Foreign Food

A red light blinks in unison to the monotonous blip as each of my grocery items is scanned by a robot. Boxes and plastic cartons go unceremoniously into bags of plastic. My attention is caught by headlines of the rag-mag rack, "Hollywood New Trend: Organic Farming".  Then I stare at the crap in my bags. I begin to fantasize about growing an organic garden in my yardless home. My neighbors are flabbergasted when they discover chickens roosting in my bookcases and tomatoes sprouting from the floors. Once home, I decide to read the contents of each of my choices. Names of un-familiar chemicals abound. My ice cream is made with anti-freeze (propylene glycol), My soda contains an industrial cleaner(high fructose corn syrup), and my chicken breasts are plumped with 10% sodium phosphate ( a detergent).I notice the label on the back of my Hellman's Mayo. What was once "eggs,egg yolks, vinegar,sugar, oil", is now "Partially hydrogenated GMO soybean oil, Disodium EDTA," and other crap. I notice that UniLever brands, which makes chemicals and soaps has bought out Hellman's Mayo. I guess it's cheaper to put soap from your other factory into the Hellman's Mayo instead of using proven safe and digestible quality ingredients. Even the so-called "naked" food is now GMO and fake,fake,fake. I've read that squirrels and deer won't even eat GMO corn or sunflower seeds. Yet our supermarket is now hiding GMO stuff everywhere. Why were we not told of this fact before it happened?

  When did it become O.K. to feed the public crap disguised as food? What is the FDA, USDA, and EPA doing with all their time really? And why does it cost so much more to have food without the chemicals in them? Is it a way to reward the polluters for hiding waste in our food? What does real food taste like anyway? Nothing in my fridge bears any resemblance to natural food. To fix that I purchased organic food. It cost me only $80.34 compared to my weekly food bill of $250.00. But that was because I only got enough food for two days. What the hell?!!

As I drive away in a car with a "Garden State" license plate on it, how ironic, I realize I have no choice but to continue purchasing my food. My home has no spare space for Bessie the Cow, the Little Red Hen or their farm friends, Sadly,It is my fate to eat "Foreign Food".

By Kimarie Manhart-Freeman