I've been studying food policy in grad school for almost a year now.
Whew. That feels like a long time when I type it like that.
But the truth is that I've been learning about how food is organized, labeled, and kept safe to be sold - on governmental levels of all sizes, and when I sit down to think about it, I really do know a LOT about our food system. I thought I knew it was broken before - turns out, I didn't even know the start of it.
I've learned a lot about labeling - how all those words get onto your milk, meat, and prepackaged salad bags. Every word is the result of a regulation. Some mean something very specific ("Certified USDA Organic"), some mean something a little less specific ("cage free"), and some - sorry to break it to you - mean absolutely nothing at all ("all natural").
(Sorry if I just made you cry when you scurried off to your pantry/fridge to see lots of foods with the "all natural" label on them...I'll post about it later, it has absolutely no regulation, effectively making it an absolutely useless value claim.)
Anyway - the point is, I've been learning a lot, but as I'm running 16-18 hours of every day between work and school, training for my marathon, singing at church, and having some semblance of a social life, up to this point, my eating hasn't changed that much. (The one big exception here is clearly my purchase of a CSA this summer, which I will also post about later). Though I know about values claims on labels on foods, I'm living a pretty standard "what is the most convenient, nutritious food that I can get for the lowest price?"
Now, I've always eaten eggs. My mother raised me on them, and since I don't tend to cook a ton of meat at my house, I've always seen them as a great source of protein for not that much money. While I've eaten farm-fresh straight-out-the-chicken eggs (and they are INCREDIBLE - if you haven't had that egg eating experience, find a farmer right now, and buy some eggs from him/her. (If you need help locating a farmer, the USDA is here to help you with their
Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food website) You won't regret it) I don't have the time to seek out/go to a farmers' market here in Boston to find those eggs here. Thus - I eat store bought eggs.
I eat a LOT of eggs. If I'm making most of my meals at home, I could take down a dozen eggs in three to four days. (I usually don't, but that's just because I don't want to be going to the grocery store that often). As a combination of loving eggs, and loving finding good food at grocery stores for cheap (THAT is just a combination of my frugal nature, loving deals/steals/couponing, and not feeling guilty for buying food because, well, I have to eat) I have always just bought the cheapest eggs at the grocery store - the large, white, store brand "normal" eggs. Usually they're between $1.19 and $1.99. Not a bad deal for a few days worth of protein.
So, it was about a week ago, and I hadn't been in a grocery store for a while (an result of the CSA). I had no eggs at home, and was walking towards my apartment from campus. I was right next to the Star Market, so I went in there for a few things instead of going to Trader Joe's like I usually do. I walked back to the egg section, imagining grabbing a dozen of Star Market's finest. I stopped in front of the refrigerated case, and was instantly so overwhelmed. The cheap eggs were $1.29 - a great deal! And yet, this is what was flashing in my head -
Now, I have known my entire life about the realities of egg production in huge industrial systems. And it's terrible, but it's never changed the reality that I want my eggs, and I don't always have $5 to hand to a farmer who I know isn't keeping his/her chickens this way. To cut to the chase, whether or not it should, knowing has never changed my mind before. And yet, there I was, standing in front of that case, and I couldn't even look at those $1.29 eggs.
So, I turned to my other choices - and by golly, there were a TON of other choices, ranging from $1.99 to $5.49 a dozen. I was assaulted by labels like:
- certified organic
- all natural
- omega-3 enriched
- cage free
- free range
- humanely raised
- vitamin D enriched
These were in all sorts of combinations, and appeared on both brown and white eggs, all toting supposed health benefits, when, really, all I wanted was some cheap protein. But, since I knew what all these words meant (and which meant anything at all) as I was standing there, I knew I was going to just have to figure it out.
It took me the better part of 20 minutes to do it.
I ended up with
Born Free brand Free Range Certified Humanely Raised and Handled Omega 3+D brown eggs. They were on sale for $3.49, and I felt good about leaving the store with them in my bag. But as I was walking home, I realized that this was the beginning - that the things that I learned in class were no longer just things I knew in my head, and could easily separate from the life that I led outside of class.
It is terrifying. I've come to terms that my cooking and eating habits have just taken a turn for the educated, and that means a whole lot more thinking about my food outside of class, and inside my kitchen. I guess it's just the moment when the learning becomes synonymous with my actions. Scary - but exciting - as all important life decisions are.
And that's where I'm at now. Actually taking a really hard look at what I'm buying when I go to the grocery store. And, in effect, going to the grocery store a whole lot less.
So, go - check out your egg section the next time you're at the store. Even if you buy the cheap eggs, look at the other ones. Learn about values claims on eggs - what all those terms mean, who is regulating them, what the laws are in your state/city/region. Even if it hasn't before, it might change your mind this time.
