The Seeds Are Always Greener

An entertaining conversation that illuminates humans' inability to ever find balance.

I was sitting at my desk in the client's office here in Johannesburg the other day when one of my colleagues came by to ask me something (she lives in South Africa, but is from Zimbabwe).  I had a bunch of seeds on my desk from a seed, nut, and fruit snack mix, from which I was picking out the fruit.

Seeing the seeds and furrowing her brow in a look of confusion, she pointed to them and asked, "What the heck are those?"

"What?"

She jabbed her finger at the seeds.

"Those?  Seeds."  I gave her a look like, "What else would they be?"

"What?  Are you going to plant them?"

"Huh?  No!  I'm eating them."

"Are they roasted, or what?"

"Uh, I think they're just raw."  I ate one. "Yeah, I think they're raw.  Want to try one?"

Still confused, "You got them at a store?"

"Yeah, the grocery store.  Er, sorry, the supermarket."  Apparently 'grocery store' is an American term.  It's elicited blank stares in several countries now.

"So you went into the store, looking for a snack, and you bought that?"

"Uh, yes?  Why?"

"I would never buy that."

"Why not?"

"Why would I eat seeds?"

My unspoken response was, "Well, because in the US and Europe, our food supply has become so big, sophisticated, and secure that most people only eat mass-produced, processed foods that make them fat and lack proper nutrition, so we've started reverting back to natural, non-processed foods for health reasons.

"It's understandable if that seems strange given that in most of the developing world, the only foods available are of the most basic, non-processed variety and in scarce supply, so that when the opportunity arises, people are going to obviuosly consume the most calorie-, fat-rich, cooked foods possible to safely satiate hunger, build fat supplies for future instances of food scarcity, and leave things that require nearly as much energy to procure as they provide when consumed - like seeds - for the birds."