It occurs to me that this phrase “Open Food” sums up what I have been thinking about for a while. Just as Open Source means you have access to all the information inherent in a piece of software, meaning you can alter it, improve it, whatever you like, I would like to see the same transparency applied to the food we eat. I’d like to know what’s in it and why. Why is there TSP in Cheerios? (You can look it up). Why are milk solids in so many things? Is it to meet some dietary guidelines, like protein content? Or is it just better living through chemistry?
I think if people really knew where their food came from, it might change their eating habits or at least understand the choices they’re making more than all the diet books ever written. The Openness I refer is that of information and understanding the impact of their decisions. If you take some cow slices off the shelf at QFC, what do you know about them? What did that cow eat? How old was it? How was the product you see prepared? You can find out that kind of thing when you buy fish and seafood: cows and chickens don’t merit that kind of curiousity?
We no longer have any insight into or relationship with food production: we don’t know what the local farmer we buy from feeds his animals or how he controls pests on his crops. I think we should know that.
There’s a lot to be said about food and our relationship with it. We don’t value it as a medium for relationship building (unless we’re dating). Preparation is seen as a chore than an opportunity to create or express our feelings about the ingredients or the lucky diners.
I like to eat and I like to cook. I make my own pasta, my own breads, cook pasta sauces from scratch (OK, from canned tomatoes but nothing cooked), bake pies, cookies, cakes, tarts, etc. It’s not for everyone, but what if more of us did and had higher expectations of the food producers? What if we expected them to produce information about the food so we can better choose whose to buy: the farmer who sprays pesticides indiscriminately or the one who favors a more natural approach? Do we choose the biggest vegetables or the tastiest? Genetically-enhanced or heirloom?
Perhaps this is more involvement with food than most people want: but how many times do you eat in a day? It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that people spend more energy choosing toilet paper (once a day) or their grade of gas (once a week) than they do on food. That seems wrong.