There’s a strange modern myth that grocery stores are the natural center of human civilization. They’re not. They’re actually a pretty recent invention in the grand timeline of food history.
Go back 75 years and a huge amount of food came from local farms, backyard gardens, neighborhood dairies, butcher shops, seasonal markets, and community trade.
People knew what season it was based on what was available to eat.
Then post-WWII America transformed agriculture into an industrial machine. Highways expanded. Refrigerated trucking exploded. Massive grocery chains centralized distribution.
Convenience won, slowly eroding our connection to growers, seasonality, and regional food culture. In turn, we lost the communal aspect that made up our food ecosystem and our relationship to the food itself.
Y2T takeaway: Convenience comes at a cost, most notably in the quality of the food we purchase. Most if not all produce was never meant to be grown out of season and has been genetically modified to meet our growing consumer demands. Convenience isn’t evil, but when convenience replaces our connection to where our food comes from entirely, we forget what real meat and produce is supposed to look and taste like. Our goal is to reestablish the link between everyday consumers than those that supplies us with delicious wholesome food.
Your Great Grandma Didn’t Shop Like You
