Ignorance isn't always bliss.

I never gave much thought to the farming history that my family has. Growing up I just assumed that everyone got to visit their grandparents on a huge farm, ride with grandpa on the combine, and watch the crop dusting plane swoop low over the field. I had never really thought that this was a world that some people never saw, and understood. I finally realized this was not common when one of my friends asked if all those rows of corn were corn on the cob and if my grandparents sold vegetables on the side of the road. It is the personal connection I had to this farm, which has harvested my ignorance.  I now know that my ignorance is no worse than theirs.

It is with this same ignorance that I have gained irresponsible eating habits.  Never before did I take time to actually look into what I was putting into my body: partially due to over confidence in honest marketing, but mostly due to lack of knowledge. It is only with proper education (which most people do not have access to) that I have come to understand the many harmful and somewhat sickening things that I have eaten over my lifetime.

A couple days ago I was in Wal-Mart and I was looking for Guacamole. I asked two different people where I could find it and they pointed me in two different directions. Both of them lead me to jars that read “Guacamole” on the front of them, with a green substance inside. I took both of the jars and turned them around to read what was in them. Both of them had a list of about 50 ingredients. Then, I saw the words “Contains less than 2% Avocado”.  What the hell is the other 98 percent then? A lot of soybean oil, things I can’t pronounce, and green dye. Disgusting.  Pre-food education, I probably would have happily bought the jar of pseudo-guacamole and not thought twice about it. However, I took myself to Kroger and bought real Guacamole. Feeling accomplished, I ate almost the whole thing in one night. Baby steps, right?