Life Magazine on America's Bounty of Food: The Way We Were and Could Be Again

"Food, perhaps alone among the riches of the earth, pleases all the senses of man," exuded the November 22, 1962 Life magazine.  

"Taste, of course, and smell. Vision? Behold it. Sound? Who has not placed a crisp vegetable on a pine board and heard the delicious noise of a keen knife cleaving through leaf and stalk? And touch? In this picture, it is texture most of all that delights: the rough and smooth, soft and firm, all invite the hand."

"Could odor arise from these cold pages, how sweetly would they fill the air! The tang of apple, pear and such small fruit would drift above the smell of sun-warm strawberries, blending with the rich scent of melons."

Distinguished British historian and Oxford professor Arnold J. Toynbee (1889 - 1975) believed that the health of a nation is only as good as the health of its diet, and that a downward spiral in the quality of a nation's diet foretold a nation's cultural and political death spiral. Toynbee illustrated his hypothesis with innumerable examples of fallen countries throughout civilization and pre-civilization. 

In 1962, the United States was a robust and growing nation that enjoyed a healthy, balanced diet, much of it still grown by local family farmers (although food-chain industrialization and commercial pesticide use had begun in earnest). 

Observed Life editors, "After the lush variety of the modern American diet, as shown in this issue of Life, it is rather unsettling to see how the rest of mankind eats."

In the 50 years since this 1962 Life magazine, Americans have gullibly adapted the fake-food message of greedy U.S. industrial manufacturers that only real-food facsimiles oozing with fat, sugar, and salt are culinary nirvana.   (For details, click here for "Salt Sugar Fat" - Stunning Big Food Tactics to Hook, Trick, Harm Americans.)

The results have been truly disastrous for U.S. public health.  Many historians today detect Toynbee's cogent hypothesis to be sadly observable in 21st century America. Today, "it is rather unsettling" to see how America eats. 

It doesn't have to be this way, friends.  We can return to healthy, deeply delicious diets. And the U.S. can easily return to being the world's envy with "the miracle of our plenty" grown by American farmers.

Just yesterday, I picked up my family's weekly carton of freshly-picked produce from California family farms... a huge carton for the bargain price of $37, overflowing with:

• Three kinds of tomatoes: large red, cherry, and heirloom
• Four large cucumbers
• Half a dozen sweet peppers
• A watermelon
• Eight ears of sweet corn
• Two eggplants
• Two generous heads of romaine lettuce
• Four zucchini
• A plethora of the sweetest stone fruit imaginable: peaches, nectarines, apricots

My carton could have graced the cover of Life's 1962 "Bounty of Food" issue.  

One inexpensive trip to the grocery store, plus to the butcher for perhaps three nights' of better-quality meat, and my home is set for a week.  Both our budget and healthy eating habits are in top shape.  And we feel better! Much better... 

In 2013, the United States is not nearly the robust and growing nation it was in 1962, nor does it  universally enjoy either a healthy, balanced diet or even passably acceptable public health.  

According to Professor Toynbee's theories, we could start to return our great country to its former glory and world preeminence by first cleaning up our own lives and ways. 

That starts with each of us taking responsibility for our own personal health, and our food choices. 

That starts with ignoring the false message of industrial fake-food corporations that fatty, sugary, and salty highly-processed foods are the stuff of the good life. 

They're not. They're the stuff of bad personal and public health, bad federal food policies, and quite possibly, the implosion of great cultures and nations. 

First Fourth of July Meals: Finest Ingredients, Not Hot Dogs or Other Chemical-Laced Food

The first Fourth of July celebration occurred on July 4, 1777 at the City Tavern in Philadelphia, when members of the Continental Congress gathered to mark the one-year anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.  

The City Tavern website proclaims:

"The Tavern was built 'for the convenience and credit of the city' by a group of eminent Philadelphians who felt that their hometown deserved a fine tavern which reflected its status as the largest, most cosmopolitan city in British North America... "

Because leaders of our fledgling nation were dining at one of Philadelphia's best public houses, the first meal marking the birth of the United States was elaborate and of the finest ingredients.  

"Current tavern chef Walter Staib says the menu likely was based on the recipes of the British culinary authority Hannah Glasse,whose book 'The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy' dictates not only every dish of the three-course dinner, but where it should be placed on the table.

"Glasse’s July menu suggests the signers of the Declaration would have supped on roast turkey and fricasseed rabbit, pigeon, crayfish and lobsters. There would have been tongue and turnips and lamb testicles. And for dessert, apricot tarts and roasted apples, plums, jellies and custards.

"Because Philadelphia was a major port, the meal likely also would have included delicacies from abroad, Staib says. Limes from the West Indies were used for lime curd. Exotic fruit such as mangoes, pineapples and coconuts might have been available, as well as spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, mace and vanilla. Plus, there was local seafood, such as salmon, sturgeon and oysters." (Source - The Japan Times News)

The former longtime owner of Cambridge, Massachusetts mainstay The Fishmonger, had her own historic take Fourth of July fare:

"Every year Dorothy Batchelder, whose father's family settled in Massachusetts in the 1600's and whose mother traces her family's arrival in this country to the Mayflower, eats poached salmon, peas and new potatoes and strawberry shortcake on the Fourth of July.

"Now that Ms. Batchelder owns a shop called the Fishmonger in Cambridge, she poaches the salmon there, just as she does for her customers, and takes it to her mother's house in Beverly Farms where there are always about 20 people for lunch.

"The Batchelders, like thousands of other New Englanders, are simply following a tradition begun by Abigail and John Adams on July 4, 1776... this stunning combination of salmon, sweet peas and new potatoes became a New England tradition simply because of seasonal availability." (Source - New York Times, June 28, 1989)

In the 21st  century, Americans greet Fourth of July not with culinary elegance or the finest, first-fruits ingredients, but with unhealthy fake-foods hawked by corporations... hot dogs made with scraps and mystery meats, hamburgers dripping with Kraft "cheese" products, weirdly-flavored potato chips, and industrial ice creams laden with chemicals, emulsifiers, additives, and artificial colors and flavors. 

Our Early American ancestors would be appalled by the casual, chemical-laced junk food we merrily consume to mark one of the most important days in the life of our great nation.   They would no more have gobbled grimy pub food to mark the Fourth of July than we would serve cheap take-out pizza at our family Thanksgiving tables... 

My pipe-dream is that someday, 21st-century Americans will respect our nation's history and culinary heritage, and their health, enough to commemorate the Fourth of July with glorious, homemade meals of the finest meats, breads, produce, and dairy.... including a return to drop-dead delicious homemade ice cream.

I'm just saying... wouldn't that be a grand birthday party for America?

Soy Sauce Fakes: How to Avoid Industrial Corn-Syrup Soy Sauce

Those little packets of soy sauce with take-out Chinese fare? Not really soy sauce at all. Rarely contains even a drop of soy. Think 100% fake soy sauce.

Same for many soy sauces sold in U.S. grocery stores: fake, or with only traces of soy bean extract.

Genuine soy sauce is based on an ancient Japanese process of brewing wheat, soybeans, and a certain mold, then allowing the culture to ferment for months before refining and bottling.  

The Japanese government has long been incensed by proliferation of imitation soy sauces, particularly by U.S. corporations. Japan has unsuccessfully pushed the United Nations food standards program to set an official international standard for soy sauce... a move that would mandate all imitations to be labeled as fakes, or as something else. 

Fake soy sauces take only three days to manufacture, as opposed to three months of brewing and maturing, and, of course, are concocted from far cheaper ingredients which typically include:

• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein (in lieu of soybeans)
• Corn syrup or another cheap sugar
• Salt
• Chemical "flavor enhancers"
• Artificial coloring

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein is...

"...  produced by boiling cereals or legumes, such as soy, corn, or wheat, in hydrochloric acid and then neutralizing the solution with sodium hydroxide. The acid hydrolyzes, or breaks down, the protein in vegetables into their component amino acids. The resulting dark coloured liquid contains, among other amino acids, glutamic acid, which imparts an umami flavor...

"Because of the high levels of glutamate in hydrolyzed vegetable protein, people sensitive to MSG should avoid hydrolyzed vegetable protein."  (Source - Wikipedia) 

In rare, and horrifying, instances, Chinese workshops use human hair as a source for soy sauce proteins. 

"China Central Television (CCTV), the state television station, first raised public worries over the quality of domestic soy sauce by uncovering a substandard workshop in central China's Hubei Province, where piles of waste human hair were found. The hairs were treated in special containers to distill amino acid, the most common substance contained in soybean sauce.

"Human hair is rich in protein content, just like soybean, wheat and bran, the conventional and legally accepted raw ingredients for the production of soy sauce." (Source - Boing Boing, May 26, 2004)

So what's a Chinese takeout aficionado to do in 2013 ?
So what's a Chinese takeout aficionado to do in 2013 when hankering for soy sauce with his/her pork fried rice, fresh wontons, and scrumptious eggrolls? 

Subway's Chemical-Laced Sandwiches: Fooled by the Look, Taste of Freshness

Even diligent fake-food watchers can be fooled by the appearance and feel of freshness in corporate-prepared food. 

Take my favorite Subway sandwich, for instance: Subway's Sweet Onion Teriyaki sandwich. 

Filled to overflowing with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and other veggies, which are dressed with "our own fat-free sweet onion sauce." Topped (not as generously as shown above) with "tender teriyaki glazed chicken strips" that are not breaded. 

Subway's Sweet Onion Teriyaki sandwich boasts only 370 calories, and 6 grams of fat. More important to me, it tastes fresh, and has crunch and a pleasing sweetness.  I genuinely like it, and I like believing that I'm eating healthy, simple, straight-forward food that just happens to be served by the world's largest fast-food purveyor. 

Well, I feel duped. I've been fooled by the appearance of freshness, and lulled into thinking that the presence of veggies and chicken strips meant this was the rare fast-food that's largely free of industrial chemicals. 

Writes author Melanie Warner in her insightful new book "Pandora's Lunchbox: How Processed Food Took Over the American Meal" (click title to link to book):

"You probably don't think of your lunch as being constructed from powders, but consider the ingredients of a Subway Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sandwich. Of the 105 ingredients, 55 are dry, dusty substances that are added to the sandwich for a variety of reasons.

"The chicken contains thirteen: potassium chloride,  maltodextrin, autolyzed yeast extract, gum Arabic, salt, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate, fructose, dextrose, thiamine hydrochloride, soy protein concentrate, modified potato starch, sodium phosphates. 

"The teriyaki glaze has twelve:  sodum benzoate, modified food starch, salt, sugar, acetic acid, maltodextrin, corn starch, spice, what, natural flavoring, garlic powder, yeast extract.

"In the fat-free sweet onion sauce,  you get another eight: sugar, corn starch, modified food starch, spices, salt, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, and calcium disodium EDTA.

"And finally, the Italian white bread has twenty-two:  wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid, sugar yeast, wheat gluten, clacium carbonate, vitamin D2, salt, ammonium sulfate, calcium sulfate, ascorbic acid, azodicarbonamide, potassium iodate, amylase, wheat protein isolate, sodium stearoyl lactylate, yeast extract, and natural flavors."

So much for simple and straightforward. So much for a sandwich largely free of industrial fake-food chemicals.  

Seduced by the easiness of ordering and enjoying complex food on a whim, I've opted to buy Subway's Sweet Onion Teriyaki sandwich rather than invest time in shopping and home cooking.   Ms. Warner is absolutely correct when she continues:

"If you were to make this sandwich at home with a basic  chicken breast and fresh bread made with minimal ingredients. it would contain only a handful of these things.

"Mass-scale food processing, however, requires an entirely different system of assembly, one fraught with often conflicting expectations. Manufactured food needs not only to taste good, for instance, but also to withstand the wear and tear of processing.  It has to look and taste exactly the same very time. It also has to have a long shelf life, be produced cheaply and efficiently, and on top of that, it would be nice of it could be marketed as healthy."

Eating heavily chemical-laced industrial foods is deemed to be far less healthy than consuming  homemade versions that greatly minimize chemical additives, fillers, emulsifiers, flavor boosters, and similar. 

Don't be fooled as I was: fast food is nearly always heavily laced with industrial chemicals. Even if it's touted as healthy.  Even if it looks, feels, smells, and tastes incredibly fresh.   

I'll never again look the same way at Subway's Sweet Onion Teriyaki sandwich. From now on to me, it'll be a delicious sandwich of 105 industrial ingredients, 55 of them dry, dusty powders.

No thanks!  I prefer my food sans as many industrial chemicals as possible. 

Americans Throw Away 30% of Food Supply: Ideas for Zero Food Waste in Your Home

"Throwing away food is like stealing from the table of those who are poor and hungry," uttered new Roman Catholic Pope Francis in his public address last week. 

"Consumerism and a 'culture of waste' have led some of us to tolerate the waste of precious resources, including food, while others are literally wasting away from hunger," the Pope elaborated. 

The Pope makes an astute point that connects two disturbing, widespread trends: hunger and food waste.  

In the United States today:

• 30% of all food is thrown away each year 
• Tens of millions of Americans go hungry on a daily basis. In December 2012, the number of children and adults on food stamps reached an astonishing, all-time high: 47,792,056, more than half children.  Fully 15% of all Americans.  

Stats published in 2012 by the Natural Resources Defense Council make clear the role of U.S. homes in food waste:

• Americans throw away about 1.5 pounds per person of food daily
• The average U.S. family of four throws away food costing about $2,275 each year
• U.S. food waste has jumped 50% since the 1970s.
• Food waste is now the single largest component of waste in U.S. landfills.

No-Brainer Ideas to Reduce Your Food Waste

No, your half-eaten leftovers obviously can't be shipped off to feed starving children in China, as U.S. mothers famously threatened kids dawdling over their veggies.  

But there are innumerable no-brainer ideas you can implement to responsibly ensure that you don't take more than your fair, necessary share of our food supply, or waste that which your home buys or uses. Here are a few...

1. Cut down first-serving portions at meals.  Today, portion sizes have grown two to eight times larger than recommended standard serving sizes, per the NRDC.

2. Cook only the amount of food needed for that meal. 

3.  Repurpose leftovers rather than dumping them. Clever restaurants constantly find new, tasty second-life for cooked, unserved foods, especially meats. 

4.  Write a grocery shopping list, and stick to it. Don't be dazzled by deals and displays for which you have no specific recipes or plans. Be aware that grocery stores will tempt you mercilessly to make that useless impulsive purchase. 

5.  Educate yourself on how to buy and store produce, and on the shelf life of various fruits and veggies.  And don't buy more than you will realistically use within one week.  

6. Use overripe produce, don't dump it. Overripe fruit is perfect for delicious smoothies and homemade popsicles.  Overripe tomatoes and other veggies are ideal for home-simmered sauces.  

7. Still have food waste? Toss it in a compost pile... yours or a community compost pile... to nurture future gardens. And our future food supply.

Your household goal should be zero food waste! It's good for your budget. Good for our world, Good for your soul.  

Need even more tips and recipes to help you actively move toward zero food waste? Try this site: From Garbage to Gourmet, which features "over 80 recipes and creative ideas for using... things that most people throw away without thinking about it, but can be used to make incredibly food!"

Smithfield Sale to Chinese Could Herald Downgrade in US Pork Quality: Disgusting Pork in China

The cured Smithfield ham served last Easter at my father-in-law's home was simply divine: lightly salty, subtly sweet, meaty with a crackling, fatty edge.  

A high-quality, superbly prepared ham from a 77-year-old U.S. company with a remarkable food-safety record. We eat ham rarely, so indulged in spending extra money to buy the best for our family feast.  

Imagine my chagrin at the news that Smithfield Foods, a fine American culinary tradition, has agreed to sell itself, 100%, to Chinese food conglomerate Shuanghui International known to contaminate pork with a veterinary med banned for use in animals intended for human consumption.  (This deal is subject to Congressional approval.)

Of course, like Shuanghui, U.S. meat producers are no strangers to adulterating beef, pork, and poultry with all sorts of drugs, from antibiotics to ractopamine, a growth-hormone drug banned in 100 countries, including Russia, China and most of Europe. ( Read details at U.S. Pork, Beef Laced with Drug Banned in Europe, China, Russia.)  Interestingly, Smithfield reportedly ended its use of ractopamine only in anticipation of this sale. 

The Chinese meat industry, though, is reputed for its disgustingly poor record of food safety and counterfeit products, including:

• "The latest episode involved fox, rat and mink meat that was doctored with gelatin, pigment and nitrates and sold as mutton. ( New York Times, May 29, 2013)
• "Allegations of maggots, excessive bacteria and illegal additives have plagued China's biggest meat products company, Shuanghui International, since at least 2011..."  (CNN, May 31, 2013)
• In the first four months of 2013, "... authorities have seized 20,000 tonnes of illegal products and solved 382 cases of meat-related crime – primarily the sale of toxic, diseased and counterfeit meat."  (The Guardian, May 3, 2013)

Chinese pork producers lay claim, though, to the most egregious (and grotesquely repellent) recent food safety record among Chinese meat industries.  Producers are straining to meet  growing Chinese demand for pork, 50 tons yearly, nearly half of world pork consumption. 

Monsanto: Ten Reasons to Fear the Agent Orange Maker

Two million people in 436 cities in 52 countries marched on Memorial Day 2013 in protest against Monsanto Co., a NYSE biotechnology corporation with nearly $12 billion in annual revenues.

Yet, most Americans are clueless about Monsanto, its products, its policies, its protesters...  and clueless about how Monsanto directly dictates the quality and content of most food consumed by their families. 

So, my friends, here are a few very basic facts about Monsanto, and why you should care about this ultimate fake-food manufacturer's poisonous products.

1. Agent Orange was jointly manufactured by Monsanto and Dow Chemical. Agent Orange, a lethally toxic herbicide and defoliant, was used by the U.S. military in Vietnam for 6,542 "spraying missions" of forests, foliage, and food crops over ten years.   

"Vietnam estimates 400,000 people were killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects as a result of its use. The Red Cross of Vietnam estimates that up to 1 million people are disabled or have health problems due to Agent Orange." (Source - Wikipedia entry for Agent Orange)

Agent Orange has also severely affected the health of 3 million U.S. troops and their families. "Despite the widespread health impact, Monsanto and Dow were allowed to appeal for and receive financial protection from the U.S. government against veterans seeking compensation for their exposure to Agent Orange." (Source - GMO Health)

2.  DDT, PCBs, and dioxin-based pesticides, herbicides, and insecticides are among the intentionally toxic products manufactured by Monsanto over decades, and used as long as legally possible, regardless of scientific findings and medical results.  Dioxin was the active ingredient in Monsanto's Agent Orange.  

3. RoundUp (glysophate) is Monsanto's successor herbicide to DDT, after DDT use in the U.S. was banned in 1972.  RoundUp is so profoundly toxic that it could eradicate weeds nearly overnight.  Farmers worldwide were induced and enticed to rely on RoundUp to protect their fields.  However, crops predictably withered under a virulent blanket of RoundUp.

Walmart Hypocrisy: Hunger Campaign that Doesn't Address Real Hunger

The hypocrisy and cynical irony are almost too rich for words. Extreme, ethics-free capitalism at its finest... 

Hunger is defined as "... the physical sensation of desiring food. When politicians, relief workers and social scientists talk about people suffering from hunger, they usually refer to those who are unable to eat sufficient food to meet their basic nutritional needs for sustained periods of time." on Wikipedia. 

With this ad late last month, Walmart urged Americans to join in "fighting hunger together" by buying products in its store, made by the leading fake food mega-corporations:

• General Mills
• Kraft Foods
• Unilever
• Kellogg's
• Con Agra Foods
• Nestle
• Pepsico
• Campbell's
• Dr Pepper/Snapple Group
• Mondelez International (formerly Kraft Foods Inc.)

Walmart wrote:

"In 2010, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation made a historic $2 billion commitment to fight hunger in America through cash and in-kind donations. The Fighting Hunger Together leverages Walmart and the Walmart Foundation’s size and scale to provide nutritious food and funding to nonprofits that are committed to finding solutions for this important issue."

This clever ad campaign leaves the clear impression that Walmart and its fake-food corporate suppliers are fighting hunger.  Truth is that nowhere does Walmart state that it or its partners "are committed to finding solutions for this important issue."     

Instead, Walmart appears to promise to donate a tiny portion of cash (see the list of nonprofits here) from sales to Americans of highly-processed fake foods  manufactured by its "partners" including:

• Kellogg's Froot Loops
• Skippy peanut butter
• Banquet chicken nuggets
• Kraft 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese, canned
• Nature Valley granola thins
• Honey Nut Cheerios

"In-kind donations" by Walmart and its mega-corporate food suppliers means that a majority of their joint "$2 Billion commitment" will be their own fake food products... Froot Loops, Skippy peanut butter, Banquet chicken nuggets, canned Kraft cheese, Nature Valley bars, Honey Nut Cheerios, and the like... to food banks, charities, and soup kitchens serving the hungry in their communities.  

If hungry Americans dine mainly on fake-food product donations, then, by definition, they will remain hungry, as Froot Loops, Skippy peanut butter, Banquet chicken nuggets, canned Kraft cheese, Honey Nut Cheerios, and all other highly processed foods do not meet their basic nutritional needs for sustained periods of time. Not by a long shot... 

Such processed fake foods are chock full of fat, salt, and sugar, as well as chemicals, additives, fillers, emulsifiers, artificial  colors and flavors, and much more. . 

Walmart's "fighting hunger together" campaign is sheer gimmickry genius in that it equates Walmart with fighting hunger, yet requires nearly no sacrifice of one the world's largest corporations beyond increasing sales of its products.  And Walmart gets humanitarian brownie-points by donating products approaching "must sell" dates or the end of shelf life... 

Indeed, a fine example of ethics-free capitalism.  Problem is... the hungry are still hungry! 

The Rise and Sad Demise of an Iconic American Product: Killing Knott's Berry Farm Foods

Walter Knott's freshly picked berries... blackberries, strawberries, red raspberries, loganberries, especially his extra-sweet Macatawa blackberries... were favorites of my Great Aunts Gertrude (1885 - 1962) and Clara (1888 - 1975).  

On sunny Saturdays in the early 1920s, they and husbands Gordon and Victor would drive a Model T Ford down eleven miles of dusty roads south from their Whittier homes to Walter and Cordelia Knott's roadside berry stand in Orange County, California.  Sunday suppers by the Kansas-born sisters featured homemade preserves and pies vivid with flavors of Knott's berries. 

By 1927, the industrious Knott farm employed up to 50 seasonal pickers, and often yielded four crop rotations a year for berries, cherry rhubarb, and asparagus.  

And Walter had finally persuaded Cordelia to set-up batches of her popular, pure berry jams, jellies, and preserves to sell at the berry stand.  Gertrude and Clara, who were busy mothers, housewives, and yearned for travel adventures by car, rarely again made homemade preserves.  

The rest is Southern California history:

"Knott's great berries were a 'must stop and buy some' for both old friends and for travelers and tourists who had heard the good news by word of mouth...

"The big Depression hit then, in 1928,  but the Knotts responded positively by using the last of their savings to build the Farm's first permanent building--- a combined berry market,  a small mursery to sell berry plants, and a five-table Tea Room where Cordelia served sandwiches, hot biscuits with berry jam, and berry pie."  (Source - Knott's Berry Farm Cookbook, 1976)

By 1934, the Tea Room expanded to a 40-seat diner serving fried chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans, plus hot biscuits, berry jams, and berry pies.  Three years later,  Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant opened doors with 300-seats and long waiting lines. Today, the famed restaurant draws more than 1.1 million customers a year. 

Cordelia's jams, jellies, preserves, and her new boysenberry ice cream and pancake syrup became legend, drawing locals and tourists eager to taste and tote home Knott's berry delights. Selling fresh berries fell by the wayside as crowds swelled for Cordelia's fried chicken and country ham dinners.  

Walter built small amusements to entertain customers while they waited hours to dine: first a rock garden and a replica of George Washington's fireplace, followed by a gift shop and an old Wells Fargo stagecoach. By the 1940s, Walter Knott embarked on rebuilding an American West ghost town, replete with relics from the California Gold Rush.

The end result, of course, was Knott's Berry Farm, today a famed 160-acre amusement park with 3.6 million visitors in 2011, and owned by New York Stock Exchange-listed Cedar Fair Entertainment Company.

A Business Built on Real Foods

Knott's, though, was built first on Walter's premium berries, and then on Cordelia Knott's extraordinary jams, jellies, and preserves made simply with the finest ingredients.  After Walter Knott innovated a new berry in the 1930s, the boysenberry, buyers returned in droves to try the unique fruit.

At every meal, my two great aunts, particular midwest-style cooks, always set on the table a pretty jelly dish or two of Knott's boysenberry, red raspberry, blackberry, or strawberry jam alongside a heaping plate of homebaked bread or hot biscuits.  

One of my earliest childhood memories is of savoring the tangy, sweet tastes of delicious Knott's jams at the elegantly-set Sunday supper tables in the Whittier cottage-homes of Great Aunts Gertrude Bennett and Clara Hodgin. (Yes, they knew the Nixon family. Never thought much of the Nixon kids.) 

 As the Knott's Berry Farm franchise grew over decades, gift packs of Knott's top-quality jams and jellies were commonly given to family, friends, and even as company gifts to employees. Knott's products were special, and considered special occasion, gourmet treats. 

Killing Cordelia Knott's Homespun Preserves

But as of 2013, Knott's superb products are no more. Killed by industrial food mega-corporations, hungry to cheapen and undercut great American products for greater profitability. 

Big Food corporate fake-food giant Con Agra bought-out Knott's food products and operations in 1995, pledging to foster the high-quality and good reputation of Knott's Berry Farm foods that had pleased generations of Americans. 

In 2008, though, Con Agra closed Knott's artisan jelly-making plant here in my hometown, and sold Knott's food brands to Ohio-based food giant J.M. Smuckers Co., industrial food corporate owner of Pillsbury, Hungry Jack, Dunkin' Donuts, Jif peanut butter, Crisco shortening, and hundreds of other processed food brands.  

In early 2013, Smuckers announced that Knott's-labeled preserves, jams, and jellies had been discontinued (except for token offerings at the Buena Park theme park).  That all Knott's jams, jellies, preserves and related products would bear the name of Smuckers...  a move that seems logical, considering that the high-quality ingredients and artisan-attention Cordelia Knott lavished on her pure, homespun fare had long since been compromised in favor of fake food sweeteners, additives, and processes.

Today, the ingredients listed for Smuckers Boysenberry Preserves, after boysenberries, are:

• High fructose corn syrup
• Corn syrup
• Fruit pectin
• Citric acid

Great Aunts Gertrude and Clara would be appalled. At their Sunday supper table, they would never have stooped to serve these inferior tasting, processed-food substitutes for Cordelia Knott's fresh, crisp iconic American creations.

In honor of their family tradition of delicious, healthy meals made with fresh, high-quality food, I won't either. 

(Great Aunt Clara is on the far right. Great Aunt Gertrude is standing center, back row. My maternal grandmother, Marie, their younger sister, is standing between my great grandparents. Photo was taken about 1900.)

Oreos, Cheetos, Twinkies, Doritos: Home Baking as Rebellion Against Industrial Food

In 2013, home cooking is a radical act that empowers Americans to bypass the near-total control over the U.S. food supply of about twenty industrial food mega-corporations.  

Michael Pollan, famed journalist of Big Food, observes in New York magazine's April 2013 issue:

"... one of the most striking things I’ve learned is that all traditional food cultures keep populations healthy no matter what they are... The great irony is that now our civilization has managed to construct a new food culture that reliably makes people sick. It’s the first time in history...

 "But the collapse of home cooking is limiting for the food movement. As I watched this local agriculture movement get started, I realized that the farmers’-market movement was only going to get so far if people refused to cook."

Home baking, in particular, is personal rebellion.... creative, craftsy, delicious rebellion... against the hundreds of invisible chemicals, preservatives, cheap fillers, additives, emulsifiers, and artificial colors and flavors gunking up otherwise scrumptious delectables.

That doesn't mean, though, that you need resort to your grandmother's cherished baking cookbooks.  (See above from my mid-20th century cookbook collection, "Ann Pillsbury's Baking Book," which was near-revolutionary when published in 1950 with "more than 400... rolls, cakes, cookies. and pies.") 

Grandmother's baking was comforting and delicious beyond mere words, of course, but her recipes were complex, and a bit too fussy and old-fashioned for most 2013 home bakers.

A brand-new book that I'm crazy about is "Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name Treats"by Casey Barber, a recipe developer and food writer.

Using good-quality ingredients and absolutely no additives or preservatives, this fun book enables all to bake better-quality, equally yummy versions of...

• Oreos
• Mint Millanos
• Animal crackers
• Twinkies
• Wheat Thins
• Peeps
• Cracker Jacks
• McDonald's apple pie
• Pop Tarts
• Cheetos
• Goldfish
• BBQ potato chips

....and, believe it or not, Cool Ranch Doritos.

No, none of these snack vices will be approved by stiff-necked nutritionists.  

But if you or yours have to have it... and we all do now and then... reject the cheaper, chemical-sodden ingredients used by greedy industrial food mega-corporations.  

Join the rebellion by returning to your grandmother's ritual of baking at home.  She'd be so pleased! 

"Salt Sugar Fat" - Stunning Big Food Tactics to Hook, Trick, Harm Americans

"Fascinating" and "horrifying" are two words that come to mind to describe new bestseller "Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us" by Pulitzer Prize journalist Michael Moss.  

"Fascinating" because Moss provides rich, fully-sourced details about industrial food corporations using tobacco-industry tactics in extraordinarily greedy pursuit of profits, public health be damned.  

"Horrifying" for the same reasons. 

"Horrifying" also for the smooth, underhanded ways Big Food has used, and still uses, to fool, trick, and hook all of us to enrichen their corporate coffers while clearly and deliberately hurting our health. 

Please read this brief, illuminating excerpt from the #2 book on last week's New York Times non-fiction bestseller list...

"... in attempting to trace an E.coli-tainted shipment of hamburger that had made hundreds ill and paralyzed a twenty-two-year-old former dance teacher in Minnesota named Stephanie Smith, I found the federal government to be of little help.

"Not only that,  the Department of Agriculture is actually complicit in the meat industry's secrecy.  Citing competitive interests, the public agency refused my requests for the most basic facts, like which slaughterhouses had supplied the meat.

"I ultimately obtained the information from an industry insider, and the smoking-gun document--- a detailed, second-by-second account of the hamburger production process called a "Grinding log"--- showed why the government is so protective of the industry it is supposed to be holding accountable.  

"The burger that Stephanie ate, made by Cargill, had been an amalgam of various grades if neat from different parts of the cow and from multiple slaughterhouses as far away as Uruguay.

"The meat industry, with the blessings of the federal government, was avoiding steps that could make their products safer for consumers.  The E.coli starts in the   slaughterhouses, where feces tainted with the pathogen can contaminate the meat when the hides of cows are pulled off.  

"Yet many of the biggest slaughterhouses would sell their meat only to hamburger makers like Cargill if they agreed NOT to test their meat for E.coli until it was mixed together with shipments from other slaughterhouses. 

"This insulated the slaughterhouses from costly recalls when the pathogen was found in ground beef, but also prevented government officials and the public from tracing the E.coli back to its source.  When it comes to pathogens in the meat industry, ignorance is financial bliss."

I recommend this riveting expose to all Americans: this clever book will help you reclaim a measure of control over your life and health as you understand the nature and origins of the #1 non-genetic factor on your health and longevity. 

Ballpark Food: New Gluttony and County-Fair Grotesqueness

Is ballpark eating now a grotesque indulgence akin to county fair gluttony?  

American tradition embraces juicy hot dogs and cold, cold beer at the ballpark, but when did a stadium visit become another exercise in over-the-top, self-destructive gastronomy?  

Call me naive about stadium food, because the ballpark in my neighborhood, Anaheim Stadium, emphasizes healthy choices including:

• salads at 8 stadium locations
• veggie dogs at 6 locations
• vegetarian panini sandwiches

Joining Anaheim Stadium concessions last year was Melissa's Fresh for You, offering "healthy wraps, salads, fruit cups, hummus and pita chips, gluten-free hot dogs, and gluten-free beer" in four locations. I hear Melissa's black bean burger is scrumptious.  

Sure, the home of the Anaheim Angels of Los Angeles (future 2013 World Series champions!) offers heavy, satisfying fare for fans as pastrami, cheese steak, and meatball sandwiches, and gigantic, deliciously greasy pizzas by-the-slice.  And like every ballpark, Anaheim serves heaping piles of  "nacho" chips dripping with hot, yellow, liquid "cheese" topped with jalapeno peppers and God only knows what else. (Why my husband craves ballpark nachos, I will never, ever know...) 

My point is that, in my recent stadium experiences, the direction of food concessions has been toward healthier fare, less to conspicuous gluttony.

So imagine my delighted surprise when I recently read a headline in my father-in-law's morning newspaper, the Reno Gazette-Journal, touting "Aces Chef to Debut Tasty Treats."  Terrific, I thought. Healthier foods at the stadium for the Reno Aces, a popular Triple-A baseball team affiliated with the Arizona Diamondbacks.  A ballpark with an actual chef on staff! 

Delighted surprise until I read the article, that is. Among the new tasty treats? A foot-long hot dog smothered in chili and Fritos.  Pretzels slathered with "beer cheese." (Liquid beer cheese? What is beer cheese?) And sweet potato tater tots, deep-fried of course.  

A single Google search of stadium foods turned up, at the Texas Rangers' ballpark, a $26, two-foot hot dog weighing a full pound, dripping with that yellow liquid cheese substance, jalapenos, onions, and likely whatever else suits your food fantasies.  (See photo above.)

Has ballpark eating become the newest venue of rebellious, indigestion-inducing indulgence akin to county fair in-your-face gluttony as entertainment?  If so, shouldn't hungry fans at least be told the calorie, fat, salt, and sugar content of their food options? 

I believe in freedom of individual choice, yet recognize that in a responsible, safe society, individual freedoms must be balanced with public responsibilities and privileges. In the case of stadium foods and similar, public health concerns must be weighed against individual choice.  

The fast food industry is required by law to disclose the nutritional content of its menus, so that the public can make informed choices.  

The time is overdue to also mandate nutritional content disclosures of the tens of millions of meals and snacks sold annually at U.S. stadiums and ballparks.  Take me out to the ballpark, but please, tell me what I'm eating.