imperishable food

okay...so an indefinite twinkie life span is an urban legend mythologized by the media through film and the dread television...the official shelf life is twenty-five days and corporate contention is that NO twinkie stays on the shelf for more than seven to ten days ( and what does that say about us as a society i wonder...i have an opinion on that...an editorial even...this post should be a dead giveaway but if you want clarification let me know )..a little over a year ago the hostess company shut down rather than try to find a compromise with its union bakers and there was something of a rush of nostalgia ( as well as a resurgence of the legend )where i work as the "last" twinkies flew off the shelves which ended up with several boxed of the famous snack cakes arriving in the office...i haven't been a aficionado of this particular snack but i grabbed one, wrote the date on the bottom and stuck it on a window ledge in my office and pretty much forgot about it...for some reason it caught my eye to day and i totaled up the 379 days it had been (supposedly ) mouldering on the ledge...for a finite product it looks reasonably healthy...it is not rock hard and the "cream" filling is still well within the range of "white"...i am disinclined to sample it for obvious reasons but i have to ask if this is "food" or some extruded, injected, and, possibly, irradiated industrial product...it is a long way from a freshly picked kohlrabi or a frost sweetened jerusalem artichoke or even lima beans and it is a fair example of how far we have gotten from knowing what food is...am i a perfect eater? no...i can still snack on junk...not nearly as much as i once did and there are things i eschew completely ( soda for instance ) but i can still knock back some chips and dip...would i denigrate anyone eating a twinkie? no...do i wish we did better at this? yes..we are victims and willing participants in what passes for food culture in this country...we are responsible...i am learning a new appreciation for vegetables and the effort that goes into their production...both theirs and mine...