Yesterday there were Neisms in the supermarket. Round, orange and bittersweet, the fruits of the loquat of Japan are one of those little miracles that gives us May. And I know it is an anecdote: a handful of thousands of tons of an absurdly seasonal product distributed by the supermarkets of five or six Spanish provinces. But it made me smile, first; And frown, later.
Because yesterday, looking at those two bars in the middle of the ocean of fruits and vegetables, I realize that we almost always eat the same. Yes, a varied and balanced diet: provided we do not get out of the same 20 or 30 fruit and vegetable references.
There is a battle in the world of distribution forever, let’s eat the same; so that our diet is the most standardized the same; so that there are no media in the supermarket.
It may seem exaggerated, but there are examples to thousands. If we think about it, the idea of being able to go down to the store and find avocados whatever the time of the year is almost magical. The flowering of avocado in Spain occurs in April. Also in March and May, but especially in April. The collection and marketing, on the other hand, goes from October to March. What happens in the spring and summer months? Where do the avocados that fill the shelves of the supermarkets come from?
The answer is that of Peru. Of other sites, but fundamentally from Peru. The market and globalization has achieved something incredibly difficult: to be able to have seasonal products throughout the year. Sometimes, bringing them from other areas of the world (as in the case of avocado); Other times, looking for macrovarities that allow their cultivation throughout the year. That is what happens with potatoes (extra -time, early, half -season and late) and tomatoes.
The Jungle Law. In this sense, international trade and international coordination select products with the ability to generate sufficient demand to ensure its supply during the year is profitable.
As not all products allow it, nor all consumer groups are large enough: the current result is that many traditional products can only be found at the local level and those of great consumption fill the shelves of half -world supermarkets.
In our pantry there is a fierce knife fight from which only the most suitable products for these plethoric market societies come out.
Is such a standardized diet ‘a good idea? Without a doubt, it has positive things. For the love of God, we can eat avocados in any month of the year, how will it not have positive things? For thousands of years humanity has had to eat what it touched, but now we are very close to simply eat what we feel like.
And that, even in an issue as crossed by cultural, social and personal factors as food, limits the future of gastronomy: it unifies it little by little, it makes it less diverse and more insecure. But, without a doubt, more appealing: a breakfast buffet in a hotel of many stars: the best – the most popular – of each kitchen in the world.
While science fiction writers imagined a future with astronaut food, a kind of Soylent with steroids. What we are discovering is that the diet is changing, yes; But towards the promise that in the end we will all eat more or less the same.
Image | NRD
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