An interesting statistic caught my mind sometime back when watching Queen (yes, we're talking about the band) Live at Wembley at the zenith of their career. One of the commentors on Youtube said: Musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died at the age of 27, so we'll have to wait for another 10 years for Justin Bieber to go…
As caustic (and hilarious) as that comment is, the truth is that music has been commercialized, and rather than have musicians who play music from their heart (which is what it's supposed to be), you have radio-friendly singles that have a particular target audience in mind. Of course, all in the name of profitability…
One can draw parallels between this phenomenon and the production of food these days… and we're talking about advertising-ridden processed food which is a serious deviation from the fresh produce that we, as customers, could enjoy in the "good old days".
A Note on Modern-Day Farming
With the advent of the middle men such as supermarkets and so on and so forth, farmers have receded into the background. Commercialization has also led to another practice that you can find so often even with products such as meat and veggies. This means taking shortcuts to increase production for greater profitability.
So what does this mean for the customer?
You'll have anything but organically grown vegetables and meat, not necessarily grown keeping your health in mind. (If you're not sure what organic produce means, read this article.)
Whether you like it or not, this is the system that has developed, thanks to industrialization, leaving behind the healthier practice of obtaining produce required for nourishment directly from the farmers' themselves.
If this piece of writing has given you a wake-up call, and has left you wondering if there is anything you can do to break this pattern, the farmers' markets is where you need to be at – even if means sacrificing a few hours on Saturday.
Saturday Markets – A Refreshing Change, if you will
Almost everyone knows that buying processed and packaged food means that you won't be buying fresh food. If your grandparents are still alive, there's no doubt that they would recall days when everything was cheaper, better and fresher.
While they're not necessarily wrong, the idea of visiting Saturday markets (held throughout the United States) will make a lot of sense if you make an effort to do so.
Since the produce is picked when it's ripe and sold at these markets, almost everyone who visits these weekly events will be able to see the difference between what is sold at supermarkets and what these farmers have to offer. Of course, the produce has to be fresh because customers will find themselves interacting with farmers at these events…
Most of these farmers live in the vicinity and since this locally grown meat, milk and vegetables are sold not far away, you can be sure that from a nutritional point-of-view, you've already gotten your money's worth.
But these saturday markets are not only good for the customers but also for the farmers who earn a decent living at these markets as opposed to selling their produce wholesale, and it's definitely a reason why customers should visit these markets – even if the idea seems rather quaint.
So if you haven't visited one recently, it's time to give your old folks something to smile about…
In Closing
And please, some of us have just about had enough of Lady Gaga… it's time to bring back those times "when all we needed was Radio Gaga".
