Food Wars (Part V)

Growing up I rarely ate breakfast or lunch, just dinner, at least that is what I remember through high school and college. We did not have much money and I did not want to use the money I earned on food, I saw that as my ticket out – to buy an education (besides, school cafeteria food tasted awful). Every so often I would have something light like a yogurt or glass of juice, but I mainly ate one meal a day. I would binge on dinner and that would hold me for the next 24 hours. In college, I had a great meal deal with my land lady and her family. For 10 dollars a week she would make my diner. It was all I could eat, but there was a reason it was so cheap. The daily meal was generally something they caught and killed in their yard - mostly squirrel, birds, and rabbit, but every so often a raccoon or opossum would spruce up the evening menu. My landlady would then make the meal larger by incorporating some cheap rice, noodles, or hamburger helper into the meal. I took the deal and learned to enjoy their cuisine of road kill and leftovers after all; the less I paid for food meant the more money I had to pay for my tuition. During high school, many of my daily meals were free at the restaurants I worked for. We were poor and I was cheap with my hard earned dollars for a reason, but I was never in danger of starving to death. My mother, to her credit, was a good cook and made healthy meals and I learned to do the cooking when she was working. Around my sophomore year of high school one of my math teachers (who happened to be on cafeteria patrol during my lunch time) approached me about my physical condition. Not only was I skinny (6’ and 120 pounds), but she noticed some of my bruises and wounds from some of my fights with my abusive stepfather. I joined the wrestling team, at first as a cover to explain my physical injuries and lack of weight (wrestlers routinely cut weight), but eventually learned to like the sport because it was a great way to take out my anger. My nickname was the “The Walking Dead” because my energy level would decline fast – probably because I only ate one meal a day. What is the point of this story? No, I do not want anyone to feel sorry for me (I have said this many times, I would not have changed my childhood because it made me a better person). My point is that I love food and my biggest pet peeve is when it is wasted (my upbringing truly helped me to understand the value of food). When given the opportunity I could routinely down 3 to 5 pounds of food in a sitting and won many food eating challenges (after college). I am no Homer Simpson, Adam Richman (Man v. Food), or Joey Chestnut (Nathan’s hot dog eating champ), but I can hold my own when it comes to indulging in food. Maybe I was making up for lost time, but it pains me to see food wasted. Every time I visit a relative or friend they make too much food and when they say “what is not eaten will be tossed out” – I put on my eating pants. To my dismay many of my liberal friends and relatives have no problem throwing out food. These liberal thinkers are big promoters of recycling all waste; they deplore the pesticides that farmers are using, which are polluting our lands, water, and of course us; they complain about the hormones used to grow livestock faster; they despise nuclear power because of its toxic waste; and they protest the “poisons” that are used to make processed foods, but they have no problem wasting food. This makes absolutely no sense. Once again, liberals fail to see the big picture and are therefore, often hypocritical. First, the biggest threat to millions of people around the globe is not the danger of climate change or food additives, but starvation. Starvation, one would think, would be a big initiative with liberals because they are the party of the underdog. But the bottom line is that my liberal friends and relatives are more about saving the planet. But they fail to see they are being hypocritical when they throw out food. They may argue that “food is biodegradable”, but so is fecal matter or for that fact many pesticides. This is a cop out; the byproducts of wasted food are just as dangerous as the additives and pesticides discarded on our lands and waters. Secondly, many of the food items that are discarded in the garbage remain in their recyclable packages. In other words, I routinely see liberal people throw out bad food items without separating it from its packaging. Thirdly, many of the same people that complain about “poisonous” foods indulge in chips, dip, cold cuts, brownies, ice cream, and cake to name a few junk foods. I probably consume a few thousand more calories daily than the recommended allowance, but I am in better shape than most liberals I know. Fourth, and most importantly, the citizens of the United States consume nearly 1 billion pounds of food daily and over 10% (100 million pounds) ends up in the trash. One reason (other than cost) that farmers use hormones or food manufacturers use additives (poisons to liberals) are because we need to generate so much food to feed our nation. If liberals wasted less food then maybe there would not only be less of demand for food (lower costs), there would be less of a need for pesticides, hormones, and additives. The bottom line is that most righteous liberals talk a good game claiming they are about saving the planet, except when it comes to food. Liberals do not want to see a community built over a nuclear waste dump site, but they have little problem with people living on a landfill created by wasted food. Go figure! Liberals need to be held accountable for their ideology hypocrisy just as moral value conservatives are held accountable (and rightfully so) by the media for extramarital affairs. My Book: Is America Dying? (Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble)