Over the past fifty years, USAmericans have experienced a shift in the way they relate to food with disturbing consequences. The popular attitude seems to be,

“I don’t care where it comes from or how it’s made as long as I can recognize it, it smells good, it tastes good, and it’s cheap.”

Real, whole ingredients and foods made from scratch have been replaced with artificial, chemicalized, edible food-like substances in the name of convenience, saving money, and having more time. Every week, a packaged food from leafy greens to peanut butter to baby food is being recalled due to contanimation. Low-fat, non-fat, sugar-free, low-carb, zero calories, and whole grain dominate our dietary vocabulary and food labels yet the US is experiencing a pandemic of food-related illnesses and diseases such as obesity, Type II Diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers.

Food allergies and sensitivities, chronic fatigue, mood disorders, digestive disorders, autism, and reproductive and sexual health issues are as commonplace as smartphones. Scientists manipulate plant DNA in the hopes of increasing resistance to diseases, pests, and yields. Thousands of farmers and farmworkers around the world are growing food in unsafe working conditions, growing food they don’t eat, growing food they can’t afford to buy themselves, barely able to afford the basic needs for themselves and their families.

We should be offended.

We should be insulted.

We should be outraged.

We should be doing something about it.

But we’re not.

In the name of cost, convenience, and time we’ve become complacent and complicit in a dark and dirty scheme to dumb us down and strip us of our right to live healthy, happy, and free.

There are no easy answers or quick fixes here and I’m not interested in finger-pointing or endless complaining. Instead, what I’d like to offer are insights and guidance on all the ways everyday people, just like you, are taking a stand for what’s fair and just in the food system, from making a commitment to eating REAL food to growing your own food to fighting hunger to embracing the Locavore lifestyle to buying fair trade (domestically and internationally) to supporting the rights of farmers and farmworkers everywhere.

Stay tuned.

The New York Locavore Experience is a weekly column exploring the many ways to eat seasonally, organically, locally, and ethically. Topics cover sourcing, shopping tips, menu planning, advocacy, policy, and more.