GREEN NEWS & VIEWS
Food Choices and Our Health
BY MICHAEL TABOR
As a farmer selling our pesticide-free produce for over 50 years, I frequently witness people’s poor food choices and concerns. I used to shop at a financially successful chain, specializing in high end healthy food — but I stopped shopping there when the CEO set a policy standard for a political position opposing the concept of cli- mate change. Customers still crowd the parking lot, are dazzled by the displays, and are unfazed by the high prices, lured instead by the “on sale” signs. The diverse customers don’t seem to mind that most of the produce (with pretty displays) comes from all over the world, flown or trucked in from 1-10,000 miles away with large carbon footprints. The locally grown produce was so sparse it could barely fit on a card table. Too many people bring a sense of complacency when they shop, or they are unknowledgeable and clueless about where and how all these goods and foods get to their tables and homes. Folks who care about what they eat often want pretty-looking produce, but at the same time, want it grown without pesticides. They want it cheap, but don’t care about who grew it (the treatment of the workers), where it came from, how it tastes, or what season it is when it’s ready. I’ve also had similar observations at our own farm markets, where many customers and their children pass by the bounty of the land — peaches, apples, cherries, and greens — and seek out the ultra-pro- cessed cheap, fast foods they’ve likely watched promoted on TV and at movies by the marketing machines of corporate food giants. I un - derstand there could be many reasons for and motivations behind this behavior, but it continues to be disheartening. Corporate entities have been cashing in on the lucrative market for unhealthy foods — usually sugar-laden, fried, and high-calorie products designed to satisfy immediate hunger or cravings. After all, there’s not much profit in broccoli, squash, melons, and beans. But there is in sodas, beef, pork, and fried foods; and advertising supports the search for quick, tasty, and cheap, addictive products. Collectively, this leads to an unhealthier population, with trick- le-down consequences. There is a financial burden on our medical sys - tem that falls on us through government, taxes, and higher insurance rates; and, in the end, the pharmaceutical industry is enriched as well. I read in the July 31, 2023, issue of The New Yorker , Adam Go- pnik’s book review of Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn’t Food , written by British doctor and medical journalist Christian van Tulleken. As an experiment, Tulleken undertakes an ex- periment and purposely becomes an addict of ultra-processed foods. He experiences the impact of junk food, “... reminding us that…there’s no point in dying in good health.” In another section of his book, to my horror, he details finding out that the Nestle corporation was experimenting with bringing a boat to a secluded village in the Amazon where the indigenous people lived on a very sustainable diet of roots and berries, as had their ancestors for eons. There was no presence of any obesity or diabetes. However, the Nestle venture addicted them to junk food rather quickly. “The ultra-processed foodstuffs will alter our children’s brains and enslave them to a global capitalist economy,” he writes. The level of depravity here by Nestle is unconscionable. Matters of food choice, food cost and food access have garnered a great deal of attention recently, including in the pages of The Wash- ington Post . An opinion piece featured in May 2023 discusses the is - sue of food access and food deserts here in the District, and how they drive food choices and negatively impact health (“ Opinion: A key in- gredient of healthy living is often a struggle. Here’s how to fix that,”
continued on page 25
PATHWAYS—Fall 23—23
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator