I’ve recently been reading the book “Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry”, and this is now the second time I’ve bumped up against the history of food oligopolies, in which policy changes in the 1970s are often summarized as “get big or get out”, which led to the elimination of many […]
Elitism and Food
Due to the their rarity or cost of production, some foods used to be eaten exclusively by the wealthy, but industrial agriculture has dramatically leveled the playing field. Humans, though, are often keen to distinguish themselves, and so the emphasis has shifted from the exclusivity of foods to their supposed “health” benefits. In essence, the […]
Diet Religions, Part 5: False Prophets and Miracle Cures
The idea that one perfect, universal diet exists and can be followed by everybody is highly problematic and is entirely unlikely to be true, but that hasn’t stopped various diets from making the outrageous claim that they have super secret access to the Divine. One thing that really troubles me is how specific diet ideologies […]
Sourcing Ingredients
The research continues as I investigate companies that produce dried fruits and dried fruit powders in my quest to perfect a few homemade oatmeal recipes. The going has not been easy, but it has brought me to an interesting understanding of food and how I relate to it. The short backstory is that my favorite […]
Diet Religions, Part 4: Beyond Good and Evil
For as long as I’ve been alive, people have been calling different foods “healthy” or “unhealthy” without any explanation or justification beyond popular belief. I would say this is akin to black and white thinking and, dare I say it, ‘religion’, but it tends to be passed down as a matter of fact, rather than […]
Sketchy Food Companies
Last week, I saw acai powder in the grocery store for the first time. I had considered buying some of this online in the past to assist the blueberry powder I have for various oatmeal experiments, but the price tag of $24 for roughly 8 oz scared me away, at least for the day. Having […]
Don’t Make a Giant List of Everything You Want to Buy
Every great now and then, annoyed by a scramble of checklists, I sit down and write out a list of all of the things I’ve been meaning, wanting, or considering to buy. In some ways this is great, because it pulls all smaller lists together, addressing both immediate needs and someday-kinda wants, and can be […]
Books on Global Issues
Several weeks ago, the book “Cobalt Red” came to my attention. It apparently details the slave-labor conditions that once again exist in the Congo, a chain reaction to the global surge in demand for lithium batteries, which employ components of cobalt. My gut reaction was to go out and buy it, but as I’ve mentioned […]
Diet Religions, Part 3: Reformation
I see a great deal of logical fallacies being used to persuade people toward one diet or away from another, toward one food or away from another, even from YouTubers whom I otherwise like, so I decided to put a little post together detailing some of my “theses” concerning how to approach food and diet […]
The Search for More Money
A lot of problems can be solved with money, far more than people often want to believe. At the same time, the human mind isn’t naturally wired to handle money well, and all of history has been plagued with crooks who will take as much as they can get from you, either by force or […]