I lived overseas for many years, the whole of the 1970’s and 80’s. Sometime during those years, the philosophy at the Canadian National Exhibition, (the CNE or the Ex, as we like to call it) changed. Especially the Food Building.

Constance Scrafield- Danby Remember the Food Building? Once there was the Dairy Board, the farmers, the Cheese Producers Association, people who grew fruit and vegetables; people who talked about food. There were students working summer jobs in the Food Building by handing out samples of food and pamphlets about how food was grown and produced to be on the table. By the end of a couple of hours in the Food Building, you came away knowing a lot more and carrying a bag full of those informative little pamphlets.

Now the Food Building at the Ex is just one horrid huge food court, with folk lining up for miles to consume deep-fried butter.

I was there last weekend with my daughter Patricia, and as we sat, picking at a plate of mediocre Chinese food and looking around at the other dreadful choices, I told her about what the Food Building used to look like. Her eyes widened as she realised: “In other words, we are ‘de-evolving’,” was her revelation.

Coming at a time when the hype about “healthy living choices, eating right, making the right food choices, reducing your intake of fats, sugar” and so on and so forth is overwhelming – all this makes no difference to the Food Building, which, presumably is representing, or appealing to, sadly, the tastes of the majority of people.

Presumably, the administrators of the Ex, in their frenzy to bring people through those gates, reckon that there is no need to educate, amuse, or enlighten. It looks as though all that matters is the “bottom line”. Well, as we made our way through the various buildings of the CNE, I noted this theme everywhere. There was no one giving talks about their products or displays (except about the general store in Pickering). It seemed primarily a collection of vendors of one ilk or another filling each building. But I digress, somewhat.

There were farm animals housed in beds of straw in the Better Living Building: alpacas, llamas, goats, a couple of horses – a mini and a draught horse, each with a foal.

There was a sow with her piglets. If there is a reason to abandon eating pork, this was it. The sow was held – all the time – in a cage, lying down so that her piglets can feed as they wish. The reason for this cruelty given is the protection from harm for the piglets.

On pig farms, at times, the sow can get up to eat and defecate, but she is always closely confined for several weeks while she is nursing her piglets. Once weaned, the piglets’ tails are cut off and their teeth filed so that they do not hurt each other in the small caged conditions in which they lead the rest of their lives. This life for them is meant to prevent the spread of disease which can destroy a herd so kept.

I don’t how well pigs, who are allowed to roam and graze, avoid becoming plagued with risky (to the consumer) health problems, but those pigs exist and are consumed.

A drive around our countryside shows the fate of young calves, who are taken as soon as possible from their mothers and chained (with a chain) to small igloo shaped huts, one per calf, where they live and do not move at all until they are slaughtered.

I, for one, never eat veal.

So, with all the scientists, nutritionists, doctors, ecologists, well, and so many others all telling us how our farming methods and eating habits are killing off our own selves and our planet, we still buy the cheapest meats raised in the worst manner; we still buy pre-made meals, full of corn syrup, salt and preservatives; we still eat out at places which, rather than being outlawed, feed our children food which is all but poisonous while donating a portion of their sales to a camp for kids (or whatever it is they do).

Morgan Spurlock put his health on the line to make the film, Supersize Me, in which he ate solely at McDonalds for a whole month. He exposed the risks of the food they serve to his well being, both physically and mentally. Yet, people are still queuing up to eat and to feed their children there.

Merchants and restaurants do exist, the owners of which make every effort they possibly can to lead us in the right directions, backing their messages of good nutrition with the goods they sell. Some of them offer workshops and seminars. Others are less out spoken about their products but the quality is there notwithstanding.

Mark Morgensen, owner, chef of the Black Birch Restaurant in Hockley Valley handles the issue of quality by dealing with the local farmers’ market and a local butcher he can trust. Where meat is concerned, he has been researching the matter of conscience, taste and tenderness ever since he opened the restaurant. He told me: “The best beef is from a family run farm outside Mount Forest.” As for veal, he said, “If they’re just culling the herd and the calves have been grazing with the herd, it’s called red veal and I like that.”

I probably would too.

Whispers in Elora is another restaurant foraging ahead with the campaign to persuade people to eat with conscience and good sense. Owners, Kevin Kroetsch and Fran Weima, have recently converted the restaurant to vegetarian. There is a review of the restaurant in an upcoming edition.

Harmony Whole Foods sells only organic meat and fish along with all their other organic products.

Awesome Blossom also only sells organic goods and produce.

Other supermarkets have small selections of meat raised without antibiotics and the fish counter at Zehrs assures us of the care with which they choose their fresh fish as far as sustainability is concerned.

It is unlikely that I will ever become a vegetarian because I think I need to eat meat to sustain good health. However, I eat less meat because I refuse to buy any flesh which has been kept in a feedlot or other in cruel and strange conditions, fed unnatural foods or dosed with antibiotics.

It is much easier and not much more expensive to buy meat and fish which meet those criteria than it was five years ago.

We have to care about what we eat. We especially have to care about what we feed our children. It is we who will dictate what food merchants offer us by the way in which we vote with our shopping habits.

Let us, the consumers, not the suppliers, dictate terms.