Edible foodlike substances taking over the world

I just finished reading this great book called In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan for book club. It's no secret I love all things about food and farming, especially this time of year as the farmers markets are starting to pop up all over the city and we are about to start receiving delicious produce, milk and fruit from our CSA farm. This book basically talks about the "Western Diet", which can be summed up by the increase of carbohydrates, sugars, high fructose corn syrup, and dismantling whole foods into their nutrient parts trying to find the most effective and "healthy" nutrients to infuse into our foods. I am not much of a processed food eater as I would much rather eat fruits, vegetables and things recognizable as natural foodstuffs than something that comes from a box containing a paragraph long description of ingredients I can neither pronounce nor recognize. I think everyone should read this book and get out of the middle evil aisles of the grocery store and start eating real food.

Just as I was perusing some news online, I came across an article that said food prices will remain high for a decade. And just so you know how hard I work at my job (as evidenced by the fact I can update my blog during the day), we started talking about SPAM. I am not sure how the topic was approached, but it reminded me of several years ago when my brother was driving across country and stopped by my grandparent's house in North Dakota. My grandmother, who is probably the smartest woman on the planet although not the world's best cook, fried him up a SPAM sandwich, which he graciously ate. I am not sure I could have been so courteous. My co-workers and I weren't even sure what SPAM was made out of, so we did a little research...

1. SPAM is made of pork and ham.

2. The difference between pork and ham is that ham usually comes from the upper leg of the hog while pork can refer to any number of "delicious cuts."


3. They have almost sold 7 billion cans of SPAM since 1931 (does this make anyone else a little nauseated?)

4. There is a recipe for a Maui SPAM Muffin (I don't even want to know what this is)

5. When asked what SPAM tastes like, some people say "Salty Goodness" or "Crazy Tasty"... I'm not sure who these people are, but I am pretty sure I've never met anyone who would say that about SPAM.

With food prices on the rise, I would hope that more people will turn to their local farming communities and farmers markets for good, edible food that still has all of its nutrients. I sure hope people don't turn to SPAM and Cheetos as prices rise... I mean, you could buy a head of broccoli for about the same price or less than a bag of Cheetos... chew on that.