During the course of the last few weeks, (and when I look back, it’s truly months) there has been a lot of air-, print- and cyber-time given to criticize our food choices. Everywhere I look, I find articles that declare that we should not eat this, definitely not that, and the latest articles declare that red meat will bring your premature demise.
Wow, that’s some tough stuff.
I wonder how this study was funded, and how they came up with participants. Did it go something like this: “Hey, would you like to eat some meat and I’ll record when you die?”
OK, I’m going overboard a bit, but can we order up a dose of common sense, please?
In a country where we boast the most freedoms in the world, we certainly do like to spend a lot of time telling everyone what they should and should not be doing. Here’s the only thing I know for certain: Don’t eat anything…and you will die prematurely. That’s a guarantee. And there are those in this world who die from that every day. And they wouldn’t bat an eye at the red meat that supposedly kills you early, or the nutritionally-sound-but-poorly-named “pink slime,” or fresh vegetables, or bagged lettuce, or whatever else we’re supposed to be afraid of on our plate.
Consumers have a right to know about their food, and a right to question the methods, geography and cost of what they put on their plates. What I don’t appreciate is mainstream media’s drive to push misleading and incorrect information to the masses. They certainly do enjoy inciting mass-hysteria, but I have yet to see them stick around for the clean-up.
In a world where we are all about conserving resources and making the most out of what we have, I’m surprised that a method of being able to save a few more pounds of healthy beef is chastised instead of celebrated. (And it really, truly is beef, not some mystery liquid.)
Here is the bottom line: if you don’t want it, don’t buy it. Simple as that. We’re living in a country where we have food choices that each person can make. But we also have to make sure that there are choices available, not just for the affluent and “foodies,” but for John Q and those that have limited budgets. And when we have sources that are nutritionally sound and more economical, why wouldn’t we use them?
It seems to me that those that are speaking the loudest, are the ones that are able to make the most choices. They don’t have to worry about feeding a family of five on less than $10 per day, they don’t know what it’s like to not have money left for food. They’ve never had to collect commodities at a local office, wondering what they were going to make with gifts they’ve been given.
And that’s a mile I pray that I never have to walk again.
Wag'n Tales 
Very well said Val. Thank you!
Amen mama! Its tough when the fridge gets empty. We eat a lot of eggs when we were low, cheap eggs Im sure.
This week in the news we had “pink slime”, the evils of ammonia, and NPR’s Claudia the tech-driven Holstein. I too marveled at the choice of words — fear driven — in each of these articles. For example, “The (Claudia’s) feed itself is perfectly engineered to release nutrients throughout the cow’s digestive tract. Think of each mouthful of grain as a little fleet of cargo planes, releasing its payload at just the right moment.” This is great imagery; but it’s waving a red flag for the “what are farmers doing to us” group, and this is regrettable. Great post. thanks for sharing.
Very well said! I have been so frustrated with the media lately giving a voice to people who don’t know what they’re talking about, but ignoring the farmers and the butchers who actually know whats in your food.
I am more fearful of the FDA approving over 3000+ additives, preservatives, etc. to our food supply. I do NOT make a lot of money and at the same time I do choose to make choices outside the mainstream. I vote with my dollar and make every dollar count. Bypassing the pink slime at McDonalds and boxed ‘sale items’ with no nutritional value is a choice I make.
While I don’t fear FDA, and know a fair number of people that work in our food industry as inspectors and the like, I respect your decision to make your dollars count in the ways that you see fit. The American food supply is one of the safest and most abundant in the world. And the thought that scares me is getting our food from other sources, and other countries that don’t have the same safety guidelines in place.
so true, and it is unfortunate that the media does not reference the statistics of food safety whenever there is this reporting.
I don’t think the actual individuals working for the FDA are ‘bad’ people but the standards they are working under are sub-par. I would feel much more confident consuming foods in the UK than the US. I much prefer eating food from our local farmers — I know farmers work hard to feed the nation. It’s just sad to me that they are bought out by big business and most food products become genetically modified (not how our body intended to ingest them!)
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