What’s on Your Plate?

I was roaming around aimlessly on the internet this morning and came across a few articles that saddened me. After reading these articles, I realize just how important it is to know where your food comes from.

The modern way of shopping means we develop a relationship with the people behind the deli counter, the bakery counter, the cashier and the grocery bagger. None of these people have anything to do with growing our food. These people are hired facilitators to make it easier to select the food items to purchase so we can bring the food home, but they are not the farmers who grew the food (or the processors who put the chemicals together to create the imitation food products).

Where’s the Real Beef?

The following articles reinforced my growing desire to be able to trace the origins of my food. I want to be able to track the short path from where my food began, the path it took to get to the point of purchase and eventually to my dinner plate. Here, take a read for yourself.

• Washington Post: FDA Approves Cloned Meat
• BBC: Meat of second cloned cow offspring ‘in UK food chain’
• Natural News: Cloned Beef Has Already Entered U.S. Food Supply, Even Before FDA Nod

I can’t help but think of the popular television commercial that came on every night at 10:00 PM. The commercial was aimed at parents and it said, “It’s 10:00 PM, do you know where your children are?”

Similarly, you look at the meat on your dinner plate and you think, “It’s dinner time, do I know where my meat came from?” Better yet (showing my age here), there was an even older commercial for Memorex recording tapes (recording tapes pre-dates CD’s but not as old as 8-Tracks) that asked, “Is it live or is it Memorex?” In other words, is it the real thing or is it an imitation? Do you really know?

Reading those news articles makes me want to hug my local farmer.