Yesterday at a rink up the shore, we went to go watch our son’s high school hockey team play (we won 4-3 yah!) One of the teens we were sitting with got nachos at the canteen.
She said “These don’t look good.” I looked at them and she had paid $5 for dollar store tortilla chips with some grey green cheese concoction over it.
Safe enough I said, because it’s not real food.
Then we played a game where I said “if I had an arena canteen here’s what I would serve….”
And that’s when we realized how dire things are in the game of over regulation of our food.
“I’d serve chili cheese nachos with local beans and tomatoes, and our grassfed beef with organic unpasteurized cheese and raw milk sour cream”.
Nope, sorry that’s illegal. (Only meat processed at an approved abbatoir and receipts for your purchase will do)
“Oh what about breakfast sandwiches with your eggs ?”
Nope, sorry that’s illegal. (Only can buy from licensed egg producers )
“You should serve those pizzas you made us the other night! They were sooooo good.”
Oh, the moose meat pepperoni pizzas on sourdough buns?
Nope, sorry that’s illegal too. (No wild game allowed)
“Oh, what about those chocolate cookies you make ?! You NEED to serve those.
You mean the maple fudge yogurt ones I make with raw milk yogurt?
I could get arrested for THAT-more jail time for that than for crack, I said.
(Canada is the only G8 country in the world where raw milk sales aren’t allowed.)
So grey green nachos are safe to serve.
But, for the love of god, they aren’t real food. And I know, treats are treats but this crap is literally everywhere now.
And to those who would think, it’s because it’s cheaper, I could challenge with example after example of nourishing “rink”food on a budget.
But…. most of it would be illegal.
For people serving food today, the regulations make choices for them. But we have to think outside the box and push back.
We owe it to these kids to be advocates, “food outlaws” and start scoring goals for real food.
Because it can sometimes feel like “grey green nacho team “ is winning.
But they won’t. We got this.