Food Think

A Pew Research Center food study just released interviewed 5,000 people across numerous states and regions and nearly half put convenience of access and preparation at the top of their list.  

                  How do Americans think about food?  Answer:  most don't.  This is quite a revelation.  In our house, during the summer we think about what vegetables and fruit (apples) to grow or buy in bulk to squirrel away for winter.  During the growing season we look at what's available in the garden or on the trees and plan meals around availability. 

                  We (wife Teresa in our household case) write out menus a week in advance based on who's here for dinner, what's available in the garden and freezer, and our schedule (is it a busy day or a not-so-busy day?).  When we butcher stewing hens, we put half a dozen in a big roaster pan and at 350 degrees for 4 hours they are as tender as anything.  We pick the meat off, save the broth, and freeze the meat in quart freezer containers.  Precooked and ready for a casserole on a hectic day--ultimate convenience. 

                  Other surveys indicate that more than half of Americans at 4 p.m. have no clue what they're going to eat for dinner.  Nearly a quarter of all food consumed in America is eaten in automobiles.  We are a culture that simply does not think about food.  This is not good.  When food is relegated to life's footnote, our life's essay falters. 

                  One of the themes in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World is constant mental activity.  In his imagined world of baby-incubators and mental capacity manipulation, the goal of society and government was to keep people occupied with entertainment and games to eliminate thinking.  Thoughtfulness makes you engage with the profound questions of life.  

                  Huxley imagined constant theater, entertainment, and sex.  He did not foresee the computer, TikTok, YouTube and the ubiquitous in-pocket mental occupation of the smart phone.  But in principle, we've arrived at what Huxley imagined:  a programmable work force pre-occupied with mental stimulation and no room to contemplate. 

                  When we look at cultural crises, I submit that immigration, economy, health, and teen suicide are not as important as the fact that most Americans literally do not think about food.  It's not on their to-do list, not on their to-find list, and not on their to-know list.  Food in our culture is a distraction from life. 

                  People who struggle with food addiction like the morbidly obese as well as the ones who struggle with food abhorrence like anorexia sufferers actually don't think about food.  They have all sorts of mental and spiritual issues in which food is an unfortunate bystander but becomes a tool in dysfunctional existence. 

                  Finding healthy provenance, meal planning, cooking from scratch all take mental energy.  You can't see food as a sidelight of your life.  Eating should be intentional and the product of vetting, sleuthing, knowledge, scheduling, and prioritization.  It can't be just a comma in the sentence of life.

                  Our nation has numerous issues we define as crises:  cost of housing, pharmaceutical dependency, mistrust of virtually all institutions, government spending.  With all the pundits  op-eding about these things, when will one deal with how little food occupies the mind of the average American?  We buy shiny bright objects and complain about the price of food.  We go to Disneyland vacations and complain about the availability of healthy food.

                  Healthy food is definitely not as expensive as ultra--processed food.   Intellectual contradictions are profound.  In the Pew survey, 90 percent of Americans believe home cooking is much healthier than take-out or delivery.  If people actually acted on what they believe, Door Dash and UberEats would not exist.  Talk about expensive.  Clearly we believe one thing but act differently.  This is intellectually contradictory.

                  In our home, we don't have a TV.  We don't have a smartphone.  We don't have Instagram.  Food occupies a lot of our discussion, planning, and actual daily work.  Unless and until folks prioritize food--actually think about it . . . a lot--we will continue to blame other things for our problems.  Single ingredient and scratch cooking have never been easier, but never as profoundly neglected as in modern day America.

                  How do we get people to think about food?