The way a culture eats and what they eat is very telling to what the culture values and fears. Visiting Spain, I was baffled by the treatment and handling of fruit and vegetables for sale. In America and other places, fruit and vegetables are sold in markets and grocery stores in open bins to be selected. In Spain, the fruit and vegetables are sold in ways that do not allow the customer to touch the fruit before they buy it.
One way the fruit and vegetables are sold is on a Styrofoam tray covered with plastic wrap. The items are organized in a set weight amount with the price and barcode on top. These are usually arranged along the open but refrigerated edges of the grocery store where we might usually see meat or dairy. This allows the customer to know exactly how much it will cost, but does not let the customer choose the exact items they want, feel the items for ripeness or choose not to buy Styrofoam and plastic when they just want some yummy natural food!
Another choice is to go to the fruit section where you will find a counter with all the fruit and vegetables behind it. You can ask a worker for what you want. If you ask for five tomatoes, the will ask you when you want to eat them, do you want to eat them all at the same time or over a week? They will choose the ones that are at the right stage of ripeness for your needs. This service has it’s benefits if the customer does not know how to tell if foods are ripe, but this way the customers still cannot choose their own things by their own senses. Spain’s determination to not allow people to touch the fruit and vegetables before they buy them must be a fear of germs. I wonder if this causes other heightened food-germ sensitivities or food issues.
Personally, I take great pleasure in being in the fruit and vegetable section of any grocery store. It is the closest I get to being on a farm in my daily life. Being surrounded by all the beautiful food, touching it’s skin, seeing the intricate designs of nature, smelling the sweet fresh scents is a weekly form of pure, simple pleasure. To choose to take away this connection with food is very disturbing to me. Fruits and vegetables are the food available that is sold closest to its harvested state. Deliberately denying people physical access to it breaks the connection between the person and that food. Being connected to the food we eat and where it comes from is essential to create sustainable health for our bodies and our planet. Taking food from its harvested state and sandwiching it between Styrofoam and plastic wrap opposes the foods natural energy and stifles it. Treating fruit and vegetables like a processed food makes them less attractive to buy and causes people to eat less of them. I guess the food that isn’t bought just dies a quiet death in the ready-made plastic coffins.
