As I am peeling and cutting up a Kiwi Fruit for my daughter, and then putting some pomegranate seeds(?) on my cereal, it suddenly hit me how many “new” foods are around that weren’t known/popular when I was a kid – and my mother was more of the earthy-crunchy type that was always trying new stuff.
Thomas Friedman in The World is Flat wrote about how technology has brought us all closer and closer together. And if you stop and think about all the technology in your life over the last 20 years, the pace of change and innovation is somewhat frightening/exciting. But I never thought about it around food.
I probably should have though.
A few years ago I read The Food Explorer that describes the true adventures of David Fairchild, a turn-of-the-19th-century food explorer who traveled the globe and introduced diverse crops like avocados, mangoes, seedless grapes—and thousands more—to the American plate. But I guess food and other commodities are incremental changes to us – we try them once, then maybe again, and eventually some become staples – versus technology changes which are more monumental in their change/impact.
So my rambling for today is really about stopping and thinking about what you are eating… how new is it to your culture or experience, and if it is new, why didn’t you know about it sooner. (and if you are wondering about that Kiwi Fruit – well, here’s a great marketing story about how it got to the USA)
Not Really a Boomer 