The days of a meal being simply meat and potatoes are long behind us. People are now eating more varieties due to intercontinental trade agreements, allergies, and epicurious.com. Food is no longer simply sustenance; it has become identity, culture, and a symbol for socioeconomic status.
In the 1950s and 60s, tropical fruit was something people only ate on vacation. Importing bananas, coconuts, pineapples, or cumquats were not only ostentatious but acquired tastes. I’m, personally, not a huge fan of cumquats, but raising a child without a steady supply of bananas would seem almost barbaric!
The local food movement is not a new fad, it has been around since the dawn of time. It was only recently that people started eating exotic foods from far away lands, and being able to afford it. This is fabulous on many levels but also disappointing on many others.
I live in a very diverse area of Toronto. Everyone in the neighbourhood has a different cultural and religious background. Most families are inter-racial/inter-married. We all live harmoniously in our multicultural bubble. Because everyone here has literally come from a different background, the neighbourhood shops have supplied lots of imported delights to make everyone feel welcome and comfortable to dine according to respective cultures and customs. (Note: Funny enough, the only food I can’t find in abundance in my neighbourhood is Kosher food. This doesn’t bother me personally but I know that there is a growing representation in my ‘chood and perhaps we will see Kosher food soon. Maybe.)
A mid century Toronto neighbourhood would not have looked like mine. Don’t get me wrong, there was diversity but there were also racial riots (ahem, the battle of Christie Pits anyone?). That being said, the availability of cultural foods were less dispersed around the city because the clientele was living in concentrated pockets. If you wanted Kosher food, Kensington Market was your place. People supported their local neighbourhood businesses and these businesses thrived. My grandparents’ generation made lots of money by simply starting up little shops and catering to the neighbourhood.
I strongly believe in shopping local and buying foods and products manufactured within a 100 mile radius of my home. Sadly the invention of stores like Wal-Mart, Costco, Target, and even major grocery chains have made shopping entirely local only attainably for those in a higher socioeconomic status. This is because the big stores can mass produce everything in China for pennies on the dollar and sell it to us dirt cheap. The local businesses can’t compete with that because they have to pay fair wages to their manufacturers and employers to keep their businesses afloat. I’m not going to go any further into the politics of manufacturing and trade deals but I do want to say that I find this system unsustainable.
The food industry has exploded since the mid century. Yes, we are eating cheap bananas and pineapples, but more importantly we are eating food that is processed in a completely different fashion than it used to be. Remember the ‘pink slime’ controversy with McDonalds hamburgers? Ick! Why are we eating so many preservatives? Why is food packaged in giant, non reusable/recyclable packages?
Food safety has also changed with the gargantuan manufacturing processes. There is a lot of protocol that goes into safely manufacturing even the simplest of products. With a boom in trade, and technological advances in shipment practices, even local food producers can ship their goods all over the world. Remember China and those bananas? We, too, can manufacture food like maple syrup, and ship our home grown ‘unicorn tears’ to Australia. In return, Australia can send us Vegemite (which, if anyone has ever tasted it, its kind of like exchanging Manna from Heaven for dog food). Not fair trade! To be fair to the Aussies, I’m a huge fan of Koalas, Kangaroos, Wombats, and Bilbies. I don’t want to eat those animals, but I wouldn’t mind a Wombat as a witty adversary for my ferocious cat. That or an Ocelot.
With the introduction of new manufacturing processes, and the ever-evolving human body, North America has seen a huge influx of food allergies. I admit that I can’t speak to why exactly there are so many allergies now but you can speculate the causes for yourself. I have my own theories but none of them have been scientifically proven yet. I’m guilty of being allergic to gluten. Yes, I’m allergic to it; if I eat it, my body will attack itself and I will be very sad. The person who lies to me and tells me that the food they prepared for me is safe from gluten, will also be very sad because I will pollute their bathroom to the point that even the world’s Febreeze supply will not save them. Ha!
My parents’ generation saw a few allergies here and there. My Uncle had a few allergies when he was a baby and ended up drinking soy milk and having terrible eczema; in the 1950s it was way more uncommon for that to occur than now. Now, my daughter’s daycare is a Nut-Free Zone. The threat of the ‘deadly burp’ can kill someone with a nut allergy. Because many people are now allergic to all these products, manufacturers have been introducing products that are now: Nut Free, Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free, Soy Free, Shell Fish Free, Non-GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms), and Latex Free. If I were to ask my grandparents about any of these restrictions, they would probably look at me like I was crazy. I wouldn’t even be able to get started about the concepts of cross-contamination. My particular grandparents would understand the ideas of cross-contamination on a Kosher level (not to mix milk with meat) but the idea of using a different toaster for Gluten Free bread would be alien.
Gluten Free Bread? What the hell is that?
Well, someone, with a Gluten allergy, decided that they missed delicious bread and figured that they could make a facsimile using flour mixes that do not contain gluten. It worked in theory but the end results generally taste like cardboard The person who decided to under go this epicurean invention must be plugging away in their kitchen with reckless abandon. This approach to cooking is relatively new. Julia Child was a pioneer in bringing ‘exotic’ French cuisine into the homes of millions. She began a revolution of people trying new things and suggesting different techniques and the multi-million dollar industry of cookware and kitchen gadgets. My parents love kitchen gadgets. I recently went to visit them and they had a rolling garlic chopper. A knife does the same job and is way easier to clean but this gizmo looked cool and was way more fun to play with. I like kitchen gadgets too but I’m old school (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again). I like to invest in pieces that will last and have a healthy patina on them by the time my grandchildren inherit them. Needless to say, I don’t own any of this newfangled non-stick coated nonsense. I admit, too, that I love a good meal of meat and potatoes as much as the next guy but I’m also a major fan of chickpea casserole (yup, casserole!), gluten free pizza, vegan cuisine, osso bucco, and sushi. Most of these things were unheard of by the common middle-class white family of the 50s and 60s. Meat and potatoes. Meat and potatoes. Meat and potatoes. Not even salad. Salad came in the form of an orange jello mold with shredded carrots suspended in the wobbly goo. That was also just for special occasions. The Kraft family cookbook was full of yummy ideas for the discerning palette of the nuclear family. Luckily, Irma Rombauer had published the Joy of Cooking in 1931, so every home would know how to clean and dress roadkill. Clearly Ms. Rombauer was avant garde in some of her dishes, however the recipes and tips that the Joy of Cooking has enlightened us with for the last eighty years has inspired generations of cooks. The internet has helped spawn a new generation of kitchen adventurers. Epicurious.com is a website full of recipes for every taste, season, diet, culture, and pocketbook.
So, what does this food have to do with raising children? I’m glad you asked!
My parents were raised on the local, fresh, meat and potatoes. That’s what you get here in Southern Ontario. During the summer months and the autumn, you get fruit and occasionally some greens. Most of the year, it’s meat and potatoes though. Even fish isn’t local for us here in Toronto, mostly because between the 1970s and the last five years, Lake Ontario was a biohazard.
Buying and eating local is important for the next generation. It supports local businesses and farmers. It is also easier on the environment because the food doesn’t have to travel as far. This is all fine and good for those of you who are okay eating squash and potatoes everyday during the dark, cold, winter months. This is not really something I feel like doing. Canning is a great way to preserve fruit and veggies over the winter months; as it batch freezing. Done.
We need to lobby our government to support local producers and farmers, and scrap trade agreements that will inevitably harm the sustainability of our food sources. This doesn’t mean that we should give up our bananas (How dare I even go there?!?!?!?!). Teaching our children about where food comes from and how it is grown, made, and manufactured is a key element to ensuring a healthy future. My grandparents did it. As the story goes, my grandmother would go to Kensington Market with my Dad, and they would pick up a ‘nice piece fish’ for dinner. The fish was always so fresh, it was actually alive. Before dinner, the fish would swim around in the bathtub until it was time to make the ‘nice piece fish’. It doesn’t get fresher or more real than watching a fish swim in your bathtub one minute, then cooked gutted and presented on your plate with a side of beets and kasha the next.
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