Food for thought

Here's something that intrigues. Of a sudden,  many American children are lactose intolerant.  This manifests itself  in much the same way as an allergy.  Researchers think it may have something to do with an enzyme gone missing. Of a sudden, more and more children are contracting M.S (Multiple Sclerosis).  Nobody knows why. I was made aware of these phenomena by Mother Superior, who reads arcane medical articles. What popped up in my head - immediately - was an article I read several years ago .. maybe 20.  At  that time there was only one State in the Nation with enough truck farms to feed its own populace.  Can you guess?  Could be that there are none today. We have become wholly dependent on California for much of our food supply. (There was a reason CA didn't make it two States, but I forget.)  I'm sure you can think of several reasons why it might not be a good idea to rely so much on a land mass ready to fall into the sea, but how about this one ... .  Mother nature pretty much gives us the resources to stay healthy, by providing minerals, nutrients, plants, etc.,  that are discretely beneficial to a locality.  For example, in climes where Malaria is a problem, there grow Cinchona trees, from whence quinine.  A carrot native to Maryland may be nutritionally different than one grown in Mississippi.  I wonder if, by eating foods not native, we are missing a critical dietary supplement?  Or, maybe the Fluoride alarmists were right?  Anyway, it popped up in my head last week, and I'm just getting around to it.  Let's blame Bush. (I'm being sarcastic, if there's any one person to blame, it would be the awful Jimmy Carter).