While I adore produce, and especially the locally grown variety, people hoping to improve Americans’ diets seem largely to ignore that lots of people don’t cook much any more. And until we do something about that, all the calls for more fruits and vegetables and more locally produced food are going to make only an incremental difference.
There’s plenty of evidence to show that people are cooking less. And when they do cook, they’re making their food choices based on convenience, not on health. I think we can safely assume that most people also aren’t making their food choices based on what’s good for the environment or their regional or national food security, as valid as those reasons might be.
Those of us who care about the costs to our nation’s physical, financial and agricultural health from our bad food choices need to pay attention. The Kerr Center produced an interesting, well-documented report on food security in Oklahoma and the benefits of eating “Closer to Home,” (the report’s title) but if the report discusses making it easier for people to choose and prepare those local foods, I missed it.
Matthew Fort, in an article in The Guardian titled “The Death of Cooking,” speaks to the “urgent need to respect and enjoy the food we eat.” It was written in 2003, and I’m not sure much has changed. If it has changed, I’m not sure it’s changed for the better.
I could go on, but you get the point. People have forgotten how to cook, don’t care to bother to cook, or don’t have (or take) the time to cook. There are lots of reasons, of course-long commutes, two-earner families, cheap and easy processed foods-but somehow, in just a couple of generations, it seems as though we have lost the capacity not just to grow, but to prepare a good meal. For whatever time we may save with carryout and processed foods (and I would contend the time savings is far less than noncooks think it is), we pay a huge price in our health, in our pleasure, in our family and social connections. It hardly seems worth it.
If anyone has ideas on how to get people back in the kitchen for really cooking (vs. reheating), let me know!
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