The Real Story of Food

I am always encouraged by insights that view the food discussion in a pragmatic way. While we read and hear a lot about growing our own food and eating local, we often paint to ourselves a perfect and inaccurate picture of life on a farm. So when someone points out that it was mostly hard work, muddy and messy, that we are really glad to leave behind, I am in agreement. Many of the achievements of the past century  have their root in the fact that food production and consumption became much easier and less time consuming than before. Having carried that process to the extreme, we surely need to rectify it and bring more balance into our sustenance and our work life. Lewis Lapham, writing in Mother Jones, also points out how, on the one hand, we are faced  with a  lack of access to food and , on the other, food has morphed into a sort of wealth, a commodity with with outrageous price tags. But the root of our problems lies in the fact that food is not a commodity like any other, cannot be traded or fit into a system or manipulated with ease. Because, to me, after all, food is about nurturing, comfort and love.