Spend time at a farmers market and learn to appreciate where your food comes from (nearby, hopefully). Photo by Kristin Brenemen

Food is powerful, very powerful. In short supply, it causes starvation and war; in over-abundance, it causes obesity and gluttony. Food has the ability to both help cure and cause disease, and politicians and businessmen use it to create and destroy cultures (as recently as the invention of the TV dinner).

Food is our most basic connection to the sun. If we could produce our own power supply through solar energy—like plants do through photosynthesis—then we would have no use for what we now consider food. Only squirrels would eat nuts, and domesticated cattle might be unheard of. Unfortunately, we were not born with solar panels on our heads, and we have always needed food to fuel our bodies.
    
Over the millions of years of human evolution, our food has evolved with us. As our eyesight became sharper, we were able to pick out the brightest fruits, which contain the most antioxidants. As our taste buds developed, we were able to quickly taste the bitterness of poison and spit it out before we took a fatal gulp, and as our minds developed, we learned how to master the beasts and fields around us and domesticate livestock and plants. The transition from gatherers to hunter/gatherers to agriculturalists shaped everything about us, including our language, family structure, art and technology.

This transition is still happening. Evolution, whether biological or cultural, never stops. Our relationship with food is changing faster now than it ever has at any point in human history. In America, we are quickly losing our connection with food; children grow up not knowing where food comes from. Instead of learning to select food based on color, smell or texture, we now pick it out based on packaging or advertising. This shift has greatly benefited large food manufacturers, but is creating a culture of obesity and illness and a population that is becoming more and more dependant on those manufacturers for sustenance.

When we lose our ability to get food from the earth rather than the grocery store, then we have lost a basic human right. It's our "right" to get food from the earth.

What should we do to re-harness the power of food for our benefit? Start by making good decisions as consumers. Spend more time in the produce section or better yet, the farmer's market. Get to know a local farmer and learn where your food comes from.

Spend more time in the kitchen than the fast-food line. No one will prepare as healthy a meal for you or your family as you will. Make cooking and eating fun and social.

Teach your children that beef comes from a cow and not the meat section of Kroger. Teach them that cows are living creatures that need to be treated humanely up until their death.

At its most basic level, culture exists within the home and the community. By making the right choices, you can be in control of the food culture around you, and that is power.

For more mouth-watering treats and tasty eats, chow down over at our Food Blog, the JFP Bite Club Facebook page, and follow the aroma on Twitter.  Be sure to bring your appetite!

Also in the Fall Food Issue:
Foods That Heal
What Is It About the French?
You Might Be a Foodie If...
Eating for Heart
Get Smart
Feed Your Brain--And Your Kids
Raw and Naked
Donna's Power Smoothie
Curry is a Technique
The 10-Day Food Challenge
Armchair Farming
The Power of the Family Dinner
Regina's Solutions
New For Fall
@JxnRestaurantWk
A Content Veggie Life
Pescatarian, Thank You
Eat Right for Nutrients
Power of Love
Mood Food
Food Porn
Let There Be Apples
Primitive Power
I Surrender