Goodbye cooking

More and more meals are part of the food processing industry.
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Factories increasingly taking over what used to be done locally or even in the house.
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Often these form part of the global distribution system.
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 With foods being prepared thousands of miles from where they will be eaten.
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Even the final stage of food preparation and cooking is disappearing into the hands of company employees.
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Skills are going which used to be part of every community.
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From half to two-thirds of all meals in America are now prepared outside the home.
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Either in the form of restaurant meals or as ready-to-eat take out from supermarket delicatessen. 
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Europe is further behind this trend however the same pattern is evident.
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Even meals cooked at home are often prepared from ingredients that are already highly processed.
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When we do cook, we perform only the final stages of cookery.
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Taking advantage of pre-made mixes, sauces, canned soups, and so forth.
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How many people make their own pie crusts any more.
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Or fry their own chips.
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Or bake their own bread.
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Or can their own vegetables.
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Or make their own soup stock?
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These skills have gradually become industrialized.
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And therefore lost to the average household.
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We have essentially sold away the ability to cook food.
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Converting this form of social capital into financial capital.
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Money.
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Which of course is under the control of traders and other financial manipulators who have zero interest in the harm their buying and selling might have.
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We live in this world without thinking of the possible outcome should conditions change.
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Which is all just fine until there is any disruption to the supply chain.
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At which point an awful lot of people will wish that they knew how to create a meal from basic ingredients.
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And as they don't violence will not be far behind.
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Modern society is far too dependent on other people supplying our basic needs.
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This we will rue one day.