Interesting blog post on Parla Food, about all the fake food products that get passed off as “Made in Italy” these difficult days.
It seems the more I think about the business of food marketing, the more cynical and angry I become. I want to eat good, fresh, seasonal, ethical food but this is a difficult and time consuming task, even in this so-called food mecca called Italy.
Unless one buys directly from a small producer, is it really possible to know how food is made and where it is coming from?… ~ The Made in Italy Paradox
Yes, Italian food is all the rage, as are Italian products in general. In our hands-off attitude toward big business (the US ideal, spreading like a plague across continents—no regulation please, we make more profit that way!), any reasonable foodie would expect industrial crap food producers to subvert the concept of good, locally processed food.
And they have. And they will keep doing so.
This is why I find myself writing about rural Europe more and more. There are still people who do things right. Call it “the old way” if you will, but I’ll stand alone if I have to in asserting that real food is food, and that glistening slab of “American Processed Cheese Product” isn’t food, it’s an abomination created in a laboratory.
It melts good though and lasts forever. Like ear wax.
Today’s governments are scared merdeless over the idea of touching the sacred industrial elite. So there’s no solace there.
But for now, it’s all out in the countryside. The American countryside is lost, but there are still pockets of creamy foodie goodness in Italy. You can watch food being made. You can see it’s real. You can put your money where your mouth is. You can make things better by voting with your wallet.
There’s no money in writing about the rural spaces. There are no five star hotels, although agriturismi can be as lavish as you might need. But dammit I’m going to continue. You need to find out how food should taste.
In case you’re thinking “gosh, America is built on cheap food” think again. Cheap food has never gotten us anywhere. Cheap food creates disposable income. Disposable income is a gift to the free market. The cost of housing increases as folks have more disposable income because a house is a true free market commodity. The median house will cost what the average person can pay. Eat cheap crap and you can pay more. Bingo, it’s a zero sum game if you have enough participants.
Anyway, I exhort you to get out into the countryside and discover how food is made. Don’t cover your eyes when the pig is killed.
It died for you, bunky, and nothing will change that. Salvation is in the knowing and in the reverence and respect you give the animal.
(And you Italians, keep on bringing your sheep to Rome to protest fake pecorino. We luv ya.)