The various government agencies that finally got around delivering aid to people hit by Katrina often brag about the 2.2 million Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs) they handed out. Surely these did some good for someone, somewhere, but I can also report that MREs are everywhere these days in the Deep South, and wastefully so.
Apparently, agencies drove around any neighborhood they could find where they electricity was spotty, and handed out boxes and boxes of these. So families that didn’t need them ended up with dozens of these strange items developed for soldiers in warzones, providing the first full civilian exposure to military cuisine. As a result, people are giving them away to family members, dissecting the bag contents and marveling over the peculiar heating methods, and even eating some. “Let’s have an MRE party!”
These meals are designed to have a shelf life of 3 years at normal temperatures, and withstand a drop of 100 feet. The Wikipedia entry on the history of the MRE is fascinating. They’ve come a long way since the days of C-Rations. Nowadays, you can get “Chicken Tetrazzini,” “Vegetable Manicotti,” “Beef Echiladas,” and other seemingly gourmet products. The items inside are also packaged to look more beautiful than in the past. As the Wiki says, “studies showed commercial packaging increased consumption and acceptance.” The triumph of the marketplace!
There is also something creepy about MREs. Of course they are barely edible by comparison with just about anything else, though you don’t expect much from survival food. What’s bothersome about them is the sense you have that this is what we would all be eating, every meal, in the case of central planning and extreme rationing. A pessimist might look at these boxed meals and see the future of American eating. And yet it would be even worse, since many of the items in MREs are actually commercial products.
