Manuel's

According to Julie Guthman in the article “Fast Food/Organic Food: Reflexive Tastes and the Making of ‘Yuppie Chow’”, “[h]undreds of millions of people buy fast food every day without giving it much thought, unaware of the subtle and not so subtle ramifications of their purchases” (Guthman 45).  Fast food has become part of our everyday culture.  Simple, easy and quick seems to be the most desirable way to obtain food.  We never stop and think about what we are eating, where the food can from, and the effects of the consumption of these items on our health.  We think about convenience over our health.  The distance that the food has traveled never crosses our mind.  

Organic is now beginning to become more prevalent in communities.  Local businesses are deciding to buy from local farms or community gardens.  Restaurants are now buying their own gardens for an array of reasons.  Some are making this change in order to create a local appeal, which attracts customers.  Others are deciding to make the conscious choice to provide customers with the ability to know where exactly their food is coming from.  These gardens provide the opportunity to not only make a connection with the community but it also provides the opportunity to reuse waste as compost instead of just wasting excess.  Manuel’s restaurant is a prime example of this shift towards more local grown produce.  Manuel’s owns the Blue Clay Farm in North Augusta.  This restaurant uses this garden for the reasons previously stated.  The Blue Clay Farms also contains animals, like goats, in order to appeal to the local families.  Manuel discussed with our Honors course that many people are unaware of where their food is coming from.  He also addressed the fact that many of the children who come to the farm are shocked to see what the produce naturally looks like prior to packaging for market consumption.  

 It is truly sad that some children do not know what broccoli looks like when it’s not on Walmart’s shelf or on their dinner plate.  We are moving away from our food and losing any connection with it that we use to have.  The norm is to buy apples from a grocery store rather than buying from a local market.  At the end of the day a shift towards owning a farm is a risk but restaurants like Manuel’s are gaining public support.