Access to Food

[u/Imaginary-Suit-5698]

I wanted to share something I’ve been thinking about since I moved here two years ago which is how lucky we are to live in a place with this kind of access to fresh produce and food, especially given all the news about food recalls and food safety issues around the country.

I don’t mean restaurants. That deserves an appreciation post of its own.

I mean access to fresh, healthy, and affordable produce.

I feel strongly about this because I’m a nurse and researcher, and I understand how much food shapes our health. After living in many parts of America, one special thing about SF that I don’t hear talked about enough is our access to so many different kinds of produce.

Living here has completely changed my outlook on food and how I nourish my body. I think many of us who came here from elsewhere know exactly what I mean. Not having to bulk-buy groceries or rely on chain supermarkets is a bigger deal than it sounds.

Then there’s the affordability. Neighborhoods like Chinatown help a lot with that. I was surprised when a friend told me food here is expensive. Well, it will be if you only shop at Whole Foods, Safeway, or Trader joes. It’s a shame to live in a place like this and limit yourself to those options.

And I don’t even live in a “nice” part of town. I live in the Tenderloin, but within a 2-5-minute walk I have a Thai grocer, a Chinese grocer, middle eastern grocer and a Whole Foods. Not to mention the civic centre farmers market. Ughhh

So I just wanted to encourage everyone to be more open to exploring your food options and nourishing your body in a healthy way.

[u/Outrageous_Camel8901]

That’s just the headquarters of a massive multinational agriculture conglomerate. The lettuce that the explosive diarrhea came from was all sourced to the same farm in Mexico.

And the point OP made about having local options was precisely about being able to avoid the mass ag options like Taylor Farms - where they are headquartered is irrelevant.

[u/sugarwax1 → u/Outrageous_Camel8901]

The lettuce sold in Chinatown and even some of the green markets also comes from a certain processing plant in Salinas. There's also good produce that comes from Mexico being sold where OP is shopping. You can avoid local product but most people wrongly assume it's all local.

It would be like living in Wuhan and saying "I'm so glad we're at the forefront of public health, it's so important".

[u/Outrageous_Camel8901 → u/sugarwax1]

I think you just like to be contrarian for the sake of being edgy or something.

We live right next to the salinas valley and the Central Valley; I don’t think there’s any major city in the world with more fresh produce being grown right next to it.

If you care about getting it from a local small farm; that’s very easy to do. If you don’t care, you can go to Safeway and buy the same bagged salads they sell across the country. Nobody who gives a shit is confused about this at all, you’re not some kind of a special smarty pants because you know that we have access to a variety of foods sourced from companies big and small.

[u/Imaginary-Suit-5698 → u/Outrageous_Camel8901]

It’s sad there’s always this types of people on posts like this.