Sharon Kennedy: My potato has eyes
Sixty million tons of food, 40 percent because of its ugly appearance, is wasted every year according to various government statistics. This is a sharp reminder that as a country we’re spoiled rotten. We demand our fruit and vegetables to look as pretty as photographs in a magazine.
We wouldn’t dream of bringing home a potato with eyes or a two-legged carrot. A potato that’s looking at us is past its prime and lacking in nutrition. The same is true for carrots growing hair and cauliflower covered in a layer of brown. Rarely do we find a clump of broccoli that isn’t tinged with yellow, so we’re beaten on that front.
Tons of fruits and vegetables are considered garbage because they do not pass entry into the beauty pageant parade. Despite imperfections, is it necessary to dump ugly food into pigs’ troughs? What about those hungry Chinese children Mom told me about when I was young? Did they all starve?
As a sophisticated nation, we favor outward appearances instead of flavor in the foods we chop, slice or boil. When did we get so fussy? As a kid, I recall eating a three-headed radish and thinking nothing of it. A weird-looking apple was just as tasty as a perfectly round one. A watermelon full of seeds was sweeter than sugar. Seedy grapes were delicious. Peaches had flavor. There was more taste in one little strawberry than in a quart’s worth sold today.
Since our agricultural society has been swallowed by conglomerates and the traditional family farm is only a memory, our food is produced by factories. Most readers are familiar with the old adage, “There’s no point in closing the barn door after the horse runs away.” Various versions of this saying exist, but the point is clear. If we don’t
practice caution and common sense, we’re apt to lose things. Once a mare experiences freedom, she’ll kick up her hoofs and join the crowd who left the farm for Paris.
Most likely we didn’t realize the horse running away was taking our food source with her. We watched as Flicka galloped towards the sunset. She was a perfect specimen of health, strength and power. Carrying the analogy further, we didn’t give her a second thought because the grocery stores were fully stocked with boxed, canned and frozen food. We had no need of a horse.
But look at us now. Farmers are forbidden from saving seeds because they don’t own the patent. Corporations took ownership of non-GMO seeds as well as the ones they genetically modified. Under threat of lawsuits, farmers are not allowed to exchange seeds, a common practice since the beginning of time. Those who farm the land are beholden to and at the mercy of Monsanto, Syngenta and other multinational corporations. It’s unthinkable that something as fundamental to human life as a seed has become the property of corporations, but that’s the way it is.
I guess all this presidential campaign business has my mind in a tizzy. Our choice of candidates is about as appealing as moldy strawberries, wormy cabbages or a Jonathon apple sporting apple scab. I’m focusing on something frivolous when I should be thinking about politics. Perhaps I should write letters to Biden and Trump suggesting they join together and declare a National Ugly Food Day. With food being rejected yearly for aesthetic reasons, it might be time to forget about cosmetic appeal and take our chances with ugly. After all, the candidates aren’t all that pretty either, but would we feed them to the hogs?
— To contact Sharon Kennedy, send her an email at sharonkennedy1947@gmail.com. Kennedy's new book, "View from the SideRoad: A Collection of Upper Peninsula Stories," is available from her or Amazon.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Sharon Kennedy: My potato has eyes
