For this assignment we need to follow a blog. This is the blog I'm going to follow:
www.foodpolitics.com
At the risk of sounding dumb, I'm not sure it's possible to follow this blog the same way you'd follow another Blogger blog. All I'm seeing is an RSS feed button and a Twitter button. So I guess we're going to go honor-system here about me following this one.
Food Politics is actually super interesting. Although I'm a self-proclaimed (as well as literal) fat kid, I am very interested in the way food is processed and prepared. I don't think it's a coincidence that so many Americans are overweight; I think a combination of targeted marketing and highly unhealthy "fake" foods are responsible for this epidemic.
I'm reminded of those commercials they've been playing recently, the ones with people who look well-educated talking about how they've researched corn syrup, and it's the same thing as cane sugar! Pan over to a shot of the speaker feeding his or her family corn syrup-laden foods. Okay, well, corn syrup is not the same thing as cane sugar. For one, corn syrup is much cheaper to produce and is found in basically every food you buy in a box. Exactly what part of "high fructose corn syrup" sounds like "sugar"? I hate sounding like some conspiracy theorist, but 2/3 of Americans weren't overweight or obese before this stuff started cropping up, and the fact that farmers are being federally subsidized to produce it is just sketchy. If high-fructose corn syrup is banned or no longer subsidized, American farmers will be out of work.
I have decided to grow some of my own vegetables this summer, out concern for what I'm eating as well as being too poor to spend $2 on one little green pepper. My grandparents had fantastic gardens all over their property and grew literally every fruit and vegetable you could possibly imagine growing in Maine. I'm growing strawberries, green peppers and lettuce. My lettuce is going to die, and although my green pepper plants are still alive and growing, I don't see any flowers on them yet (maybe it's too early? I have no idea, really). My strawberries are producing fruit, but at the rate of about one ripe strawberry per week. So much for a strawberry pie!
I'm interested to read more of the Food Politics blog. Just because foods are being treated with all-natural pesticides doesn't mean they're safe; heroin is natural too, but I wouldn't ingest that either!
This is a great commentary, and one that hits close to home for millions of people, in one way or another.
ReplyDeleteThe price of food is ridiculous. The $2/pepper comment really hit me. It's ludicrous really, and yet, I still throw out food that I forget to use.
Sugar, in one shape or another, is a mainstream additive in almost all food; it's difficult to get something without it. It is of little wonder that not only are we an obese nation, but one that has the health repercussions of obesity. Diabetes, cancer, pulmonary and cardiac issues are all prevalent, and yet we are still wondering why?
I must wonder where common sense went? I have a feeling we left it out in the garden.