New food groups

I went grocery shopping today and had frozen vegetables on my list. For the first time, I noticed that our local grocery store has about two or three times the freezer space dedicated to frozen pizza as to frozen vegetables. I'd say there's about 6 linear feet of vegetables. When this dawned on me, I looked around to assess what else was in the freezers, and in what quantities. There was about three quarters of an aisle of frozen entrees of all sorts, and another half an aisle dedicated strictly to ice cream (exclusive of popsicles and other frozen treats). There was a large section of frozen potato products, and then a hodge-podge of other items: frozen seafood, pastries, and so on.

One of my missionary companions once asked me, "Is it true that in the United States everything you eat comes in a can?" I laughed and dismissed the notion at the time, but I've realized lately that a staggering majority of what we eat comes in some prepared or artificially preserved form -- and when frozen pizza is a staple, you know you're in trouble.