GINTA – This is a good time to reconsider food production, processing

A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO I went to pick up an order from the local Bulk Barn store. They are the revolutionary ‘bring your (any) container to refill’ buy-in-bulk business, but of course now the reusable container option is out the window so we’re back to single use plastic bags, which you can bundle together and take to recycling outlets, such as London Drugs.

It is still a good option for bulk staples. You order online and the next day you pick up your order at the door, card ready. Two weeks ago, while doing just that, I noticed a line-up at the fast food place across the parking lot.

I wondered about the future meals contained in those beans, seeds and nuts that I had just purchased, versus a meal for one or for a family, ordered through the drive-through for not much less than what I had paid for. That, of course, is but one aspect of it. Not opposing takeout; our family, like many other Kamloops residents, has been ordering the occasional cooked meal from locally owned restaurants, which nowadays is as much an act of social duty as can be.

The same day, the news about the Covid-19 outbreak at the Cargill plant in Alberta broke out. I thought of that drive-through line-up. Cargill is the exclusive supplier of beef, pork and eggs for McDonald’s in Canada and by now, the site of the largest coronavirus outbreak in North America.

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Daniela Ginta is a mother, scientist, writer and blogger. She can be reached at daniela.ginta@gmail.com, or through her blog at http://www.thinkofclouds.com.