So it has come to this

Source: A great webcomic site xkcd.com

I'm often at a loss for words. Not so much because of what is said to me (although that happens often enough), but because of what rattles through my brain. Such as:

• Do people understand the many variables that go into food cost?  
• What group benefits most from food companies' work - consumers, stockholders or employees? 
• Are the discoveries and learning that led to the ability to manipulate genes automatically bad?
• What would happen if food companies were required to follow the first principle of bioethics?"
• Why do people who profess to support Slow Food principles become agitated when, dining in the Midwest, for example, their favorite French wine isn't on the menu? 

This is just an example of my tangled net of thoughts. Answers to questions like these seem to involve all kinds of qualifications and there are all those interconnections - consumers may be stockholders; stopping the import of French wine could impact jobs here and in France; manipulating genes is used in healthcare as well as food production; population is growing and there are threats to water, food and air as a result.

So, stumbling on a brief phrase like "So it has come to this" seems to accurately capture what is all too often my internal sigh, shoulder slump and head shake at the situation. Then its back to work.