Obviously, I am in the business of selling locally produced nutrient dense foods. Therefore, my opinion typically slants in that direction no matter how unbiased I try to be. Sometimes I sit around and evaluate the newest food trends, diets, fads, and "healthy alternatives" that are being touted at the moment. Lately, I have made an observation that worries me. It seems that society is riding the pendulum away from whole, local, real foods back to foods that are more processed in nature. A few years ago I thought we were really headed in the right direction. People were getting back to eating stuff that we would all recognize as food. Even though there were a few fads intertwined in that movement, the general direction was toward a more live diet. Raw milk, grass-fed meats, green vegetables, bone broths, and limited grains were how well-read health-conscious consumers wanted to construct their diet. It took a few years for the industrial food system to figure out how to change their tactics to attract these consumers. They were hard at work, and are now having success. Almost all the farmers I interact with have seen a softening of demand for their local farm fresh products in the last 3 years. You see, raw milk and grass-fed meats are inherently anti-industrial. They can't easily be mass produced and mass marketed. But guess what, almond milk and lab-grown or artificial meat can. So when you pour a glass of almond milk, turn the carton around and read the ingredients. It's not really milk and is barely almonds. When you order that Beyond Meat burger, realize that you would not recognize most of the ingredients as food. (because it's not really a burger) Most of all realize that your diet is going away from whole, local, real foods, and once again the industrial food system is leading you in the direction of highly processed.
