The True Meaning of Good Food

Posted by Shirley Siluk Gregory Nov 22, 2006

There’s a fast-food commercial on TV right now that makes fun of other fast-food establishments for serving “fresh” biscuits that are actually prepared and frozen in a far-away location, shipped cross-country, defrosted and then baked “fresh” in the local fast-food franchise. Unlike those other restaurants, the commercial goes on to say, the biscuits at this particular establishment are made from scratch on the premises.

Ironically, this commercial hints at what many people might not think about when eating fast food, and that’s that almost all the items on any fast-food chain’s menus are handled the same way: prepared in a uniform manner at a centralized location, then shipped hundreds or thousands of miles to franchises across the country. Fast food isn’t just about convenience for the consumer; it’s about efficiency all up and down the food supply chain. For some real insight into how the system works, just read Eric Schlosser‘s “Fast Food Nation.”

While this system works very well for fast-food chains, it’s anything but good for the environment: industrial farming practices, massive cattle feed lots and slaughterhouses, and cross-country shipping generate huge quantities of polluted wastewater runoff, chemical waste and greenhouse gas emissions (both from trucks and cows), and consume hugs quantities of fossil-fuel energy.

That’s why eating green – choosing locally grown, organic and humanely raised foods – is so much better for the environment, and our own health as well. Good food is about more than just “fresh” biscuits.