Corporate America - Can it be stopped?

[bleachboy]

Wal-Mart is just plain evil. Here in Nashville, they wanted to dig up a prehistoric Indian burial ground to build a SUPER Wal-Mart. Just unbelievable.

As much as it pains us all to admit it, the reason you won't get Americans to stop eating their McDonald's is that many Americans frankly don't give a damn about fine cuisine. And they won't give a damn no matter how much you "educate" them because they're simply not into it.

I frequent TimeZone, a message board for watch-enthusiasts. Frankly, I'm shocked and appalled that many of you are wearing quartz watches instead of the vastly more interesting mechanical models. And I'm not being facetious, it really shocks me. However, many of you don't care.. at all. Nor do many of you want to pay three times as much for a less-reliable watch that requires more maintenance just because it has more soul.

Similarly, the guy who heads out to Applebee's for the fucking repulsive looking Bleu Cheese Steak Skillet really, really doesn't know or care a whit about anything going on in the minds of most eGulleters.

I bet we have all taken a friend out to a very good restaurant, one with delightful, inventive cuisine, and heard the dreaded words: "I'll have the filet, well-done please."

[Mayhaw Man]

Wal-Mart is just plain evil. Here in Nashville, they wanted to dig up a prehistoric Indian burial ground to build a SUPER Wal-Mart. Just unbelievable.

Maybe you should have let them, it might have been the beginning of the end for Wal Mart.

Here in New Orleans we dug up one of the older cemetaries in town to build the Superdome, and look what has happened to the Saints over the last 35 years. If that is not a curse, I don't know what is.

[pork]

"I'll have the filet, well-done please."

"Red juice comes out when I push on it."

"Well, don't push on it."

[jo-mel]

I have to confess that I really don't know what a Wal-Mart is. (not a Paris Hilton confession) I live in NJ, and I guess there is one here, but I've never been in it. Is it the sort of mega-store for "one- stop-shopping"? Where you can get clothes, food, housewares and appliances? Is a KMart part of the system?

From what I've read here, I don't think I'd like it. But then -- I'm not shopper and stay away from places with over-sized shopping carts, and parking lots that need a shuttle.

[bleachboy]

I have to confess that I really don't know what a Wal-Mart is.  (not a Paris Hilton confession)  I live in NJ, and I guess there is one here, but I've never been in it. Is it the sort of mega-store for "one- stop-shopping"?  Where you can get clothes, food, housewares and appliances?  Is a KMart part of the system?

Wal-Mart is even more obscene than K-Mart. The categories listed at the top of the Wal-Mart website will give you a good idea. "Super" Wal-Marts also contain grocery stores. So yes, you can buy clothes, a "diamond ring", a fern, and a steak all at the same place. And it will all be super cheap and -- no big surprise here -- manufactured by slave labor in third world countries.

Wal-Mart is constantly under fire for it's egregious mistreatment of employees, local communities, the environment, and suppliers. Doing a Google search for "Wal-Mart sucks" should give you a good idea.

[Fat Guy]

Wal-Mart is even more obscene than K-Mart.

....

Wal-Mart is constantly under fire for it's egregious mistreatment of employees, local communities, the environment, and suppliers.

When my father was alive, and when the Soviet Union was alive too, he used to participate in a program for relocation of dissidents. One of his duties was to give them a welcome tour of America, which he used to accomplish in his white 1962 Cadillac convertible. One of the highlights of any such orientation tour would be visiting the chain megastores (of course they were smaller then than they are now) in Northern New Jersey. My father reported that virtually every one of these former Soviet citizens would marvel at these places and ask a variant of the exact same question: "Anyone can shop here?"

Most of the world's people, walking into a Super Wal-Mart, Big-K, Target Fresh, or major chain supermarket, would probably say they are among humankind's greatest accomplishments.

As with most anything, there are pros and cons to the chain supermarkets and megastores and megastore-cum-supermarkets. Those who refuse to recognize the pros of these stores are doomed to the sidelines, where they can sit with little protest signs. Maybe they can fend off a store or two, forcing them to build 20 miles farther up the road so the poor people in their communities can spend an extra hour going there. But we are in the age of the megastore and that's not likely to change.

So again, I think the rational approach is a level-headed assessment of the pros and cons. Those who stand up for employee's rights, the environment, fair business practices, etc., are making a productive contribution to the dynamic: accountability is critical when dealing with mega-corporations. But those who oppose these stores altogether are, I think, in denial.

Of course the least relevant people to any chain megastore are the elites who dispense advice but don't actually shop at their stores. And the vehement opposition from so many elites tends to be, as ExtraMSG points out, irredeemably aesthetic in nature. Because ultimately the people who shop at these stores want these stores, and nothing is going to change that. What may be changeable are popular tastes and values, for example I think people can be taught to choose quality and flavor over convenience and cheapness, or at least to weigh quality and flavor as factors when making purchasing decisions. And if that can be taught, the retailers will adapt -- happily. Pretty much any other means of trying to force the issue is likely to fail, because in the end the consumer (aka the voter) will get what the consumer wants.

[hillvalley]

Also, I think people in this country are used to their food budget (especially non restaurant) being a much small percentage of their income than many places in western Europe for example.

Probably because we pay much more on health care, and presumably education, and get less generous social welfare benefits of all kinds.

Yet our health care and educational systems are failing your children.

It is interesting that people shop at places such as Walmart and Home Depot for the lower prices and then complain about how Americans are losing jobs to other countries, where labor is dirt cheap. Granted I know very little about economics, but this seems a simple case of supply and demand. Consumers demand lower prices and therefor the supply of jobs goes to where retailers can pay little and keep prices down. Not to mention how many jobs are loss to "self checkout".

I also want to bring attention to the advertising gimmicks that retailers now use with children. Every movie geared toward children has thousands of tie-ins, from books at book stores such as B&N to "prizes" found in kids meals at McD's to cereal at Safeway. Not to mention all the toys at Walmart, etc. Parents don't stand a chance against these companies. Children today are bombared with advertising in a manner that previous generations have not dealt with.

While I think it is safe to assume that parents who read this board expose their children to a variety of different cuisines, vegetables, etc., most parents do not. Often because they do not have the time or money. The amount of prepackaged food that children eat today is mind blowing. It will be interesting to see, in 20-30 years, what the impact of eating more Big Macs and less veggies has on the health of children today.

[fresco]

Most industrialized countries are already seeing children develop health problems, including diabetes, that were usually only seen in adults, and then most often in late middle age. Bad diet is part of it, but lack of exercise is also to blame.

[Mayhaw Man]

One of his duties was to give them a welcome tour of America, which he used to accomplish in his white 1962 Cadillac convertible.

As with most anything, there are pros and cons to the chain supermarkets and megastores and megastore-cum-supermarkets. Those who refuse to recognize the pros of these stores are doomed to the sidelines, where they can sit with little protest signs. Maybe they can fend off a store or two, forcing them to build 20 miles farther up the road so the poor people in their communities can spend an extra hour going there. But we are in the age of the megastore and that's not likely to change.

So again, I think the rational approach is a level-headed assessment of the pros and cons. Those who stand up for employee's rights, the environment, fair business practices, etc., are making a productive contribution to the dynamic: accountability is critical when dealing with mega-corporations. But those who oppose these stores altogether are, I think, in denial.

I am pretty sure you don't have it anymore, but it is too bad that car is not still around. I wouldn't mind taking a tour of Northern NJ in a 62 Caddy Convertible.

And you are completely correct about living in the age of the Megastore. They are here to stay and in some ways (many of them stated above) we are better off for it. Not everything they sell is junk, much of thier stock consists of things that sell for much higher prices elsewhere and represent legitimate bargains for price savvy consumers.

OTOH, I (and clearly many others) do have some serious and legitimate concerns about Wal Mart's treatment of their employees. Low wages, and poor working conditions are not things that should come into common discussion when one is talking about the largest employer in the US. Clearly elitists can choose not to shop there and no one will be hurt (1.5 billion in 4 days is pretty good cheese even without elitists) . And people like me can shop there selectively (I don't buy meat and produce there,, but it has nothing to do with politics, just a quest for some better table fare) and get what I need because I know it to be a good value. I am not naive enough to believe that by not shopping there I will somehow cause positive change.

And thanks to Pork ( God, I love that name) for splitting off this thread. It has, so far, been mostly fascinating.

Edited, once again, because I type too fast

[Fat Guy]

I am pretty sure you don't have it anymore, but it is too bad that car is not still around. I wouldn't mind taking a tour of Northern NJ in a 62 Caddy Convertible.

That's the car, though ours were always white. We had maybe three of them, all '61 or '62, when I was a kid. Even in the late 1970s and early 1980s they seemed like old cars with those big-ass tail fins!

[Mayhaw Man]

That's the car, though ours were always white.

White Russians?

[megc]

OTOH, I (and clearly many others) do have some serious and legitimate concerns about Wal Mart's treatment of their employees. Low wages, and poor working conditions are not things that should come into common discussion when one is talking about the largest employer in the US. Clearly elitists can choose not to shop there and no one will be hurt (1.5 billion in 4 days is pretty good cheese even without elitists) . And people like me can shop there selectively (I don't buy meat and produce there,, but it has nothing to do with politics, just a quest for some better table fare) and get what I need because I know it to be a good value. I am not naive enough to believe that by not shopping there I will somehow cause positive change.

I'm with you there with the concernt about Wal Mart's treatment of their employees. I don't think they are unionized and I know there has been mention recently of a class action suits against WM regarding the treatment of women employees with regard to hiring and promoting, among other things.

I think "value" means different things to different people. I don't consider it to be limited strictly to price. B

I can't spend more than 10 minutes in a place like Wal Mart or Home Depot. I feel overwhelmed, there is so much in there. How do people spend an entire afternoon there?

[megc]

OTOH, I (and clearly many others) do have some serious and legitimate concerns about Wal Mart's treatment of their employees. Low wages, and poor working conditions are not things that should come into common discussion when  one is talking about the largest employer in the US. Clearly elitists can choose not to shop there and no one will be hurt (1.5 billion in 4 days is pretty good cheese even without elitists) . And people like me can shop there selectively (I don't buy meat and produce there,, but it has nothing to do with politics, just a quest for some better table fare) and get what I need because I know it to be a good value. I am not naive enough to believe that by not shopping there I will somehow cause positive change.

I'm with you there with the concernt about Wal Mart's treatment of their employees. I don't think they are unionized and I know there has been mention recently of a class action suits against WM regarding the treatment of women employees with regard to hiring and promoting, among other things.

I think "value" means different things to different people. I don't consider it to be limited strictly to price. But that's just me.

I can't spend more than 10 minutes in a place like Wal Mart or Home Depot. I feel overwhelmed, there is so much in there. How do people spend an entire afternoon there? I was in a local Super Stop N' Shop last week and found it overwhelming, too. So much there! I'm used to shopping at smaller grocieries or at the local farmstand (a bastion of sanity in my area). Incredible amounts of stuff in this super, but not much real variety on the level that I was looking. I guess a lot of Americans want 50 different kinds of chips. I've known a number of people who've gone through the Peace Corps and when they returned have to reacclimate to the amount of stuff in a supermarket. One woman I knew broke down in tears in the cereal aisle, overwhelmed by the choices there.

I'm not saying that those choices in a regular supermarket are to my liking, though. Since moving from Berkeley, I've had to get used to a different concept of variety here on LI. There's a lot to choose from a mediocre pool of products. Berkeley spoiled me.

(apologies for the accidental double post.)

[jo-mel]

I'm with you there with the concernt about Wal Mart's treatment of their employees. I don't think they are unionized and I know there has been mention recently of a class action suits against WM regarding the treatment of women employees with regard to hiring and promoting, among other things.

Isn't there a current TV ad/promo on Wal-Mart and satisfied jobs with Wal-Mart ---especially women in managerial positions?

[ExtraMSG]

Of course the least relevant people to any chain megastore are the elites who dispense advice but don't actually shop at their stores. And the vehement opposition from so many elites tends to be, as ExtraMSG points out, irredeemably aesthetic in nature. Because ultimately the people who shop at these stores want these stores, and nothing is going to change that. What may be changeable are popular tastes and values, for example I think people can be taught to choose quality and flavor over convenience and cheapness, or at least to weigh quality and flavor as factors when making purchasing decisions. And if that can be taught, the retailers will adapt -- happily. Pretty much any other means of trying to force the issue is likely to fail, because in the end the consumer (aka the voter) will get what the consumer wants.

Very good points, FG, and not just because you agree with me on a point.

One thing that people forget, I think, is that Wal-Mart and a vibrant downtown are not mutually exclusive. I've seen this happen in many towns. Sure, Wal-Mart replaces often long-existing little markets or clothiers or shoe stores. But a lot of these places, frankly, sucked. They were over-priced in comparison because they had to be and offered less selection. I grew up in these types of towns. I saw when a "real" grocery store opened and a megamart opened. Usually the small family-runned stores offered the same items the megastores were offering, just in a smaller venue with higher prices.

Someone talked about driving 45 minutes to go to an old-fashioned hardware store. Are these guys making their own equipment by hand or something? What's the comparative advantage in going to this little store? Do they have anything Home Depot doesn't sell cheaper? Do they have anything better than Sears' Craftsman?

A lot of these little places are just barely scraping by, too. The owners aren't making any more than a manager or assistant manager would be making at Wal-Mart but they don't get paid time off or insurance benefits. And do you think most of these small businesses were paying their employees, often family members, more than minimum wage or offer any decent benefits? I can understand the nostalgia for these small, family-run businesses, just like I can understand the nostalgia for an agrarian society. But I think people's conception of these systems' objective benefits is generally faulty or at least clouded by sentiment.

What happens in these little towns (or even big towns with sprawl like here in Portland) is that over time businesses are often lured back in or businesses adapt to lure customers. They become more specialized, become boutiques, offer truly high-end or unique products and services. Or ethnic businesses move in and create a different community. So people who want cheap have their Wal-Marts, and people who want good have their boutiques. And the cheap stuff is cheaper than it ever was and the good stuff is better than it ever was.

The new owners of these boutiques have better margins and make a real living. The people who are working Wal-Mart are still making minimum wage, but have the benefits that a large corporation can supply, and the managers are making decent wages, have the ability to advance (something that can never happen in small businesses) and even move to a different city, state, or country.

I'm not saying there aren't real problems that develop. Some downtowns just turn into such crapholes that they are pretty much lost forever, though I think this is usually accompanied by the loss of significant industries. Owners of these businesses do lose their businesses, often. A certain sense of community is often lost forever.

But I don't think it's good to support the status quo just because you're afraid of change. Change happens. We can't just make the manufacture of cars illegal because we don't want the manufacturers of horse-drawn buggies to go out of business. As you move towards a horizon there is always a shadow horizon behind you that fades and is lost. Doesn't mean that you stop sailing towards those new discoveries.

I counted 9 different types of apples the other day at Safeway. There were probably 10 or more types of greens. Probably 50 or more types of bread, including freshly baked rustic breads. They had cheeses ranging from your typical Lucerne and Tillamook cheddars to fetas and gorgonzolas and ricottas to Parmeggiano-Reggiano. There were a dozen or more types of fish, plus shellfish and crustaceans. 10-15 kinds of bacon. Sevaral cuts of beef, lamb, and pork. Chicken, turkey, duck, goose. You can find this in most any small town in America now. I think that's pretty cool.

[fresco]

You're right about many of the stores wal-mart displaces being terrible. In fact, as this piece shows, a bunch of communities in Canada have actually submitted formal petitions beseeching Wal-Mart to come to town.

The legal challenges, by and large, have come from Loblaws and other large corporations, which have tried various tactics to try to keep the competition out.

http://web.ask.com/redir?bpg=http%3a%2f%2f...ticle.jhtml&o=0

[JSD]

Towns could have stood up and said "Hell no, we're not putting our old neighbors and friends out of business" but they did not.

It's funny you should say this. My town did try to prevent a WalMart, but WalMart sued successfully and forced their way in where they were not welcome.

I can't say I've never been to WalMart, but I've never had a pleasant shopping experience. I don't mean that the clerks are rude or studid, but that the merchandise is usually such low quality that I am disgusted and angered that decent quality (not fancy or gourmet) is unavailable. This is just so that the store can sell toasters or whatever at a few cents less than anyone else. Right here on this website people have bragged about how cheap they've bought their toasters. This is the mentality that has made WalMart #1.

[ExtraMSG]

Interesting article, Fresco. One of the things I like about Wal-Mart is that they often first go to small towns. Here in Oregon, they had stores in many 10-15k person towns before they had one in Portland. We just got our first Wal-Mart in Portland a couple years ago. Our first Super Wal-Mart is actually the one about a mile from my house in the suburb of Vancouver, WA, and opened less than a year ago.

That means they're often bringing shopping variety and prices unheard of in these small towns. These little towns often have no jobs for older folks, too, and many of the minorities are migrant workers. And even though Wal-Mart isn't a great job, it's better than picking fruit, and it's available all year. These small town people who need "everyday low prices" and jobs of any kind get them because of Wal-Mart.

[Fat Guy]

Usually the small family-runned stores offered the same items the megastores were offering, just in a smaller venue with higher prices.

When I lived in Burlington, Vermont -- one of the most activist towns in the US and one of the few that successfully kept a major mall out -- I lived on Caroline Street, a working-class residential street with an old-style grocery (filthy, overpriced, rude service, family-owned) right on the corner called Longe Bros. Market. The mall, and several other stores that had been kept out of Burlington and South Burlington, went a few miles up or down the interstate, either to Williston or Essex, so people without cars or time had to shop at Longe Bros. When I would go out to the big stores in Essex, I would sometimes see the owner of Longe Bros. buying shopping carts full of stuff, which he would take back to his store and sell for 2-3 times the price. So there may be ways in which Wal-Mart and the supermarkets are bad for the labor force, but what happened in Burlington is an example of how well-intended (at least they think so) elites can fuck the poor just as badly as the most exploitative employer: by driving the malls and megastores too far out of town for the poor to have access to them, so the poor have to shop at the overpriced inferior local stores.

Likewise, many poor and pretty-low-income working-class folks live in or near downtown Burlington. Yet there is no real supermarket downtown. Instead, all the hippie crunchy types got the city to negotiate a deal with an upscale pseudo-organic Whole Foods-ish coop-type place, which they proudly proclaimed would offer wonderful food downtown. The evil chain supermarket was sent packing. Needless to say, you'll rarely see anybody shopping at this fancy place with food stamps. Instead, they're buying most of their stuff at minimarts and the pharmacy, or taking the bus out to the strip where there are real supermarkets.

[Pan]

I frequent TimeZone, a message board for watch-enthusiasts. Frankly, I'm shocked and appalled that many of you are wearing quartz watches instead of the vastly more interesting mechanical models. And I'm not being facetious, it really shocks me. However, many of you don't care.. at all. Nor do many of you want to pay three times as much for a less-reliable watch that requires more maintenance just because it has more soul.

Count me among the "many." The thing I most need from a clock (I actually don't wear watches) is reliability. Oversleeping for a concert or a class I'm supposed to teach, just because my clock stopped or won't ring, is a nightmare.

I don't think that "less-reliable watches with soul" make a good analogy with food-buying patterns. I doubt that any of us are looking for unreliable or highly inconsistent food purveyors. Are you?

[Fat Guy]

I appreciate the timepiece situation. Choosing a timepiece exclusively for reliability is similar to choosing food solely for cheapness: it prioritizes one factor ahead of all others, to the detriment of craftsmanship. Saying a timepiece is all about accuracy is like saying food is all about nutrition; it ignores the parts of the phenomenon that give actual pleasure and enrich us as human beings.

That being said, attractive timepieces are simply not as central -- not even 1% as central -- to human existence as culinary culture. So while I see the analogy, there's no comparison in terms of significance and impact on society.

[Pan]

Also, I think people in this country are used to their food budget (especially non restaurant) being a much small percentage of their income than many places in western Europe for example.

Probably because we pay much more on health care, and presumably education, and get less generous social welfare benefits of all kinds.

Yet our health care and educational systems are failing your children.

I have no children.

But otherwise, you'll get no argument here.

To keep this on-topic, however, I'd like to know to what extent corporations are involved in the delivery of food in school lunchrooms in Europe and how good the food is in various European countries. Perhaps that should be another thread though, come to think of it...

[bleachboy]

I appreciate the timepiece situation. Choosing a timepiece exclusively for reliability is similar to choosing food solely for cheapness: it prioritizes one factor ahead of all others, to the detriment of craftsmanship. Saying a timepiece is all about accuracy is like saying food is all about nutrition; it ignores the parts of the phenomenon that give actual pleasure and enrich us as human beings.

That's the point I was trying to make, I think - the thread was about surpassing mediocrity.

The folks on eGullet are, by and large, the type of people that do make a distinction between good food and great food. However, most people aren't, and the majority of those that aren't interested in haute cuisine (or even anything better than Applebee's) seem to have no desire whatsoever to broaden their food horizons. Certainly no more than the average Joe cares to explore the world of mechanical wristwatches.

I'm not saying that I get these people, just what I've observed...

(I almost forgot what this thread was about... all the Wal-Mart talk distracted me!)

[megc]

I'm with you there with the concernt about Wal Mart's treatment of their employees. I don't think they are unionized and I know there has been mention recently of a class action suits against WM regarding the treatment of women employees with regard to hiring and promoting, among other things.

Isn't there a current TV ad/promo on Wal-Mart and satisfied jobs with Wal-Mart ---especially women in managerial positions?

If they are running, I haven't seen them. But it is possible.

After a quick search, it looks like Wal Mart is involved with a number of lawsuits:

Here

and

Here

This article talks about grocery unions, here.

"Unlike many of the traditional supermarket chains, Wal-Mart is not unionized, and efforts to organize its workers have failed. The flash point now is with supermarkets, as Wal-Mart rolls out more Supercenters having a full-line supermarket under one roof with a general merchandise store. Wal-Mart sells food at its warehouse format Sam's Clubs, its Neighborhood Markets traditional supermarkets and at regular Wal-Mart stores."

Now I know what a Sam's Club is. Hadn't a clue before.

And I stand corrected: Walmart *could* see a class action lawsuit regarding women being discriminated against with regard to pay and promotion, at least at the writing of this article, here.

Anyway, this thread has caused me to think even further about my value judgements with regard to the food choices and shopping decisions I make. It's incoherent if I try to write about it, but things are clarifying in there. I was trying to remember what event or series of events turned myself around from the bland 1970s midwestern diet I grew up with, to a more sophisticated view of the world via food. Food is now linked in some ways to politics and social issues in my life. I'm a lefty from Berkeley (my adopted home) so what do you expect.

One conclusion I came to was that olives were part of the beginning of the end of my nonchalant attitude toward food and its bearing on my life. Olives - real ones with pits, in brine and herbs, opened my eyes, and began to realize that I had a choice with regard to my food decisions. It's very empowering.

[Mayhaw Man]

To keep this on-topic, however, I'd like to know to what extent corporations are involved in the delivery of food in school lunchrooms in Europe and how good the food is in various European countries. Perhaps that should be another thread though, come to think of it...

Pan,

I don't know about European school lunchrooms but I know a hell of a bunch about school lunchrooms in the US (at least my part of it) and the food is as bad or worse than anything that you can get from Burger King or McDonalds. I am certainly positive that readers will write in with tales of the fabulous gourmet delights offered to their children at school, but you won't hear me responding because the stuff offered to kids here is Crap. School lunches are a big part of the equation that makes it so hard to get people to shop for and eat better food. They are part of the conditioning process that gets the average person to lower his or her standards to next to nothing.

(oh boy, look out, you hit a nerve and I'm on a roll )

When school officials are asked what the lunch for the day is and they list:

Red Beans and rice (everywhere on Mondays, 1 tiny piece of sausage )

Chicken Nuggets

Pizza

Hamburgers

Fish Sticks

When I was a kid my elementary school had a lunch room that was as good as plenty of meat and three places around our town (and there were some damn good ones). We had homemade rolls every day. Real food, chicken spaghetti (made with actual cut up chickens and not "Tysons Processed Chickenlike Food Fodder for Tykes"), mystery meat that you were reasonably sure was meat and that the gravy it was swimming in consisted of flour and juice from the meat, not cornstarch and "Gravy Mix for Institutions #23". I could go on and on. My wife's High School for a couple of years (because of a bizarrely enforced and even more strangely executed Federal Desegragation Order) was Carroll High School in Monroe, Louisiana. It is a historically (or at least in 1975) black high school and their lunch was so good that people used to sneak IN to the school to eat. I know. I did it. More than once. They had some ladies whipping it up in that kitchen to a point where they could have easily given Frymaster Austin Leslie and run for his money.

We ate pretty much what many of us would have been eating at home. It was good, solid, nothing fancy food (most of you would see the entire menu and think that you had fallen into Soul Food Heaven) but we were savvy enough even as elementary school students to know it was good. Hamburgers were served as a treat for special events, and oddly, I remember them as being dry and soy like. Most kids had no clue what a pizza was. All of us knew what catfish was and it damn sure didn't come in a nugget. But it came in a couple of big golden slabs just like clockwork every Friday during Lent.

I do not remember a single fat kid in my elementary or Jr. High. It was not because any of us were starving and many of us ate like horses. The difference is that all of the prepared foods that most children eat today were not available to us. Sure we ate a burger occasionally, but we didn't even have a McDonalds until 1974 and it was closed on Sunday (so was everywhere else that served food, Blue Laws). We didn't have a real pizza joint until Shakey's came to town in the early 70s.

Kids ate at home and the food was prepared there.

I am not being romantic about this. Everybody's Mom couldn't cook and some people had food at home that was not as good as what they ate at school, but it was not full of stuff some food chemist shot in it to make it look better or last longer. It was just basic food and that is what everybody in this country ate for the first three quarters of the twentieth century.

Then along came two wage earner households, double car notes and two income families. Nobody has any time to cook and even if they did have the time they wouldn't do it because the little time they have off is needed to do other things.

Mom sees on tv that the other Moms are picking up a big bucket o'chicken at the Colonel's and she thinks that it is a fine idea and she does it too. Pretty soon the kids grow up and that is all they have ever eaten. Worse than that, by not growing up in a household where somebody cooked they have no clue what to get at the store and even if they get that far, they wouldn't know how to cook it. So now, a large percentage of this country in their late 20s and early 30s not only doesn't know how cook, they don't have a clue what a healthy diet is. So their kids are really screwed.

Pretty soon kids are just going to be born with a couch attached to their ass, a video controller in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other, hooked up to an IV of some damn soft drink or another. These are the people you hear at work discussing the new Sizzler Plate at TGI McAppleback Grill and Eatery with Sushi. They think the Sizzler Plate is high dining. Throw in a machine poured frozen Margarita and it is as good as it can ever hope to get for them. Those folks of the lost culinary generation love TGI McAppleback the way that some people love a big heaping dish of Foam at El Bulli.

Disclaimer to avoid slagging:

This is not to say that everyone is like this. Clearly almost no one on this website is like the sad people that I just launched on. But we are a very small minority in a world full of people who just don't care what they eat and unless someone (that would be us) does something to help change the way that it is, it will continue to get worse. It doesn't take too much to help. I helped a couple of kids do some baking last night while their parents (my best friends) were in the city trying out John Besh's Steakhouse at Harrah's in New Orleans ( I really want to go. I really admired his work at Artesia, especially since I could walk there). We baked a simple yellow layer cake and made three minute icing to go on it (man I love that stuff, it doesn't keep, but whatever you put it on doesn't last long enough to worry about). They did all the work and I kept an eye on them while I watched LSU destroy Georgia and wreck the BCS in the process. They had fun. They learned alot. They also will now know how simple and quick it is to make something from scratch and I am honored they let me help (it all started out with them needing some butter and I just horned in from there, but I think that they enjoyed it). Their cake got motherly raves and that counts for a bunch.

We are going into the end of the second and the beginning of the third generation in the US that has no clue about good food. Things must change if for no other reason just because it will eventually break our health care system.

That's enough for now. Sorry Pan. You asked a good question. I am sure someone will answer it. Thanks for listening.