Dicamba War
October 2, 2020
Small Farm
October 23, 2020
Food Chain Radio Show #1250
Michael Olson, Author & Urban Farming Agriculturalist
Processed Food and
7-Eleven Begets Trader Joes
Guest: Benjamin Lorr, Author, The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket
Not too long ago, most all of us lived very close to the source of our food. If we did not grow the food ourselves, we most likely knew the people who grew it for us. That was the way it was, because that was the way it had to be. There simply was no other way.
Michael Olson Food Chain Radio – Processed Food: 7-Eleven Begets Trader Joes
Then we developed the means to process foods so that it would last longer, and package it so that it could be shipped further. And with those technologies, our food became groceries and those groceries were sold in grocery stores.
Then we developed even more ways to process food, and better ways to package it – so it can be shipped clear across the world– all you can eat shrimp, anyone? And we also developed information management systems that made it possible to keep track of it all. And with those technologies grocery stores became supermarkets containing over a hundred thousand Store Keeping Units, or SKUs, for short.
The transformation of food into SKUs is the story of people finding their way in this world with their food. And so today we pause to ask:
Leave a comment below: Which processed food store do you spend most of your time in – 7-Eleven or Trader Joes?
Nationally syndicated Food Chain Radio airs live Saturday mornings 9-10AM Pacific.
1 Comment
This seemed to have gone astray. I am a farmer but started out in software development. My interest in food started as a child. We were very poor but my mother was a great cook and could take cheap basic ingredients and provide a great meal. Indeed even in my high flying days of corporate jobs; simple basic and delicious foods were always on the top of the list.
Even now at 73 and coming from deep country virtually all came from the grocery store. Indeed even my parents, when they were young, came from the grocery or the vegetable cart that made weekly rounds in summer. Thus stores have been primary providers for 100 years. That may have been different in very rural areas however.
Food however became very ordinary – BLAND after the advent of super hybridization. The reason for that is that they forgot the consumer – instead seeking qualities like production, disease resistant and all others OTHER than the consumer!
I know this as 20 years ago we started to raise and sell organic produce and when we could get people to taste it they were shocked how good it was! Most markets however sell conventional varieties that have little to no taste as they are still conventional commercial varieties raised locally. Local does little for taste unless they are also quality varieties i.e. varieties that have stood the test of time.. MOST ARE NOT!
With 20 years in markets I can state that most people have no idea what a tomato (or most other veggies) should taste like as almost all sold are so bland that they are worth nothing in my book. Places like Trader Joe, et. al. are providing taste – nuth’in the matter with that!