A lot of this (and yes I know there are exceptions) is because the kids want it.

A lot of this thread has turned into an admirable tirade against the original ironic (I hope) OP's premise. However, please do not peddle the myth that organic is anything but a marketing con. If you want to eat food from field where fertiliser is animal sh*t, where food animals are untreated when they are ill, and where the health standards are much lower (e.g. milk) then go ahead. But do not try telling people that organic is better. Sorry.

I read an article about an organic strain of vegetables that had been bred to be naturally resistant to certain pests. The idea was that if the plant was "naturally" resistant, the farmers would not have to use pesticides.

When the vegetable strains were analyzed to determine what made them naturally resistant to the insect pests, it turned out that they were now internally producing high levels of a known carcinogen that were absent from the regular "non-naturally resistant" strains. As a result, the organic strains were far more dangerous health-wise than the non-organic strains that had been treated with low levels of pesticides.

If you are suggesting that eating pesticides and sythentic hormones/drugs and added sodium/sugar are better than eatings foods without it, go right ahead, but let's not pretend that makes any sense.

Nobody is suggesting organic is absolutely safe, but it is most certainly prudent to eat food as it comes out of the ground in the form we evolved to eat it than it is to eat food that has been maximized, strechted and modified for mass consumtion by companies that don't give a crap how healthy it is, regulated by toothless federal agencies lead by peolple who used to work for those companies.

You might as well suggest heroin is just as safe as marijuana.

organic has nothing to do with the quality of the food. it is simply a measure of the manner in which that food was grown or raised. the three horribles listed actually apply to non-organic food (actually more so, particularly the health standards).

I would say U.S. has food from all over the world, which makes it a great place for foodies like me who love experimenting with different cuisines.

But most of the restaurants have americanized food. It is really hard to find authentic international food outside the country it originates from. This is not limited to the US.

The very title made me laugh! Travel broadens the mind, and the perspective. By George, I think judolphin's got it!

As greasy as it may be I love KTC. Can't help it!

Questionable factory-food processes aside, unless you are travelling to one of the major cities, the majority of american food you will come into contact with will be from bland chain restraunts, especially business travelers who end up in hotel complexes...you know the kind..La Quinta, a Comfort Inn, a Super 8 all on the same property next to a Cracker Barrel or Ihop. The midwestern US in particular offers much less in the way of quality foods. Sure, you can find Wolfagang Puck in Vegas or authentic Thai in Los Angeles..but try going to Des Moines or Oklahoma City!

Hum...I don't think so...

There are a lot of countrys that have high quality meats, a lot of fruit options. For sure U.S. has great restaurants...but not the best food in the world...

I don't disagree with your overall analysis, and it's possible that my business travel within the US is not typical of most business travelers, but even in the smallest US towns, even in the mid-west, I am nearly always able to find at least one very nice restaurant or club with avant-garde cuisine. For instance, Laramie WY, Halifax VA, Yuba City CA, Idaho Falls ID, Cortez CO, all unlikely places to find culinary excellence, but it's there. A general rule of thumb is that if the town doesn't have a Hilton property (i.e., Hampton Inn), there might not be a decent place to eat there.

To be realistic one must admit that there is plenty of bad food available everywhere in the world. The US probably is not too much worse than many other places in terms of availability of good food (I exclude polemics about organic vs non vs genetically modified) but the average American does eat more poorly than most others do, by choice. I find excellent choices nearly everywhere I go in the US, although some of the best don't seem to have too much local traffic.

For me it's the lack of quality ingredients at a core level. Go to the grocery store and you'll find wooden peaches, and apricots that bounce like rubber balls. Anyone who has enjoyed the fragrant, succulent, juicy, falling apart in your fingers versions of the "real" thing, will lament the GMO stuff found in supermarkets.

The same applies to veggies that don't have the slight metallic taste of industrial fertilizer, butter that tastes of the grass the cow ate, and meat that has a flavor and texture unlike anything that has grown up on a feed lot.

You can find great food in the US, but it's usually found at the specialty shops or restaurants - who charge a premium. The rest is factory farmed food, processed in giant factories, sold in chain stores and restaurants. Some of it can be tasty, but in a way that will leave you respecting yourself in the morning.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9650/5.0.0.732 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

It has nothing to do with GMO foods.