When you think of Valentine's Day, you might think hearts, candy, chocolate, pressure, flowers, cards, more pressure, expensive dinners but we forget sometimes that Valentine's Day is supposed to be about love in all forms.
Today is Food Day, in case you were unaware. A chance to celebrate food, but as you might have guessed, the newest holiday is about food in a specific kind of way.
Calling a holiday Local, Organic, Sustainable, Treating Workers Well, Well-Grown Food Day is not very catchy, but this is the intended theme.
So Food Day doesn't exist to celebrate Flamin' Hot Cheetos, but since you can't make people celebrate a holiday the way you want, some will hold up similar type snacks in exaltation.
Celebrating well-grown food needs more than just one day, but it's a start. Education is a wonderful idea. Calling attention to well-grown food is cause for celebration.
Does a day called Food Day does this? We have a wide divide wider than any obese person on what is "food."
Those who love and appreciate well-grown food don't think Flamin' Hot Cheetos is food. Last week, Stephen Colbert embraced the idea that a Taco Bell gordita may not be "food." To a certain percentage of the population, Flamin' Hot Cheetos and Taco Bell gordita are more food than a lot of items that well-grown food lovers embrace as food.
This cultural divide won't be solved, but it is a reminder that "Food Day" means different things to different people.
Food Day comes from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), which has done a fine job at telling us which foods aren't good for us. As for the foods that are good, others tell that story.
While the vagueness of Food Day plays to some advantages, it doesn't highlight the main point: celebrating Local, Organic, Sustainable, Treating Workers Well, Well-Grown Food.
Scheduling the holiday on a Monday is also awkward, especially when Meatless Monday takes up that space. Food Day could easily celebrate free-range meat on Meatless Monday. Even if people get inspired to buy better-sourced food, the weekend would be a more ideal time to their shopping habits.
People who love well-grown food shop more the European way, buying fresh and using it up quickly. Those who struggle and are on the go often shop in 2-week binges.
So everything is awesome about Food Day except the scheduling and the name. The scheduling can be excused, but the name Food Day only means something to those who don't need to be convinced.
What about Well-Grown Food Day? Nutrition Day? Nutritious Food Day?
The other problem is we can't even decide "what is nutritious food?" In a "corporations are people" type society, the sensible logical rules over what is nutritious are thrown over for policies from "people" with a vested interest in corporate-speak on nutrition.
A lot of good people are working very hard to make Food Day a truly important day, and their efforts should be lauded. Just remember that in a shared dialogue on food, we should agree first on what is food and more importantly, what is nutritious food.
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