Philosophy and sliced bread

sliced bread machine patent

Today is July 7th.  Do you know what the significance of this date is with respect to food?  Well, here it is.  

On July 7th, 1928, the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri sold their first loaves of sliced bread processed by a bread-slicing machine designed and built by Otto Rohwedder.  This is the first documented occurrence of commercially-sold machine-sliced bread.  Within a short time other baking companies large and small started doing the same thing.  

Not many things are more convenient than a bag of sliced bread, and of course we are all familiar with that well-known phrase "the greatest thing since sliced bread", a phrase which so many of use to talk about how incredible something is.

I love the convenience of sliced bread as much as anyone, and although I make quite a bit of bread and slice it myself, I also have a favorite brand of sliced sandwich bread that I get with regularity at the grocery store  There is something quite nice about being able to quickly make a sandwich with a tasty bread that can pulled from the bag by the slice.  

However, there is also something nice about taking the time to slice a loaf of bread.  In our modern world, no one would argue that the availability of convenient food is a bad thing.  At the same time, though, one could argue that the less work we do in preparing and serving food, the easier it is to take it for granted and to have less and less of a psychological or emotional connection to the food we eat.

Prepackaged prepared foods are so important in our world, and not just because we are all so busy running around for most of the day trying to make a living, taking kids here and there, trying to find a way to do all the work that is expected of us and still take the time to eat.  They are also important for things like emergency disaster aid and relief and for keeping large stores of food available for those "just in case" moments in our lives.  There are so many ways our modern food systems are beneficial to our lives in our modern world.

But we are also missing something by not preparing so many of the things we eat.  We miss something by not taking the time to plan a meal, shop for the ingredients, cook it up, and serve it.  

What do we miss?  Well, I suppose that depends on the individual.  But certainly I believe that connection to the foods we eat is an important element of taking care of ourselves.  I know we can't all do that.  The world is a busy place that runs 24/7 for many of us.  But I hope we can all take a bit of time here and there to think about what we are eating even if it is prepared and prepackaged or, as in the case of that sandwich on the plate, pre-sliced.