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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Much More on Food

Korean goods
Photo by myself in Koreatown, on 32nd Street and Sixth Avenue.

There are tons of snacks to be had at Woorijip, a bustling deli serving fresh and packaged Korean food. Hot and cold foods are displayed at the salad bar. Fully prepped meals change daily and are wrapped for take away.

Be sure to get there early, or you'll have trouble getting through the door.

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Our current environmental consciousness makes sense - we all live on the same planet, how we dispose of whatever we use and where it comes from makes a difference.

A recent article in the New Yorker goes one step further. Where is our food coming from? Is what we're eating becoming endangered, or endangering other species? Is it good for us, our bodies? Is it good for our planet?

These questions are heavy ones, and so is the article, which is a review of The End of Food by Paul Roberts. These are important issues that we'll be hopefully talking about in the near future, just as we now talk about whether certain plastics are recyclable.

The differences among cultures have become obvious. Some can hardly afford to eat, and others eat unhealthily and in huge quantities. It used to take 10 weeks to raise a chicken for consumption. Now it takes a little more than 5 weeks. How do we navigate this stuff?

I have the luxury of choosing my food. Hopefully Mark and I can make healthy choices for ourselves and how we effect the rest of the planet.

Related posts: Building for a Greener Environment, On Zen and Eating Too Much Delicious Food

14 comments:

Carolyn said...

Scary times we are in.

Kitty said...

hey Carolyn
yah, I'd sometimes I'd rather put my head in the sand. It was a scary article.

Anonymous said...

The answer to your questions are no we don't know and our government no longer says they have the resources or the manpower to police our food industry.

Anonymous said...

Yeah I think we all stick our heads in the sand, don't we? Or we'd spend the whole time panicking.

I try to buy locally produced foods but even that is not always easy.

It scares me sometimes when I watch the stuff that people pile into their trolleys in the supermarket when you know in other parts of the world they're lucky to get a portion of rice.

Mab said...

I totally agree with all that you say reluctant blogger, and I try to buy as much food locally as I can,I get loads from my dad who grows his own fruit and veg.

BrianC said...

Ooooo, not far from my office. I'll have to check it out!

Mom Knows Everything said...

I don't even want to know what they do to the chickens to make them grow faster. If I ever find out I'll never want to eat chicken again.

Olivier said...

les gens commencent a réagir, beaucoup de magasins bio et de marché bio s'ouvrent en France C'est une question importante pour l'avenir, mais pas facile de trouver une réponse valable pour le monde entier.
En effet, nous avons de la chance de vivre dans des pays où (pour l'instant) on peut choisir et manger à notre faim.

people start a reaction, many organic stores and organic market open in France This is an important issue for the future, but not easy to find a valid response to the world.
Indeed, we are lucky to live in countries where (for now) you can choose to eat and our hunger.

Anonymous said...

Such important questions Kitty! I'm glad you evoke conversation on this. Everyone wants to eat the most exotic, the most fashionable foods, and at a very low cost too, but all that isn't possible, at least for a long time. We need to make choices. Reserve some foods to special occasions and to show the hypermarkets that enough packaging is really enough.

Kitty said...

Hi Mr Lincoln
well, this means those who are educated and have an interest in health will probably live longer than those who aren't educated.
I guess that makes sense, but it's a harsh reality to face.

Hi RB
You're good to eat local produce, and fortunate to be able to.
Yes, rice prices have risen nearly 150% recently.

Hi Mab
What a lucky thing that your father grows veggies?!

Hi Brian
Do check it out. It's in the midst of Ktown, on the south side of the street, closer to Fifth Avenue. Hope you like it.

Hi Tammy
Yeah. It makes food choices rather terrible. The article didn't have great things to say about tuna either, since these fish eat other fish. What's left, I wonder?

Hi Olivier
How interesting to know what's going on in France. I'd love to know more about what other countries are doing environmentally.

Hi Susu
I agree with you on packaging, too. It goes on and on, doesn't it?

roentare said...

Yummy. These korean food in deed

Kitty said...

Hi James
Korean is one of our favorite cuisines. So yum, and generally pretty healthy

Dana said...

love this shot! one of my favorite things to do when i travel is check out grocery stores in new areas to see if they have any foods I never knew about! FUN PHOTO!

Kitty said...

Thanks Dana
I love the colorful packaging. You can never be sure of what's inside.