Every Bite

I’m going to write about something extremely unsexy today. If you want sexy, click here to read a round up of the best sex stories involving the men of my past. What I need to say now, though, has nothing to do with orgasms and masturbation and bondage. It just needs to be said, because it’s the right thing for me to do.

Sorry if the title is a bit misleading…but I hope you’ll read this to the very end anyway.

I grew up in a rural community. Very rural. We’re talking, no mall within 30-45 minutes rural. Acres and acres of land and beautiful trees. And I resented the fact, as a teenager, that there wasn’t much to do on a Saturday night, but I loved it too. In my heart, I will always love it and miss it when I’m not there or somewhere similar.

Over the past few years, I’ve learned to survive on a small budget, and part of that was realizing how much money I’d have to spend on food every month. Food is expensive. When I go to the grocery store, I’m constantly adding in my head to avoid overspending. Sometimes, I end up putting food that I really want back on the shelves before I head to check-out, simply because I had to make cuts somewhere. And I’m one person. I give anyone shopping for a family a HUGE amount of credit.

Somewhere along the line, I realized that a bag of potato chips and a bag of organic carrots cost the same price. I noticed that more often than not, I was making compromises on the fruits and vegetables that I was buying. There’s always some band of soda on sale, but where are the sale signs in the entire produce department? It costs less money for me to purchase instant soup than it does to make my own soup. One single-serving cup of organic yogurt cost the same as one full-sized can of Pringles.

I started shopping according to my budget. I had to. I think a lot of us have to. It’s just a reality of life.

And I gained weight. A lot of weight. Now, some of that just came from poor exercising habits and other lifestyle changes after college. And I’m not saying that I didn’t willingly put fattening foods into my mouth. I did. That was my choice.

But isn’t there something to be said about affordability in the supermarket? As consumers, we often don’t know what we’re putting into our mouths. Take that jar of peanut butter out of your cabinet and look at the label. Do you even recognize those ingredients? Why isn’t peanut butter mostly…peanuts? Why are healthy food options often more expensive?

And why do a few large slaughterhouses control all of the meat in the country? Their employees are expendable. The products are revolting. Cows aren’t supposed to eat corn. They’re fed corn so they grown larger and faster. But never mind the quality of my hamburger, or the food safety. Never mind the effect that this is having on the environment, when grass-fed cattle provide a higher-quality product that’s much more eco-friendly. If consumers fought for it, it would be just as cost-effective as well.

The good news is that consumers are starting to fight back. Even just ten years ago, few supermarkets sold organic products. Today, there are organic choices in nearly every department. The prices are starting to lower, slowly, because that’s where consumer spending is going, so that’s what the government wants to subsidize. Go watch Food, Inc. That movie wouldn’t have been made ten years ago, let alone become popular in any way. As a society, though, we have such a long way to go.

Today, I’m making a pledge to do more. I’ve always been someone who has supported farmer’s markets when I had time to go to them, purchased organic when I could afford it, and visited local butcher shops for meat over grocery store meat when possible. It isn’t enough.

Starting today, I will make time and I will learn to afford it. It will be possible. It’s not going to be easy to cut the crap from my life, and to be honest, I’m sure it will be impossible to avoid it altogether. This is what matters to me, though. When I have grandchildren someday, I don’t want to have to explain to them what a farm used to look like, and I don’t want them to just automatically develop diabetes because it’s a fact of life. I want THIS to be a low point. I want the safety and quality of our food to be better than it was when I was a young adult.

The fact of the matter is that I can survive with less food. And I’m going to, because that means I can spend the same amount of money and get foods that are grown locally or organically. I can buy that carton of yogurt and have an afternoon snack just once a week as a treat instead of buying that can of Pringles and having an afternoon snack every day.

Whenever possible – keeping in mind that it is possible MOST of the time – I want to be able to shake the hand of the person who produced my food. When I take a bite of that chicken sandwich, I want to know that it came from a farm where the chickens were healthy and treated humanely. When I grill up a pork chop, I want to know that I’m supporting a farmer who used the proceeds to take care of his family, not a corporation who has essentially given the little guys no choice because they’ve put an end to the free market.

And someday, I want to have my own little garden, despite the fact that I dislike gardening, and maybe even some chickens so that I can make my husband breakfast from eggs that were just laid. If that means that I have to work harder for every bite I take, I’m going to do it.

I’m not going to have grand illusions of drastically changing the lives of my readers here, but I do hope that next time you’re at the supermarket, you really, truly purchase the best foods you can afford. Consider cutting out a morning latte so you can upgrade to organic lettuce and drink one less soda from the machine at work so you can choose fresh bread from your local baker instead of that store-bought loaf. Consider turn off the television for just 1/2 hour so you can make dinner instead of popping a frozen meal into the microwave, and spend a single Saturday exploring with your kids what your neighborhood has to offer in terms of mom-and-pop food-related shops like creameries and butcher shops instead of popping another game in the Wii.

This is my passion. This is who I am. When you strip away the craziness and drama of my life, this is what is most sexy and beautiful to me, and I need to make more time for it. Who cares if I have a fight with D or if I miss The Cowboy? I get so caught up in the day to day, but the overall picture isn’t about arguments or hurt feelings or even romance. Strip the drama away, dear readers, and find the things that matter most in life. The people, the ones who are most important…they will follow.