Foodie

I loves me some food.
You know this though, right?
In fact, on Sunday Travis and I learned how to make fresh butter, since I got a butter churner for my birthday. We churned some homemade butter and ate it on homemade bread. Yum!

On our trip up to Zion's National Park last weekend our carmates, Travis and I talked about food for about two hours straight.

One of the things that we talked about (besides Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, of course) was the change in the Government's stance on food. If any of you have seen Food Inc. you know that the Government's hand in food isn't to keep us healthy, but to make them money. The FDA and USDA are overrun with Washington's men, when they should probably be overrun with farmers or nutritionists.
The Government used to award those who were willing to go out and farm the land for themselves, but now it's almost impossible to be a farmer without going HUGE into debt, relying almost entirely on the Government, and providing nothing but crappy meat and corn.
Farmers are not farmers anymore, they are factory workers.

We talked a lot about The Little House on the Prairie, mostly because I'm obsessed with Little House on the Prairie. We talked about how the family unit was stronger before fast food because kids and parents spent time together farming, gardening and cooking, and then sitting down together and eating.
So when we transformed into a service based industry from a labor based industry people could get food cheap, quick and independent of their family.
We discussed the fact that since the beginning of humans, we've eaten the same basic things, fruits, veggies, nuts, wheats, rice, meat.
But now, even though people haven't evolved much, our food has. Our body hasn't the faintest idea of what to do with a poptart, or cheetos, but it knows how to handle an apple.
We also discussed how people think they can eat whatever they want and then take vitamins. Taking a vitamin C pill is not the same as eating an orange. Come on, guys.

Here's a little thought I recently had, though:
Most people know very little about Mormons, but what they generally DO know has to do with what we call "The Word of Wisdom." The Word of Wisdom is a list of things we do or don't eat or drink. We don't drink alcohol, or coffee. We don't smoke or chew tobacco.
We believe these instructions were given by God via the Prophet Jospeh Smith. People tend to quote the last part which says that if we obey these commandments we'll have health in our navel, marrow in our bones, run and not be weary, walk and not faint.
I want to quote the first part, where God says " Behold, verily, thus saith the Lord unto you: In consequence of evils and designs which do and will exist in the hearts of conspiring men in the last days, I have warned you, and forewarn you, by giving unto you this word of wisdom by revelation—"

What's that? The reason that God has to tell us what's good to eat is because of conspiring men? Because some future day (now, perhaps?) people will decide what we should and shouldn't eat for us, and someday people will distort food until it is unhealthy to eat, and they will try to ensnare us by making food addictive and easy and fast until the day that it could destroy the family, our bodies, the Government and the entire US food system.
Am I getting carried away?
Maybe a little.
Maybe food isn't the reason that there are so many things wrong with the world or America.

But maybe it has something to do with it.
And as someone who loves food, I say, lets make food good again: Make dinner for your family. Use good ingredients. Plant a garden. (Click on this!)
And get ready, because soon the Farmer's Market will be here. Yay!