Man’s first activity was to eat. Even before sex, shelter and sports, humans and animals sought sustenance. For many people today, however, food is second to fighting about it. As Andy Dietrick, with Indiana Farm Bureau, recently observed, “Food has become a flash point.” Food is blamed for health problems, environmental damage, poverty, social injustice and more. Food has the unique ability to both bring people together and keep them apart.

This phenomenon is solely a human condition. Animals eat what their environment, genetics, instinct and experience tell them to eat. And, in our modern society, it is an amazing dichotomy that we spend more time and energy arguing about food than we do producing and preparing it. When you boil all the rhetoric down (or as they say on the cooking shows, make a reduction), almost everyone wants food that tastes good, is safe to eat, looks good and is affordable. But all those criteria are subjective and are at the heart of much of today’s food fight.

The small – but vocal – segment of food consumers who value organic, locally grown, GMO free, free range, slow, sustainable, hormone free food maintain that most of the items in the grocery store don’t taste good and are not safe. They have to concede that most of the food is affordable since what they buy costs three times as much as everything else.

Meanwhile, the mother shopping on a SNAP budget sees most of the items in her cart as high priced, including the chips, lunchables, cigarettes and donuts she picked up. In between these two extremes are most of the rest of us. Suffice it to say that, today, most everyone has an opinion about food.

This focus on food is a relatively recent development. Innovation in food production and processing really took off after WW II. Convenience was the word of the day, and the stores of the 1950s and 60s were filled with amazing new products like frozen fruits and vegetables, freeze dried coffee and thousands more. As we entered the 1970s, year round fresh tomatoes, strawberries and other formerly seasonal products were in our stores every day of the year.

As we entered the 1990s, more pre-cooked and ready-to-heat-and-eat products appeared on the shelves. Was all this a giant corporate plot to control what we consumed? No, this was a free market system responding to the market signals we as consumers gave it. In short, the good choices we have today are what we as consumers asked for.

While many are quick to criticize our modern food production system, the reality is that consumer demand for convenience, low prices, blemish-free appearance, and year round availability is the reason we have the system we have today.

Farmers will grow and processors will produce what consumers are willing to pay for. Legislative labels, government regulations, and litigation are not the answer. Consumer demand gave us the food supply we have today, and only the free market should give us what we eat tomorrow.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Gary Truitt may write to him in care of this publication.