Rebuild from Depression Blog

Food is always on my mind. The taste of food is on my mind when I am hungry and the health effect of food is on my mind when I'm not. I wrote a couple in the spring that "food is not our primary source of toxins, but it is our only source of nutrients." I felt somewhat convicted by my own statement and thought it would be good to start thinking about what food is.

Americans are increasingly scared of food. We fear pathogenic bacteria. We fear pesticides. We fear antibiotics. It is difficult to enjoy dinner these days and yet dinner is our sole path to nourishing our bodies.

After posting my video eulogy to Youtube last week, I poked around Youtube for the first time. Apparently they just introduced a feature whereby videos on similar topics come up after you watch whatever it is you just watched. So I watched my own video for about the 700th time (though it's too bad they only count it as one unique view) and continue to struggle getting the Ave Maria to stop playing in my head, and YouTube suggested I watch a video discussing the difference between organic and non-organic milk. So I did.

Despite what looks like a radical video of mine on YouTube, I agree with the dairy industry that the labeling used on organic dairy products is misleading.

I try real hard not to be paranoid about the food that I am eating. It seems that we have constant outbreaks of illness from foodborn pathogens in this country. We get messages about animal foods with blood and pus from animal rights groups like Peta. And then there is the food produced in a petrie dish at biotech firms.

"Genetically modified foods will feed the world," says the GM industry.

"Biotech firms are creating FrankenFoods," say the opponents.

I think it's a great goal to feed the world. But the funny thing about food is that, in addition to being fun to eat and at the center of most of our social events, it is absolutely our only source of nutrients. That is what food is. Genetic modification of foods may be changing the very essence of food -- its nutrient profile -- and turning something nourishing into something potentially deadly.