Food… Kind of a Big Deal

As a lover of food, I need to know it deeply. I want to. I’m reading Stuffed & Starved, The Hidden Battle for the World’s Food System. It’s moving me in many ways. Firstly, it has been awhile since I have had the opportunity to read at my leisure, to read and not have to dissect each chapter with a group of young and green aspiring teachers. Secondly is its content. Food. It’s kind of a big deal… a big deal that most take for granted: the where food products comes from, the why it comes from where it comes from, the how (if you can stomach it)… the hidden world that kills, convenience-izes, manipulates, depletes the environment, bankrupts the world’s farmers and flourishes through food ignorance (more here)(And here on author Raj Patel’s website here). Yes, food… it’s kind of a big deal. Voting, condoning and enabling with your mouth and your dollar, we speak. So why not inform yourself. After all, these injustices are all for you, the consumer. In the face of all the atrocities committed for sustaining profits, isn’t that kind of empowering?

I am tacking on the vibrant color of some recent eats to this post… to show how delicious food awareness is. First, a perfect fruit salad: ripe mango, papaya, kiwi, honeydew, cantaloupe, pineapple with one huge fat big grape and a rind of raw coconut. This salad was $2.00 from the friendly men who set up their stand down the block from my apartment. Each piece tasted like candy. Besides the disposable packaging and fork, I’d say that this was the most perfect thing I ate all week.

In a surge of energy and a Fresh Direct order unpacked, I whipped up Isa’s Polenta Rancheros from Vegan Brunch. A layer of cumin and coriander-spiced tomato and black bean under a layer of buoyant fresh polenta topped with zesty cashew sour cream and one of my favorite garnishes, the green onion. This dish was food perfection: texture and taste. Cooking fresh and from scratch is one sure-fire way to contribute less to the scary world of processed, packaged foods.