Here’s the thing: We are all aware that our food tastes have changed.
His memory is playing tricks on him.
The food on my table and yours does not resemble in any way what our ancestors once ate.
Although I may not remember how Grandma’s food tasted, I certainly remember her complaining about its cost.
Little wonder, as almost a third of her household budget went to feed the family.
That seems like progress, but just look at us!
Does our cheap food have anything to do with that?
Looking for answers, I turned back the clock.
Our milk came from the Loudon Dairy, down the road.
It was not, it turns out, an accident.
As we entered World War II, almost a quarter of Americans were employed in farming.
They began by converting into fertilizer the enormous stockpile of ammonium nitrate left over from the explosives program.
The new nitrate-rich fertilizer dramatically increased productivity.
Meanwhile, new laborsaving machines replaced inefficient horses, and progressive plant breeding improved yields.
Scientific advances such as the use of antibiotics to make animals grow faster were also introduced.
Small farms were gobbled up by bigger ones, and in suburban America, farms began to vanish.
Urban dwellers barely noticed, but we were starting to lose touch with the way our food was grown.
But we weren’t losing just farms.
Efficiency also invaded our homes.
When Mom became a fan, Dad and I began to dread dinner.
I recently looked up the recipe for one of her favorite dishes: Casserole a la King.
Did Mom really think it was palatable?
But she was just a sign of the times.
My mother and legions of other women held Nixon to his word.
For them, even TV dinners took too much time.
Mom bragged she could get dinner on the table in 15 minutes flat.
