You put your left foot in
You put your right foot out
You put your left foot in
And you shake it all about
You grab yourself a partner and you turn yourself about
That’s what it’s all about!
Anybody remember the hokey-pokey dance? Always fun, even the confusing parts that should not have been but were, in the silly way of these song-and-dance routines.
What to eat. Why to eat it. Who does it affect, this seemingly not-all-that-important-decision made three or four or five times a day.
These are questions that run through every thoughtful person’s mind – some more, some less.
What a luxury of questions they are too – when one stops to consider that many people in the world can only ask themselves one question regarding their food: Where can I get enough of any sort to survive and thrive?
I haven’t come up with my own clear-cut food philosophy when it come to the (big? small?) questions of what I should eat. Like many others I know, I do the hokey-pokey. One day at a time, sorting and sifting the masses of information surging over the information superhighway, hoping that what I read is true enough to lead me down the right paths.
One writer I trust to give me accurate and useful information and ideas is the historian Felipe Fernandez-Armesto. In a compelling article in the Times-Online yesterday his essay begins:
The State exists to feed people. Politicians proclaim defence or law and order or social issues or wealth creation or health as their priority. But without food, nothing else matters. For most of history, leaders were those who knew how to get it – sometimes by hunting prowess, sometimes by means of a gift for commanding herds, sometimes by naked power, forcing subjects to work in the fields and dig ditches, and sometimes by mediating with the gods or spirits of nature.
The article can be found here. It’s one of the most interesting essays I’ve read on this topic (ever).
Artwork credit Mike Licht/NotionsCapital
