Recently I was on Blog Talk Radio’s The Recipe Box with Barbara Howard and although we were talking about back to school lunch ideas, she mentioned that on an upcoming program she would be discussing the issues associated with the recent wave of food-related headlines questioning the safety of our food source. While there will always be areas that need improvement, our food supply is safer than it has ever been in years; so why are we seeing news stories on food-borne illnesses, especially among commercial producers.
Well, to answer this I had to do a little research for myself and what I discovered did not shock me. The answer is as old as time itself. Remember a few months ago, October 2007 when ConAgra’s Banquet chicken and turkey pot pies were making folks sick? The U.S. Department of Agriculture tracked down the issue as one of two things: the plant did not prepare the product properly or the consumers using the product did not understand how to cook the product properly.
Look, any way you twist it someone just doesn’t know how to cook. It is not rocket science and both explanations can be summed up to “human error.” I have been a huge proponent of getting rid of processed food for years. I do not purchase it and when I have the need for a pot pie or hot pocket, I make my own. I know that does not answer the need of millions who will not or cannot do that, but I say this because in life you have options. You can decide to cook for yourself and learn to cook well or you can leave that responsibility to someone else; your choice.
I will continue to shout it from the highest table top, learn to cook, learn to cook, please learn to cook. Cooking is like breathing, it is something you should do without effort or forethought since you must eat to live. I often say parents are the child’s first teacher, but if the parent does not know, what is a child to do? What is a parent to do?
Learning to cook is just not a priority in America. It is too easy to go and get a $0.99 hamburger or $0.89 taco with a soda and call it a day. We are a give it to me quick and now society. I never thought I would say this but Americans don’t care what they eat, they just want to eat, anything, anyplace, just stuff that mouth! Just think about it, if you are what you eat, what are you? I have even had people say to me; well I’m going to die anyway so why prolong the inevitable? Why, because of the inadvertent chance that you do not die, but have to live a life anguishing with a terminal illness or debilitating disease; forcing your family and friends to suffer with you all because you didn’t care. Look, I am not saying this about everyone who is seriously ill, but at some point we have to realize that taking control of our food source, what we prepare and how we prepare it is important and vital to our health and the health of our family.
The next time you see a cooking class being offered, take it. Step outside your comfort zone and try something different. This fall I am offering a canning class. There are only a few people signed up, but I suspect more will come calling the sooner we reach the class date. I may be surprised however, and not have more than a handful of students. We rarely understand the need to educate ourselves until it is way too late, as with credit card debt and mortgage debacles. Hummm!
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