms, I’d never really contemplated the ‘politics’ of food.
My interest started with concerns about GMO agriculture and the impact of commerical farming on the environment, on the future of food, on the family farm. I read newspaper articles on the possibilities of cloning farm animals with keen interest, attempted to incorporate more organics into my diet, and that was that. As time progressed, and I changed from an unstable 22 year old - with a party lifestyle and an asshole boyfriend - to a financially secure, loving my desk job, much more grown up 24 year old, something changed. Suddenly I’ve found myself reading labels, ordering food related books (not just cookbooks!) off of Amazon, asking for kitchen accessories for Christmas, and boring my new, completely not an asshole boyfriend with my excited rants about topics like community gardens and new vitamin supplements.
To be clear - I’m still a meat eater (sometimes). I’m no vegan or vegetarian, and as much as I’d like to, I don’t eat organic all the time, and I have no idea what ‘macrobiotic means’. But I live in a city with expensive organic grocery stores, vegan bakeries, raw food cafes, wheatgrass juice joints, and gourmet supermarkets selling everything from soy cheese to $250 dollar loaves of flown-in-daily french bread. This same city has one of the fastest growing homeless populations in North America, a ghetto without so much as a foodbank (they closed it down 2 months ago), a workforce addicted to Starbucks’ lattes and Tim Hortons donuts, and a distinct lack of the local outdoor community markets I found plentiful on a recent trip to Europe. Add to all of this fear mongering about everything from mad cow disease, processed soy, obesity, salmonella infected spinach, cancer, bad supplements, diet fads, hormones in milk, and the shipping costs of the strawberries I ate in December that must have come from somewhere sunshiney and warm (and therefor faraway) and it’s hard not to wonder… what’s a girl to eat?
This isn’t (strictly) a recipe blog, or a prentious foodie critique of restaurants most of us can’t afford to go to - though there will be some recipes, and some reviews. This is mostly a place for me to share my interests, spread some news, and most importantly, a place to help me figure out just what the hell I’m doing - and bring along a few others for the ride.
Cheers,
J
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