INTROIts almost impossible to avoid the local food culture, especially in an urban center like Charlotte. Coffee shops market locally roasted, fair-trade coffee; restaurants list the sources for their meat products, along with higher prices. Changes in culture and food preferences are driving this local food movement. Although many Americans continue to follow the eating habits adopted by a prior generation consuming large quantities of processed, engineered food there is a counter movement spreading in the United States. Young adults with higher expendable incomes are putting their dollars towards organic, locally sourced and minimally processed food. This paper explores the trend and what drives it.

SECTION 1: How it was/past food trends/corporations/processed engineered foodFor decades America has led the way when it comes to heavily processed foods. This has been driven by two primary reasons. Firstly Americans like things that are fast and easy, requiring minimal personal or economic sacrifice (Ikerd). This has been the main selling point for much of the factory-to-table foods produced in the United States over the past few decades. Corporations have engineered their products to have a better taste, improved mouth-feel, be better looking, and have a longer shelf life. This was achieved by pumping foods full of salts, fats, and corn extracts in a bid to get the consumer hooked. Corporations had little regard for the nutritional value of their products. The extent of engineering food was well publicized in the New York Times article The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food, author Michael Moss opens with a discussion of James Behnke. Behnke is a scientist and former Pillsbury executive, and he describes a meeting of top food industry scientists and executives to discuss the food industrys concern over the American obesity crisis. A Kraft executive who presented at the meeting went so far as to compare marketing junk food to children as equivalent to marketing cigarettes. Another top executive at the meetingthe General Mills executive who invented sugary Yoplait and Gogurt for kidsreminded the group that consumers liked what tasted good.

The author then turns to a discussion of the science companies use to get people hooked on foods that are convenient and inexpensivesugary, salty, fatty foods [that] are not good for us in the quantities that we consume them. He met with a food optimizer Howard Moskowitx -- who literally spends time combining taste, packaging, and color and testing the combinations on consumers to find the match that will sell. Moskowitx seeks to find the consumer bliss point the point when theres just enough sugar or salt in a food (like Prego spaghetti sauce) but not too much. He researches a products sensory satiety and mouth feel to determine how it will be received byand craved byconsumers. The author also interviewed the inventor of Lunchables. According to the inventor, processed foods worked better than healthy, fresh items in the lunch packs, because they wouldnt go bad. The inventor also tapped into the psychology of appealing to kids: kids wanted the power to make their own lunchwhich made lunchable pizza kits, tacos, and burgers incredibly popular. Ironically, the author asks whether the inventors three grandchildren have ever eaten a Lunchable the answer is no. The traditional American diet has led to the rapid increase in heart disease and now Type 2 diabetes. Excess weight and obesity are now at epidemic levels in the United States, where children are now three times more likely to be overweight or obese than the American youth a decade ago (Russo and Smith). This is a direct result of the consumption of foods that are high in fat and low in nutritional value. Many of these foods are developed and produced using corn and soy extracts. While corn or soy products are not necessarily harmful to our bodies, the sheer volume of these extracts when considering our entire consumption of food is alarming. A leading United States government health campaign advised to cut back on foods high in solid fats, added sugars, and salt. They include cakes, cookies, ice cream, candies, sweetened drinks, pizza, and fatty meats like ribs, sausages, bacon, and hot dogs (choosemyplate.gov). However, the United States government have been heavily subsiding the production of corn and soy in the United States since the mid nineteen nineties. It is stated that the production of corn sweeteners, corn starch, and soy oils have cost the taxpayer as much as $19.2 billion since 1995 (Russo and Crowe). This is a colossal figure when compared to the $689 million spent on the apple production subsidies over the past 18 years (Ibid). Such startling figures help to explain why a growing number of Americans are expressing doubts and outright dissatisfaction with the current American food system (Ikerd).

SECTION 2: Change to the local food culture/define it/what is it?SECTION 3: What is driving that culture? /food scares/healthSECTION 4/CONCLUSION: Is it a sustainable trend or not?