On second thought, however, I chuckled, agreeing with her confounded expression. I quickly realized the sad hilarity of the food industry. As a self-proclaimed burgeoning foodie, complete with an Epicurious.com widget proudly affixed on my Macbook, I, too, found myself lost in the culinary sphere of everything from executing the most perfectly puffed pommes dauphin to creating a delicate but savory parsnip foam. Yet as a penny-pinching college student, I can’t fathom why I feel the need to procure my lox and cream cheese bagel breakfasts from the neighborhood Balducci’s on New Mexico Ave. in Washington, D.C.

It finally occurred to me that even if I, too, wanted to purchase the outrageously expensive pounds of wild ramps at $14.99, it has become nearly impossible for food snobs to divorce themselves from loving food to loving the distinction of said product. We also can note the hypocritical nature of food snobs and regular people alike—that it is often the same environmentally conscious, Obama-sign-toting liberals that are also desperate to purchase the 43-dollar liter of Italian olive oil for their dinner soiree bruschette. Do we all just ignore the startling statistic that half the world lives on less than two dollars a day? Or should we continue tickling our refined palettes with a Northern Bluefin tuna tartare amuse bouche?

Unlike the argument of criticizing how the wealthy spend their money on extraneous costs, this contradicting question strikes up a more unsettling debate. We all may share this land, but we certainly do not share the same woes that other families do across the world. The larger problem with the agony of food and the availability of it is that it is glaringly obvious that food snobs won’t recognize the poor and hungry because they simply do not understand the plight of those suffering in a perpetual state of gastric misery. But if a middle-class citizen hailing from an immigrant home, like myself, also fails to remember about the other half, who isn’t guilty of hypocrisy and sickening contradiction?

The point of this revelation is not to point fingers or engage in a battle of who deserves what blame but rather a quest in becoming cognizant of our international shortcomings and hopefully also taking action in the cause.

Now, if only an article or a blog could effectively solve the issue of a global food crisis and simultaneously transform the minds of the greedy and wealthy, everyone in the world from Monaco to Bangladesh could head to their local Whole Foods and devour a package of chili-infused Vosges chocolates perfect for any occasion, guilt-free.

Fahima Haque