If you were to Google the words food and trust you’d likely find a variety of topics. Do you trust the source of your everyday food purchases from the supermarket? How about the food served from that delivery app? Do you perhaps work at a neighborhood food trust whose mission statement includes providing healthy meals for those in need? Do you trust yourself and the choices you make regarding the types of food you eat? You'll find this and many more topics simply using these two words to ask a question or make a statement.
Notice that in the US cereal boxes shrink overnight at the same time prices increase. How about those meal kits purposely designed to be a status symbol, telling the whole world how much money someone has left on the doorstep? What about the very creative ways companies fuck the public by cutting corners to such an extent that the public gets sick or dead; blatantly lying and defrauding that it makes the evening news. What’s the common denominator? Greed, Proprietors, vendors, and conglomerates who know they'll probably get caught, so much so that they already have a bullshit line ready to read and a fine ready to pay, they also know it’ll be forgotten in a week with no major consequence. No why? I'll come back to that.
Speaking only for myself I can honestly say I trust food more outside of the United States than in it. The rest of the world is not like that. That is not to say that there aren't scumbags everywhere I just haven't seen or worked for as many outside of the US.
A simple way of looking at it is that food in the rest of the world and certainly in developing countries is a lifeline. It’s a way of earning a living; it's also a way of building community, and it's a way of sharing when you don’t have much else. Food vendors that I have come across in Vietnam, China, Malaysia and Singapore, and even Komodo Island have one incentive only and that is to sell wares and keep customers happy. Happy customers come back. They do it by providing cost-effective and healthy meal solutions to a passerby. They depend on word of mouth to grow their business; which only comes by way of integrity.
One of the best discoveries of our journey to these many countries is the fact that we don't have to question the integrity of the food that we are purchasing or eating and that's important folks. Sure, there is the off chance of some food-borne disease but I’ve never happened across a street vendor in Shanghai, pointed my finger towards a chicken skewer, and wondered if they somehow know it will make me sick. I would in New York.
My best friend Gerald and I were working for a catering company on the film Home Alone which was largely filmed in front of the Plaza Hotel in New York City. One day while sitting in our little food truck we watched the hot dog guy from across 57th Street walk over to the fountain with a makeshift bucket. The hot dog guy proceeded to dip his makeshift bucket into the fountain to collect the water then traveled back to his hot dog cart where he added the water to the hot dogs. Now if you’re not from New York you may not know that the fountain across from The Plaza Hotel is a popular bathing destination for New York's upper-class homeless and a place to throw a dirty coin to make your never coming wish. Even if you’re not from New York you probably realize that a fountain is not the ideal place to get cooking water.
I’m from New York and I can honestly say New Yorkers have seen it all. Horrifying images in local newspapers on the evening news: rats at the local KFC or pizza rats in the subway; knowledge of where those hot dog carts are kept at night; vendors losing their licenses for serving fish from contaminated waters. Every passing week there’s another situation that leads the general public to an even greater distrust of the food that they eat. What did Bourdain say about fish on Sunday while reheating butter from the ramakins that had returned from bread baskets at tables into your hollandaise sauce? Yes, Tony did that!
For The longest time, the biggest complaint from some big food delivery giants’ customers was that the food being delivered did not look exactly like the photos on the side of their trucks! That's fucking scary. What are you going to reply next time some hungover maitre d asks " I trust your meal was satisfactory" One the significant feelings a person should have is trust in something as intimate as food. The fact that people know little or nothing of the origin and handling of their food scares me now. And should scare you as well.
Did you know that the list of food items prohibited from import to the United States from other countries is longer than it is the other way around? Think about this for instance. The same sugary box of cereal, the one with the talking tiger that chats up kids during fragel rock is banned, I said banned, not allowed, forbidden, proven to be bad for humans bad, is not available in 9 countries. Want to wash it down with a Mountain Dew? Fuck that in 9 countries. How about some farmed Salmon? Not going to happen, pal. Jimmy Dean Delights Sausage, Egg & Cheese, and Pillsbury Breadsticks, contain azodicarbonamide, a chemical compound that's actually used to make yoga mats and shoe soles. Fucking awesome, huh? It's also found in packaged baked goods and bread as a whitening agent and dough conditioner, but wait there's more. There's a reason why pigs in the U.S. get super fucking big, super fast: Even though 160 nations—including the European Union, Russia, and China—have banned the use of the drug ractopamine ( thought to affect the cardiovascular system and cause hyperactivity, behavioral changes, elevated heart rates, and heart-pounding sensations) the U.S. pork industry still uses it in the majority of pigs. That means the pork you're buying at the store contains it, maybe—and that is why the U.S. can't sell it to 160 other countries.
Get the point? The problem, the real problem is what the big companies in the US know and what I know. Most people just don't give a shit! At the end of the day, a simple google search could change most people’s food choices and lives for the better but guess what? THEY WON'T. You don't fucking care!
So ask yourself do I trust my food? Be informed and openly ask where does my food come from and who is handling it if you care enough And, the next time you reach for a box of Ritz crackers keep in mind there’s a reason it's currently banned in countries like Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, and requires a safety note in the European Union... at least ask why? Pick a local produce vendor a fishmonger and a butcher... Develop a relationship and trust that way. Cook for yourself and your family.
I trust everyone and everything right? Please don't take this chitchat as some Hollier than thou rant because it's not. This is simply an effort to share what it looks like from the outside in. Eat as much of whatever you want whenever you want and I'll do the same because guess what?