I just read a great article (link) putting the processed foods in perspective. It appeared in today’s New York Times, written by Jan Dutkiewicz and
We Shouldn’t Want to Eat Like Our Great-Great-Grandparents
Below, I’ve quoted three key paragraphs — but I strongly recommend reading the entire article, which points out many of the advantages of “industrial” foods both to individuals and to our society and our economy. I think it also is important for pointing out the fallacies in promoting non-industrial foods.
“Virtually all the food we eat, junk and vegetables alike, is part of an industrial system. Acknowledging that fact and embracing the system’s scale, reliability, safety standards and abundance is a far better path to improving it than chasing a fantasy of Edenic premodern food that never existed.”
“Half a century of worry about the safety of genetically modified organisms, or G.M.O.s, often derided as “frankenfoods,” has not yielded a shred of compelling evidence that they endanger human health. The genetically modified Rainbow papaya, which is resistant to the ringspot virus, saved Hawaii’s papaya crop. Arctic apples from Washington State, genetically modified to brown more slowly, reduce food waste.”
The article includes numerous specific examples of how industrial foods are valuable and how alternatives use up scarce resources without fulfilling the promises made for them. It’s really worth reading!“The policy tools exist to minimize the harms and maximize the benefits of a system that provides food, much of it healthy, in abundance. But first we need to stop demonizing industrial food, and instead think about how to make it better.”
1 comment:
I'm glad someone wrote this because even though there are definitely foods to avoid (like Twinkies (if they still make them) or lots of junk food), it's hard to avoid the big food economy. I suppose you could grow them all yourself, but for most people, that is not a choice they'd make.It time to put things into perspective.
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