Mostly about <i>mechanical</i> processing. Of course, the circulating epigram "don't eat something your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food" refers to processing with additives: artificial flavors, colors, preservatives and conditioners of various kinds. Not to mention almost completely synthetic concoctions.<p>It doesn't mean, for instance, "don't use soy sauce that has been processed the same way by the same company in Japan since the 1600's"; that is a horribly strawman interpretation of the idea.
My mother-in-law, who grew up in a Midwestern city in the 40s-50s, recently mentioned it is much easier to get fresh produce today, than when she was young. For her, growing up, canned vegetables were the norm, fresh greens were a treat.<p>For my own parents it is the opposite. Around the same time, they lived in an exurb, fairly rural environment, and ate with the seasons. They live a suburban area now, and eat more canned goods now than they used to.<p>I was surprised to hear that eating processed foods was so common already 60-70 years ago.
Also, Cassava, a food first domesticated 10,000 years ago and a current staple for over 'half a billion people', is toxic (Cyanide) unless processed.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava#Food_use_processing_and_toxicity" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava#Food_use_processing_an...</a>
Pretty great article. It really blows my mind how different the food we eat today is, as compared to 500, 100 or even 50 years ago.<p>For a long time, <i>salt</i> was precious and highly sought after. Sugar, at least the granulated form, has been "non-exotic" for only a few hundred years -- the article talks about sugar beet milling, and refers to the massive plantations of slaves used to harvest sugarcane. Even tomatoes are a New World crop -- imagine Italian food without tomato sauce.<p>Heck, I remember when some fruits or vegetables were strictly seasonal -- now, we can get everything year-round, for basically the same price.<p>Sure, there is a lot of chemically laden, industrially processed crap on supermarket shelves. But it is also easier to eat better now than ever before, not to mention the sheer variety of foods we have available.
Rachel Laudan (the author of the post) was interviewed on EconTalk last week: <a href="http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2015/08/rachel_laudan_o.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2015/08/rachel_laudan_o.htm...</a>