Mark Bittman: What’s wrong with what we eat

In this entertaining talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman discusses what’s wrong with the way we eat now. 

No matter your view on global warming (despite what Bittman says, all scientists do not agree on global warming), the arguments about meat, fast food, and home-cooking are the main points, anyway.

I subscribe to Bittman’s stance on meat. We have hunters in the family who rib me about my dietary choices (currently the only meat I eat is seafood), but the funny thing is that I have no issues with hunting. At least the animal didn’t spend it’s life in a tiny pin, it was taken quickly, it wasn’t injected with hormones or antibiotics (to prevent the rampant disease that occurs in factory farms–hello bird flu and mad cow), and afterward, red dyes weren’t used to make the meat look fresh. Some pigs are fattened to the point that they can no longer stand on their feet. No, my concern is not with hunting, which mankind has done since the beginning, but rather with the amount of meat people eat in the U.S. and the methods used to produce that much meat, which are harmful to the planet, inhumane for the animals, and harmful to our health. Who wins in this scenario?

I don’t write this to preach to people, but there was a time when I didn’t know how my food got to the dinner table. I just never thought about it. But I can’t write a blog about food without discussing farms and factory farms. The ingredients are an integral part of the cooking process.

We spend over 60 percent of our grocery budget at the farmer’s market these days. We’ve slowly raised that amount the more we’ve learned about the food we eat, and I feel great that I’m supporting local farmers who are using organic methods to grow vegetables and raise livestock. Yes, the food is more expensive, but that is the true cost of food. If you eat meat less often, you have more money to buy quality. 

Okay, enough of the serious stuff. Yummy recipes to come…