The downside to the industrial food system

As a kid, Anamaniacs was probably my favorite cartoon. The songs on their show were clever, catchy, and somewhat educational. The one that sticks in my memory is the Countries of the World song, during a phase where I was into the school's Geography Bee and even had a world map as a shower curtain. Yeah, I was a dork. Still am.

Anyway, this is a song I didn't remember but came across today:


Did you catch what they said at the beginning? There were a couple interesting phrases: "Modern food technology has the answer!" and "We got coupons!".

"Modern food technology has the answer!"
We'd like to think that the food we eat is wholesome, natural and straight from the farm or some warm, homey kitchen. As it is, much of what is sold in the grocery store is more aptly described as "modern technology" than as "food"! The barely-pronounceable chemicals listed in the song are very real- and in most everything we eat when we buy packaged or processed food.

"We got coupons!"
There are two sides to this. Many national food brands put coupons in the paper each week- and most the time, these coupons are for highly processed "food products" that are convenient, but not wholesome. This is not always the case. Coupons for dairy and produce products are out there. Organics companies are starting to offer coupons, too. The two lessons from this are:

• Not all coupons are for bad stuff
• Just because you have a coupon for something doesn't mean you should buy it.

Thinking about our food choices matters. Filling our bodies with whole foods rather than processed "modern food technology" will not only save the land from getting doused with chemicals and having its resources used to process and transport what we eat, it will save us medical bills down the road.