This blog topic is rather off from my normal topics and may throw you off but hear me out. I’m about to talk about a very important issue here, and that is the issue of understanding and appreciating where and how our food comes from. A good understanding on this topic at a widespread public level, I believe, will increase more conscious choices for food selection and thus promote public health and wellness, while also decrease the amount of pollution and greenhouse gases.

In our modern society, most people are accustomed to understanding food as something that is packaged and ready to go at the grocery stores. You go there, pay a few bucks, and you get harvested vegetables, packaged grains, and plastic-wrapped meat. That’s all dandy and neat, and it is part of modern civilization in which the advancement of transportation and storage techniques allowed the segregation of urban areas from rural areas. Why farm on expensive land? Let’s farm out in the booneys, or sometimes, foreign countries, and then bring everything over here to the stores and distribute it – it makes logistic and economic sense.

When I grew up in Korea, I had plenty of experience with nature. I grew some of our own vegetables in the small patch of a garden we had on our 1st floor apartment. I’ve been to a large green tea farm where they grew organic green tea leaves along the mountain slopes. I also took frequent trips to the country side, where there were mom and pop restaurants which grow their own pigs, goats, cows, and chicken, which they butcher on their own farm to produce meat for the restaurant. I’ve gone fishing for my own sashimi and filleted the fish on the boat without waiting to go to shore, and went to sea-side restaurants where they take you to a fish tank and ask you to choose which one you want. I’ve watched a live chicken get butchered (head cut off with a knife, or dipped live into boiling water by way of holding its feet – great way to get the feathers off), and I’ve heard a cow being butchered as well (I still want to see one being hacked away). I’ve watched a live fish getting pounded in the head so it doesn’t squirm, and gutted alive to provide the freshest sashimi and sushi possible. In short, I’ve seen how food is prepared at an earlier level than grocery stores, and I appreciate the way of nature.

You see, I understand food and I appreciate it for what it is. And as I grew older, that subconscious part of me came out more, and I am now more enlightened on making smart food choices in the sense that I appreciate what nature gives me. My bottom line for food is this – if the recipe could not have existed over 100 years ago, I try to avoid it. I’m not a tight ass – if that’s what’s available, I will eat it once in a while. And I’m not anal to keep my diet at 2500 calories a day – I eat a lot when there’s good homemade food with fresh ingredients.

Now, I’ve boasted how I am in touch deep inside with natures way of things, and let me rant about the problems. So many urban people grow up never watching how food is prepared. They see the end result of it, and that’s all they know. I think the lack of understanding of food sources beyond what’s set out at your grocery store is a huge problem for making conscious choices on food. If it’s convenient and it tastes good, many people will just buy it and eat it without giving it a second thought. Without appreciation of fresh produce and meat and poultry, a frozen pack of constituted meat or an artificially made veggie pattie has the same value as the free range chicken or beef that is also available. What’s the difference between the Five Alive juice, which is artificially compounded with some juice and a lot of sugar and preservatives, and the 100% juice that is not made of concentrate? Nothing, if you don’t understand it.

Let’s look at another problem. A lot of people who are completely out of touch with the nature of things as they have been for the last… millions of years, or for as long as omnivores and carnivores have roamed the earth, think that killing an animal for food is “cruel”. Many people grow up to be teenagers and they have never even witnessed a live animal being killed for the process of food. This is so sad – this lack of awareness must stop. And these naive kids will watch one or two videos of slaughterhouses, produced by people who are unaware about nature and are more concerned about being self-righteous and feeling good without knowing the logic of the food chain, will feel grossed out by the killing of an animal, and start pitching to stop the consumption of beef and pork. Believing that consumption of other living animals is a cruel thing is an utterly modern and unnatural concept – a bi-product of our busy and modernized lives, so out of touch with our nature and mother earth.

I understand that urban life is a reality in our society, and most things come pre-packaged, and pre-manufactured, often from overseas. But people need to start appreciating the goodness of nature and how food is grown and harvested and collected. They will appreciate naturally grown, or organic, vegetables more, produced locally. They will be aware that when veggies are shipped in from Columbia or Mexico, there’s a lot of pesticides and preservatives used to keep the vegetables fresh all along the way, not to mention that the transport of such items causes more greenhouse gas via consumption of gasoline. They need to be aware that a cow, or pig, which grew up in sanitary and normal living condition will be the healthier choice of meat, and they will also understand the value of the life which was taken to produce that meat, and appreciate it more.

So here’s a challenge for yourself, or your kids. Learn and understand nature. Learn how a vegetable is grown, and how it’s picked. Learn how it is fertilized (in nature, it is fertilized by other rotting plants, rotting animals, and poop). Learn how chickens and cows grow, and learn how they are butchered. Any kid should feel completely comfortable at the scene where a chicken is getting its head chopped off alive with a butchers knife. It’s natural, and that’s how it is. Kids should be aware that the nice big plumper looking tomatoes may not necessarily be the healthier choice if you realize how it was grown. The smaller ones that seem a bit more faded may be better if they were organically and locally grown. The pre-packaged frozen fish sticks are not just fish but a compound of extra ingredients such as modified corn starch and sugar and salt, and that veggie dog is most likely made of fake food items and glued together at a factory. This is an awareness that will make you healthier, and the world a cleaner place. Keep food simple. Keep foods natural.