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Any good insights into why food preparation is still stuck in pre-Industrial Revolution technologies? I prepare dinner from my family every night from scratch l

by ponker 6y ago

Any good insights into why food preparation is still stuck in pre-Industrial Revolution technologies? I prepare dinner from my family every night from scratch like I was a medieval artisan. With the economics of industrial production I should be able to purchase pre-made meals that just need to be heated in the oven at one temperature, that are healthy, and cost less than buying components and assembling them. Why hasn’t this happened at scale?

twblalock 6y ago
> Any good insights into why food preparation is still stuck in pre-Industrial Revolution technologies? I prepare dinner from my family every night from scratch like I was a medieval artisan. No you don't. You go to a store and buy processed ingredients that have satisfied numerous legal requirements and inspections to ensure product safety, which are enforced by a vast bureaucracy. The store you bought your ingredients from offered many product options, including food from other countries. In the medieval period you would not be able to afford anything that was not grown further than a few miles from your home unless you were rich. You prepared those ingredients in your home, which has electricity and running water, and a stove and oven that you can turn on with a knob instead of starting a wood fire. You don't share your home with livestock. If you are unwilling to prepare your meals with a knife (even though all of the meat has already been cut into "cuts of meat" for you), you can buy food processors, blenders, meat slicers, and other contraptions to make things as easy as possible. To say that your food preparation is similar to the way people did it before the Industrial Revolution is ridiculous.
nemo44x 6y ago
The industrial “TV Dinner” has been around since the 1950’s. Pre-made, reheated, and relatively “healthy” in some cases. Have you looked at the frozen aisle of your grocery store?
romanoderoma 6y ago
"prepare dinner from scratch" is what everybody else call cooking. Which is quite an enjoyable activity and not a relic of the past. Pre made food has been everywhere around you, you just didn't notice. When was the last time you made your own bacon or olive oil or sugar, pepper, salt, etc etc? (I grew up in a farm, we made all of that, except for the salt)

by ponker 6y ago

twblalock 6y ago

> Any good insights into why food preparation is still stuck in pre-Industrial Revolution technologies? I prepare dinner from my family every night from scratch like I was a medieval artisan. No you don't. You go to a store and buy processed ingredients that have satisfied numerous legal requirements and inspections to ensure product safety, which are enforced by a vast bureaucracy. The store you bought your ingredients from offered many product options, including food from other countries. In the medieval period you would not be able to afford anything that was not grown further than a few miles from your home unless you were rich. You prepared those ingredients in your home, which has electricity and running water, and a stove and oven that you can turn on with a knob instead of starting a wood fire. You don't share your home with livestock. If you are unwilling to prepare your meals with a knife (even though all of the meat has already been cut into "cuts of meat" for you), you can buy food processors, blenders, meat slicers, and other contraptions to make things as easy as possible. To say that your food preparation is similar to the way people did it before the Industrial Revolution is ridiculous.

nemo44x 6y ago

The industrial “TV Dinner” has been around since the 1950’s. Pre-made, reheated, and relatively “healthy” in some cases. Have you looked at the frozen aisle of your grocery store?

romanoderoma 6y ago

"prepare dinner from scratch" is what everybody else call cooking. Which is quite an enjoyable activity and not a relic of the past. Pre made food has been everywhere around you, you just didn't notice. When was the last time you made your own bacon or olive oil or sugar, pepper, salt, etc etc? (I grew up in a farm, we made all of that, except for the salt)