My teenage son introduced me to a new slang term recently.
He mentioned that a friend said that he needed to try out for a certain soccer club team because he would make the team more “raw”.
“Raw??” I asked.
“What does that mean?”
“It means awesome, Mom.”
I was dumbfounded.
In the span of the next week, I heard the term “raw” used no less than a dozen times to describe all manner of really good, cool things and goings on around town.
Raw has indeed come into its own having found its way into the everyday language of our young people to describe all things positive and desirable.
Even people who are exceptionally good at something are raw.
Not just beast – raw.
Pop singer Fergie used the term in her hit song Glamorous:
I still go to Taco Bell
Drive through, RAW as hell
I don’t care, I’m still real
No matter how many records I sell ….
The pendulum swings back.
The germaphobic Baby Boomers and Generation X’ers who, in the humorous style of Joel Salatin, prefer everything that goes into their mouths to be industrialized, mechanized, pasteurized, homogenized, sterilized, and compartmentalized into pretty packages and boxes have inadvertently birthed a generation of children who prefer all things real and r-a-w.
Ironic to say the least.
Peculiar colloquialisms aside, what could the slang use of “raw” mean for the future of food?
I mean, if raw means good, what could this mean for raw milk, for instance, arguably one of the most persecuted and demonized foods on the planet at the moment.
Using the mathematical principle of substitution, it means thus.
Raw Milk = Good Milk = Awesome Milk
While this curious figure of speech has yet to translate into a stampede to small, family owned dairies around North America with shortages of grassfed, raw milk the norm rather than the exception, it bodes well for future years with an ever growing, formidable trend back to a more whole, unprocessed approach to food production and preparation.
Once a term becomes part of the vernacular, action based on that thought and speech pattern will most likely follow.
Despite the exhaustive efforts of the federal and state bureaucracies to stomp out the trend toward unprocessed foods like raw milk, the momentum continues to gain with each passing year.
And now, out of the mouths of babes.
The trend is awesome, it’s raw.
I predict the survival, no the flourishing of raw milk from small farms in North America and around the world.
Our children speak it so.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
I’m familiar with this slang term, and sadly I don’t think there is any connection to raw food whatsoever.
I really like your current prediction and also trust you’re appropriate, since actually, good sense *should* gain away! Pertaining to long many of us have ignored your brains and also blindly implemented your popular.
Thanks 🙂
Sarah,
Awesome post! No… RAW post! The future is with our children and many of them are totally RAW!
I remember when I first heard of “raw” milk, I didn’t even know what that was. Now that I know, I think of it as “living” milk. It’s alive. It’s delicious and nourishing, but if the new slang word is raw, I like raw! Look at the newest word that has gone global – “amazing”. Everyone is using that word. It is everywhere, just pay attention to family, friends, media in particular. I hope raw becomes the most used word and raw milk becomes the mainstream. Amazing is nice but raw is better!
I love the optimism, BUT, I think it’s a bit naive to think kids are thinking about stuff being fresh and natural (healthy) when they use the term “raw.” More than likely, it refers to a “pure” and/or unadulterated substance of an illegal nature. Just sayin’.
My 19 year old son went to a health food store in a neighboring city and bought raw milk yesterday. Never saw that coming!
Cathy, wow, I pray I can say the same thing someday!
Sarah, I love your prediction and hope you’re right, because really, common sense *should* win out! For too long many of us have forgotten our brains and blindly followed the mainstream. NO MORE!
Kel
Well, not sure how the word raw will help the future of food… I just got confused by this, just like with all these new words the kids come up with each day…