One of the pastimes in which I have indulged during these locked-down days is musing on what a post-quarantine world might look like.
When this is over will society simply go back to BC (Before Corona), or will our world be markedly changed as we emerge from our shelter-in-place spaceships and foray out into our brave new normal world?
Perhaps because I am naturally somewhat of a hermit, I am particularly interested in the speculation that going forward people may continue to spend time at home rather than being constantly on the go. Many workers have discovered they can do their jobs as efficiently from their living room chairs as they can at their office cubicles. As is usually the case, a change at any one point in a system reverberates out to affect other areas of the system.
One economic writer has observed that commercial real estate might become less valuable since businesses wouldn’t need as much office space. It seems logical to conclude staying home more means driving less. At least one report early on in the pandemic claimed the air in some urban areas showed signs of being cleaner possibly because of reductions in auto emissions. Think how many lives and businesses and the environment itself would be impacted by fewer cars on the road.
Cooking meals at home is another piece of this stay-at-home mindset that might have major effects on the economy as well as on society as a whole. Evidence shows more people are preparing meals at home these days than before the COVID-19 crisis. This makes sense knowing that going out to eat these days is just not as convenient as before.
According to author, journalist and food writer Michael Pollan, we aren’t cooking as much as we did in the past. The reasons are many and include, first of all, lack of time. Since 1967, he writes, Americans have added 167 hours to the total amount of time we spend at work each year. That is four extra weeks of full-time work. When people finally get home from the job they resist spending time in the kitchen.
Some suggest the decline of home cooking began when women entered the workforce in greater numbers. That argument doesn’t really hold up under scrutiny. True, women who work spend less time cooking, but so do women who don’t have jobs outside the home. In both situations home cooking has declined by 40 percent since 1965. (And, yes, women still do most of the home cooking.) Pollan writes: “In general, spending on restaurant and take-out food rises with income. Women with jobs have more money to allow corporations to cook for them, yet all American women allow corporations to cook for them when they can.”
Imagine the changes to our world if we started preparing our own food instead of letting someone else do it for us. We would be healthier, for one thing. Studies across several cultures show there is an inverse relation between obesity and food preparation—the more time spent on food preparation, the lower the obesity rate. We also might start eating more fresh food and fewer chemical additives.
Or think about the amount of packaging alone that comes with industrially produced foods whether grocery purchased or take-out. Most food packaging is designed as single-use. It is often made of plastic. According the the EPA, food and food packaging account for almost half of municipal solid waste. Obviously, the effects on the environment are enormous.
Nobody knows how this novel crisis will play out, we can only speculate on what changes, if any, will result. I am not especially optimistic about the coming Brave New Normal World being better, but I can still hope.
