In Defense of Frozen Food

Part of being an advocate for a cause is to constantly push for more change. It means never being quite satisfied with victories, no matter how small or large. But it's also important to put things into perspective every once in a while.

Recently, Change.org editor Sarah Parsons criticized a White House video in which a chef suggests that buying frozen, non-organic vegetables from big box stores is an acceptable way to purchase affordable, healthy ingredients. "Frozen veggies, and big box stores, and non-organics — oh my!" she wrote. Certainly the antithesis of any sustainable foodie's mantra, myself included.

But as I thought more about it, I tried to put things into perspective. The fact of the matter is that our country is in the midst of a serious public health crisis. Obesity has risen drastically over the past 20 years to the point that now nearly one-quarter of adult Americans are considered obese. With that comes a host of preventable health problems including cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer, and type 2 diabetes. I could go on and on, but the question is not if this is a problem; the question is what to do about it.

It's true that vegetables lose roughly 10 to 30 percent of their nutritional content when they're frozen, and it's true that organic produce is better for us and for the planet, and it's true that buying from farmers' markets makes us feel more connected to the food we're eating and cuts back on carbon emissions associated with shipping food. But it's also true that for a lot of people, those are just big ideas that don't really mean much in reality. So if the alternative is someone shopping at Walmart for a family-sized bag of non-organic frozen corn rather than no vegetables at all, I'm all for it.

I will continue advocating for large-scale changes, and in my dream world, everyone will be eating fresh, local, organic produce with every meal. But in the meantime, we need some fast, easy solutions to start tackling these problems that are literally killing us. Eating more vegetables — in any form — is a step in the right direction.

Photo credit: Robert Couse-Baker