How does the end of the era of cheap food affect Maine? (Bath: houses, buying)
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Gardens and farmer's markets are the best thing in the world to me. They just don't have a whole lot of marketing behind them - yet. I think the momentum is gaining there thankfully.
I just got home from the Farmers Market Convention in Belfast -- two days of intense education and networking for farmers, farmers market managers (I wear both hats these days) and others with related interests.
The focus of today's afternoon session was moving forward to renew/invigorate/revitalize/reinvest the Maine Federation of Farmers Markets, toward that very end. Many of the sessions yesterday did much more than just touch on marketing and meeting community needs -- including greater access to Farmers Markets for SNAP (food stamp) recipients, and education of the community as to the value of such markets and how to use the products found there.
I was working p/t stocking shelves in a grocery last year [I took over a few contracts from one of our sons]. During that period of time the store did a 'reset' [corporate crews came in, emptied all shelves, re-aligned the floor lay-out, and changed things to fit a revised corporate plan].
I asked one of the crew leaders about the changes. The frozen sections with pre-cooked meals grew in square footage. She said that the buying habits of the nation are changing. Everyone wants a complete meal in a box, take out a frozen box, stick it in a microwave, and wait for the ding.
This chain of groceries has 285 locations, she said that this store was the next to last store to receive this reset. They had already worked out the store lay-outs for the next reset, her crew had one more of these resets to go; before going through all of these stores again to perform the next reset.
She told me that in the next reset 60% of floor space will be frozen foods.
Produce, dry goods, canned foods, meat will all lose floor space; to allow frozen to grow.
This is all done to try and match up with the changing buying habits of customers.
This store was among the last, because according to their market research this store has a higher then average percentage of retirees. Only retirees know how to 'cook'.
I learned how to cook as a child, and was able to make a full meal (dinner) by the time I was 9 years old. Not some junky, thrown-together mess of frozen fish sticks and rice-a-roni either. I could make venison chili, I knew how to bake a pumpkin pie from scratch, though my best dessert was peach cobbler. I could even make a bread stuffing for a turkey. I could shoot a rabbit or a squirrel, skin and clean it, and cook it.
I tried to teach my daughters how to cook, but they really had zero interest in it. My oldest had one thing she would actually cook and eat herself, macaroni and cheese with tuna. The youngest took an interest in her late teens, but she had really picky tastes and still does. She can cook fairly well though now. My oldest took an interest in cooking in her late 20s, but she limits the things she cooks to extremely healthy and/or very low fat meals. She prefers to steam almost everything she eats, and doesn't care much for any foods that are mixed in any way. Everything is cooked and served separately. One exception? Garlic mashed potatoes, her one weakness.
Maybe it is due to relentless marketing and all the commercials and print advertising. Everyone thinks it is all normal. A stir fry comes in a bag in the frozen foods section, heck even rice is available in an already fully cooked form and it doesn't even need refrigeration! I remember telling my daughters how to make rice with the finger measure method because they could never remember the proportions. How anyone can forget 2 parts water to 1 part rice is beyond me but the finger method they remember (rice to the first knuckle, water to the second).
I wish they both could cook better than they do, but they just really don't care to learn more. It is easier to cook (read: heat up) all the stuff that has been prepared by someone else so they don't have to waste their time doing something they consider drudgery. So maybe we are the old-fashioned ones that aren't moving with the times. Homemade is healthier, but pre-prepared is surely a lot easier, and you don't have to think about it in any way. Sort of like cursive, which is no longer being taught in most schools, cooking is also fading out. Most people want everything to be quicker and easier. Some of us are always going to cook for real, but I believe the vast majority of people just don't care enough to be bothered to make an effort.
Pitiful but fb's story just shows the truth about society today. We are all (the collective we-the human race) just a bunch of lazy slobs that want instant gratification with little to no effort expended. That is the real reason why we are all getting fatter.
Last edited by Ode; 01-29-2011 at 05:23 PM..
Reason: typonese attacked me, aaahhhhhhhh!!!
I learned how to cook as a child, and was able to make a full meal (dinner) by the time I was 9 years old. Not some junky, thrown-together mess of frozen fish sticks and rice-a-roni either. I could make venison chili, I knew how to bake a pumpkin pie from scratch, though my best dessert was peach cobbler. I could even make a bread stuffing for a turkey. I could shoot a rabbit or a squirrel, skin and clean it, and cook it.
I tried to teach my daughters how to cook, but they really had zero interest in it. My oldest had one thing she would actually cook and eat herself, macaroni and cheese with tuna. The youngest took an interest in her late teens, but she had really picky tastes and still does. She can cook fairly well though now. My oldest took an interest in cooking in her late 20s, but she limits the things she cooks to extremely healthy and/or very low fat meals. She prefers to steam almost everything she eats, and doesn't care much for any foods that are mixed in any way. Everything is cooked and served separately. One exception? Garlic mashed potatoes, her one weakness.
Maybe it is due to relentless marketing and all the commercials and print advertising. Everyone thinks it is all normal. A stir fry comes in a bag in the frozen foods section, heck even rice is available in an already fully cooked form and it doesn't even need refrigeration! I remember telling my daughters how to make rice with the finger measure method because they could never remember the proportions. How anyone can forget 2 parts water to 1 part rice is beyond me but the finger method they remember (rice to the first knuckle, water to the second).
I wish they both could cook better than they do, but they just really don't care to learn more. It is easier to cook (read: heat up) all the stuff that has been prepared by someone else so they don't have to waste their time doing something they consider drudgery. So maybe we are the old-fashioned ones that aren't moving with the times. Homemade is healthier, but pre-prepared is surely a lot easier, and you don't have to think about it in any way. Sort of like cursive, which is no longer being taught in most schools, cooking is also fading out. Most people want everything to be quicker and easier. Some of us are always going to cook for real, but I believe the vast majority of people just don't care enough to be bothered to make an effort.
Pitiful but fb's story just shows the truth about society today. We are all (the collective we-the human race) just a bunch of lazy slobs that want instant gratification with little to no effort expended. That is the real reason why we are all getting fatter.
I suppose, but I think old Ivan Pavlov and his dogs were onto something.
Maybe it's the microwave ding that makes us all salivate for quick and easy food. That and it's more sugary and flavorful. Potato chips are a great example of flavor-added junk.
I simply marvel at the vast selection of chip flavors we have today. Plain chips? Pfffttt...how boring! They taste like dirt to my kids
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I disagree that "everyone" wants pre-made meals and that "no one" cooks anymore. Everyone I know still cooks and likes it much better than fast food or store bought pre-made.
I'm having a huge moose ribeye, and french fries, as we speak. I was trying to decide what to have with the home made baked beans tonight.
I always told the wife, if the ****F, we can always grow a garden on the quarter acre on the west side. We have fresh water right across the street, plenty of fish, deer, moose, turkey, hare, squirrel, beaver, partridge and for vitamin B-12. There are tons of fiddleheads, blueberries, raspberries, long abandoned apple orchards, tubers, maple sap just a few minutes away. Add to that, all the firewood we need.
Just add some essentials like flour, sugar bacon, etc., and you can survive anything.
Family are always asking down country, why we choose to stay up here! I think it speaks for itself.
I work with a young lady (25 or thereabouts) who has no concept of how to cook anything without a microwave. I'm talking none. She was simply aghast when my boss and I were discussing the need to cook on a woodstove back in the late 70s when the power went out for a week (I'm talking jaw-drop aghast).
A lot of the mentality (IMHO) of people who seem to feel the need to purchase prepackaged junky so-called "quick meals" can be laid down to marketing. I mean really, how much longer does it take to chop up some chicken, throw some bread crumbs and spices into a zip loc bag, and make your own Shake and Bake (without a half a pound of unidentifiable chemicals in it to boot)? Really. It's not that difficult.
Also, many of those prepackaged 'box-o-meals' are little more than shake and bake, noodles, and a can of condensed soup mix in a fancy box. Meh, call me a cynic, but I'm more into details than perhaps I should be.
That said, unfortunately, many families are now two working parent families and realistically speaking, there isn't a whole lot of time left in a day (or weekend if the kids are involved in a lot of outside pursuits) to plan dinners I suppose. Maybe I sound like an old curmudgeon, but geesh kiddos, what's the hurry?
As far as the end of 'cheap' food, judging by the "incredible shrinking product" shenanigans I've been watching with increased frequency in the last 20 years or so, I'd say food hasn't been all that 'cheap' for quite some time now.
Gardens and farmer's markets are the best thing in the world to me. They just don't have a whole lot of marketing behind them - yet. I think the momentum is gaining there thankfully.
My wife bought shake n' bake ONCE. Yes it's easy to cut up a chicken( whole chickens are far less expensive) drop it in a bag of mystery coating and pop it in the oven I'll give her that and there are times we don't want to fuss around. I started taking the tail end of a bag of potato chips, rolling it over with a rolling pin several times to break them into little pieces then add some spices....instant shake and bake, bag included, and it tastes 10 times better that the stuff in the box!
Since this IS the 'cheap food' thread, i'll add to this that all the pre-packaged stuff costs alot more too!! You really pay thru the nose for all them chemicals, and all that pre-mixing and sometimes pre-cooking!
I'm 51, and i crave my late mom's homemade food allll the time. She never used recipes for anything, and my sisters and i try - but it just never comes out like her's...
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That and it's more sugary and flavorful. Potato chips are a great example of flavor-added junk.
