CHARLO, New Brunswick,  February 23, 2024 – When Jesus told his disciples that he had meat to eat that they knew not of, he wasn’t talking about GMO or other frankenfoods that have become the daily bread of most Westerners. For Jesus, his food was to do the work God sent him to do, which should also be our food, as Jesus’ followers. But unfortunately (and unavoidably, while we’re still here on Earth in a human body), we also have to eat physical food every now and then to keep us going. This leaves us at the mercy of food-floggers who are growing less and less concerned about our satisfaction as consumers and more and more focused on making money and pushing an agenda.

I write this as a preamble to the subject at hand today, which is the sorry state of our food as a consumer product. I won’t be covering the poisoning of our food (that subject deserves an entire library of books in itself) but will instead take a look at some radical changes that are occurring in the production, marketing, distribution, and retail sides of our food supply. These changes have led to major shifts in price, quality, and accessibility over the past few decades, especially since the launch of the “great reset” in 2020.

Note that the changes listed below are in no particular order and that the list is far from exhaustive. Feel free to add to it in the comment section below.

1. Inflation: This is the change that’s getting the most press these days and goes hand-in-hand with currency devaluation.
2. Shrinkflation: This refers to smaller amounts of product either in the same-sized packaging or “New Look!” (code for smaller) packaging that essentially attempts to camouflage the shrinkage. Prices either remain the same or go up.
3. Lower quality: Known as “skimpflation”, costlier ingredients are swapped for cheaper ones.
4. Extended ‘best before’ dates: This obviously benefits the producers and sellers, not the consumers. It’s a trend that I’ve noticed gaining traction over the past few months. Buyer beware!
5. Removal of products from the marketplace: Less variety and fewer food options is mainly caused by large producers buying out smaller producers and then typically phasing out all the small company’s products. The introduction of the “planogram” system, where companies have to pay hefty prices for shelf space, also led to smaller producers being shut out of the marketplace.
6. Fewer distributers: These are the companies that essentially decide what you should or should not have access to in a store. Even the stores themselves are at the mercy of their distributors. They have immense power over our food supply and there are surprisingly very few of them and growing fewer every year.
7. Fewer stores and shorter retail hours: One of the most visible changes that’s happened in the past few years is the closing of stores and the reduction in shopping hours, reflecting the shift in power dynamics from the consumer to the retailer. Good luck finding a 24-hour supermarket when you need one!
8. Globalization (redistribution) of food: Developing countries such as China and India are also developing huge appetites for Western products. Many of our domestic food producers are now focusing on those markets and leaving local shelves bare.
9. Replacement of meat with “meat-like” or other proteins: Check the ingredients list for protein substitutes like crickets and maggots that are being slipped in under alternative names. You vill eet ze bugz, whether you know it or not.

I used to enjoy grocery shopping, but now I just grit my teeth and try not to yell in frustration at the shrinking content of the packages and higher prices. Not to mention how the flavour has been eroded by lower-quality ingredients and extended best-before dates. I eat what I have to for the time being, ever grateful to God for supplying my daily bread, but all the while I comfort myself thinking about the amazing variety of FREE FOOD that’s waiting for me in Heaven (if and when I get there) and how good it will all taste!