Food

Upon anticipation of Jake's return I took a look in the refrigerator. I saw something interesting. Both the crisper drawers were empty. With the exception of one red bell pepper there was no produce left. Guess I've been on a fruit and veggie bender this week. I also needed to get him some milk. I very rarely have regular moo-moo milk and use almond milk on my cereal, so unfortunately what was left had gone sour in his absence. I stopped on the way home to pick up a few things. $43 later I had a bag containing the following items: half gallon skim milk, package of low fat string cheese (for Dublin's Kong), one large eggplant, a bunch of asparagus, organic baby spinach, roma tomatoes, honey crisp apples, bartlett pears, red grapes, baby carrots, an additional red pepper and a bunch of small bananas. Doesn't seem like much for that price, does it? It all seemed to be very fresh and in good condition though.

I promise this blog isn't going to get all preachy and such. I just wanted to mention one part of Food Inc. that made me very sad, and it doesn't have anything to do with how animals are treated. The camera followed a working family of four through the drive thru at a Burger King. They were all overweight or on their way there. The father had diabetes. The mother explained that they are gone daily from 6AM until 9PM. The father's medication eats up a lot of their income. Here's the clincher, it's cheaper for them to feed themselves via the fast food dollar menu than it is to buy food at the grocery. It's a horrible Catch 22. They filmed them on a trip to the grocery store and the father complained that broccoli was too expensive for their budget. The younger daughter wanted pears but the older daughter weighed one and told her that for what they could afford (1 pound) she would only get like 2 pears and therefore it was too expensive.

This really makes me sad and it kind of really set in when I spent almost $40 on produce yesterday and didn't really even get that much. When did this happen? So many families in this country must suffer their same plight and it breaks my heart a little. I makes me feel fortunate that I can afford fresh food but it should not be a luxury. If I'd purchased the same items at any of the ton of local farmers markets it would have probably cost me even more. Healthy food should not be "trendy", it should be available. For everyone. Not just people who can afford it or those who qualify for food stamps. (That produce from Goshen Farmers Market in Indiana looks amazing.)

Okay, I hope I didn't scare any of my readers away with my preaching. This blog, as lame as it is, is a way to keep people up to date with us but also it is a practice in writing for me, because I am not very skilled in eloquence (and spelling). I promise to post at least once more this afternoon with something fluffy and fun.

Images via here and here, respectively.