Where Does the Food Go?

Yes, the title to this post is a play on words. I like Tegan & Sara. In all seriousness I have been reading so much about food recently, and I cannot keep from having nightmare about where my beef is coming from.  I like to think that in Senegal I am safe from processed food.  What a delusion!

I may have posted about the heebee jeebees my garlic from China gives me. I also get a little suspicious when I see miniscule bits of bone in my cats food, but I try not to think twice about it (the canning facility is in Dakar).  Perhaps I stare at my food before eating it (in particular meat) because I was a vegetarian for quite some time.  I think I just read too much. Too many books, news articles, blogs, and food recalls weigh on my mind for me to not consider what is going into my body.  In college I tried to not be too preoccupied with these thoughts as Sodexho controlled the campus food industry, I had no escaping the American mass-produced food cycle. 

Stick it to 'em, Cookie Monster!

Well, college was only allowing me to see the tip of iceberg...

I would be lying if I claimed my criticism and troubled feelings over the food industry were new.  I used to go to the Green Peace website in high school for fun.  I have seen Supersize Me, a documentary that put me to sleep with its more than obvious conclusion.  In fact, I would suggest just planting your own garden and tending it all summer as opposed to wasting precious moments watching someone become obese while munching on McDonald's for one month.  What is the underlying trouble for me with all of my reading? I love bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches from Dunkin Donuts! Voilà, my shameful "secret."  It is surely not a secret for anyone who knew me between the years of 2009-2011. Now, for my own conscious and personal health I hope that come June 2012, my return to good ol' U.S. of A., I will be able to say "RIP bacon, egg, and cheese on a manager's special bagel." So why is this delicious sandwich weighing on me? The bacon...where does it come from?  The egg...how tiny of a cage was that poor chicken kept in? The cheese...is it even real? I am not going to attack the bagel because bagels are just not good for anyone, or at least not how Americans eat them today, they are, however, SO GOOD.  Did you know your average bagel is equivalent to four BIG pieces of bread.  That is three more than your package of bread bought at your local grocery store suggests.

Yes you are, and I am not comfortable with your omnipresence.

When I was home in December I had a shocking discovery that I did not realize upon my last return from Senegal.  Bananas in the US suck. So do mangoes (I knew this already) and Corresol (spelling?) just does not even exist in the US.  I sat down to munch on a banana at my brothers one morning and I thought I was eating sand.  Hm...so I guess shipping fruit for thousands of miles does effect the taste, who knew? In my head I am writing this with a very sarcastic tone, I expect that the WWW (not to be confused with the WWF) will not let my tone come across.  The more I consider it, I realize buying local is pure common sense.  Not only are you cutting down on the actual transportation of an item, but unless you really do your research, what conditions were your ground beef and "fresh" spinach raised/grown under?  In my opinion, the further it has to travel, the more gray area.  Unless you buy fast food and live just a few miles away from a slaughterhouse where poor quality meat is raised under obscene conditions, in which case you are just extremely unfortunate and I would suggest moving.

I honestly cannot comprehend how our government backhandedly supports this industry, which is dependent on corn...I mean, I like corn, but not when a cow I later eat spent its pitiful life eating corn-nastiness mush, I'm just saying...I am someone who will spend the time picking a miniscule living beetle out of my rice before cooking because I think it is gross, I am guessing you probably would too. If I am going to go out of my way to kill one beetle the size of my smallest freckle, I will certainly consider what types of chemicals are entering my body.  And I will no long be half-assed about it.  There may be some exceptions while I am in Senegal, but I live by the "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger" theory when I am on this side of the ocean.  There may be some funkiness in my cat's food, but unlike Americans, Senegalese have not forgotten that what goes into your meat will also go into you. I trust the meat here, unless it is the imported stuff, I do not want that.

*Sigh* I will miss you bacon, egg, and cheese. I know that we spent many a good all-nighters together in college, but the time has come that I move on. From now on I will be replacing you with this guy, he is much cuter than you, but surely not tastier...

PS. Do not expect any booty calls, I respect you more than that.

Tomorrow is the start of another week. In preparation for the car horns that will wake me up around 7 AM, I leave you with Wasis Diop :)