Author: Tobin Fekkes

It seems we can hardly go a day without hearing about some newfangled way that Artificial Intelligence is going to take all our jobs, then give us lives of all play and no work, then ultimately end humanity as we know it. Whether we like it or not, we now have new terms to keep track of like AI, GPT, LLM, Copilot, Gemini, Grok, and Claude.

When people talk about AI, what they’re really talking about are Large Language Models, or LLMs. Literally, large models of language. These models consist of a massive corpus of text (think all of Wikipedia), which are then distilled into “tokens” made up of each little variation of letters and symbols. Then count, sort, and categorize those tokens, and you’ve got yourself a Large Language Model.

How did we get here?

In 2018, a little-known company called OpenAI released a Large Language Model called GPT1 to little fanfare, then followed that with GPT2 in 2019. These first two models were largely focused on text prediction, or as Google says, “they excel at generating coherent, human-like text from prompts”. Pay attention to that wording: generating; coherent; human-like. The world really took notice during Christmas break of 2022 when OpenAI graced us with GPT3. It was no longer just some math whizzes and programmers building a text-prediction and translation tool. LLMs would soon be shoved into every nook and cranny of every piece of software you’ve ever used, whether you asked for it or not.

How does it work?

Imagine taking a batch of Wikipedia articles on the history of the United States, and cataloging how often each word appears,  how likely each word is to appear next to other words, and in which order. Next, use those probabilities as weights to predict the next word in a given sentence. Now, do that over and over and eventually you can generate a new wiki, but for, say, the history of Canada instead. What you will end up with is a document that reads like a plausible and grammatically accurate article, but with gaping holes in accuracy. However, these gaping holes will only be recognizable to those who know their Canadian history. To the untrained eye, the article will initially feel like it has substance, texture, story, meaning; as if you’re learning so much about Canada without trying very hard! How convenient! Upon closer inspection, you may be disappointed to find out that many of the facts, dates, and stats in the History of Canada are not, in fact, real. ChatGPT even states this right up front: “ChatGPT can make mistakes.” It’s a black box that gives you what it thinks you want, rather than what you need. It breaks down our language into its base parts, and then reconstructs a plausible facsimile, the mere appearance, of the real thing.

How about another example?

Let’s say you gave the entire Shakespeare catalog to an LLM, then said, “generate another play”. It’s true that our new generated play would have similar words and structure of Shakespeare, the plausible flow of a classic play, the recognizable roller coaster of emotions, and character development to boot. However, it would also lack intentionality. It would have all the literary aspects of a masterpiece, except the integrity, the substance, or the taste. It would appear delicious to the eyes and ears but would be bland to the heart and soul. A document with big words, but lacking nourishment. Masquerading as something that it’s not.  Sounds a lot like our food labels.

Why do I tell you all this?

We’ve lived this world already, but with our food system. We already know how this play ends. Our food system is designed to break down our food into its base nutrients, and then design, stack, and build back up the perfect ratio of what will look good, taste sweet, last long, transport safely, and store easily. After all that is complete, it also needs the appearance of “food”. Just look at a label for coffee creamers, protein drinks, nut butters, salad dressings, or any snacks. This system, taken to its extreme, looks like food that has very little in common with what our body needs; Instead, it is food that is very expensive, food that we have no say in, and food we don’t know or even recognize. Eventually, we will be unable to recognize the difference between what is “real” food and what is “generated” food. Worse still, we may be unwilling to care.

But our story is not done being written, and we still have a choice. We can choose not to attend that play, and instead write our own play, with more taste. Eating local food is the best way to know your food and your makers and growers, and ensure the food is actually real.           

~ Tobin Fekkes

I have a favorite sweater that is head and shoulders better than any other sweater, and so much so, that I point out to Emily anytime I see another version of my sweater on a stranger out in the wild. It’s a little game I play. It’s similar to when someone in my family starts driving a new vehicle, and suddenly I start recognizing all the other people in our town that also (apparently) just started driving the same vehicle! Of course, people have been driving that vehicle for ages, long before I paid attention to their choice of transportation. But once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

There’s another area I play this game, although much more niche than sweaters or vehicles. I’m sure we’re all familiar with the popular saying, which states that the three most important things in real estate are “Location, location, location”. However, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend where this does not hold up. As I started to catalog more and more instances, a curious truth revealed itself. Just like I catalog and point out sweaters to Emily, now I catalog and point out locations that are in seemingly prime locations, but are instead either dead, or a revolving door of attempts to not be dead. Do you ever see an empty lot, or an abandoned building, or a space boarded-up, yet it’s right on a busy intersection? Or it is just next to the offramp of a highway? Despite having all the signage, all the visibility, all the access, it still cannot catch a breath of air for more than a few months before shuttering. Then a new tenant comes along, perhaps after being told by the property broker that “location is everything”, yet  a year later, it’s gone. Why is that? There are many locations off the top of my head that fall into this category, on Camano Island, Bellingham, Smokey Point, Seatac, Everett, Burlington, Stanwood, Lynnwood, etc, etc, etc. The actual city is not important, since it is not isolated to any specific legislation, ordinances, tax codes, or county laws. It’s much deeper, and more fundamental than that.

In addition to trees and mangoes, one of the things I love most in life is Bell Curves. And these abandoned storefronts and restaurants in primo locations follow a bell curve also: the bell curve of convenience. They were choked by the excess convenience. On the left side of the bell curve of convenience, it is very difficult to start a store, restaurant, or business in the backwoods, way off the beaten path. As you approach the middle of the bell curve, it is very valuable to be in a visible, convenient, accessible location where your mere presence does the talking. However, “more” is not always “better”, and increasing in convenience starts to have diminishing returns as you roll down the backside of the bell curve. A one-lane intersection with a roundabout or a four-way  stop is very accessible because there are natural breaks in traffic. When an intersection becomes so crowded that it needs a turn lane in the middle, or two lanes both ways, or a median down the center, things go downhill quickly. Now the road has become so popular, so convenient, that it has become very difficult, even dangerous, to get in and out. Perhaps you can only get in one direction and go out in only one direction? Perhaps you can only enter one way but exit through another place? Perhaps, like the grocery store near me, there’s a high chance of dying anytime you go near any of the entrances! When a location becomes too convenient, it cuts off the air supply of the nutrients it needs to survive, and it either becomes increasingly expensive to maintain, or it simply starts to wither away. The oxygen it needs, namely people, are unable to access it any longer. Pay attention to the overly convenient real estate near you. Maybe you’ll notice some that die from excess convenience.

How similar our food supply has become as we have sacrificed the essential nutrients our bodies need in exchange for convenience stores, fast food, easy bakes, quick mixes, and instant pots. Fresh, local, organic, and un-processed food is the “slow food” we need to keep the supply of nutrients our bodies need to be healthy, active, and long-lasting.

Tobin

Many years ago, I came across this lecture on the patterns and styles of architecture through the ages. Of course, I can’t for the life of me find it again, not even with the Mighty Google. The main point of the lecture was that the prominent pieces of each generation of architecture, the ones that stood the test of time both physically and emotionally, were both consistent and variable. The columns of stone had consistent spacing, but they also had offsets from each other to create a sense of depth. Mosaics and frescos had intricate designs with distinct lines to create order, but with sweeping beauty in curves and chaotic color. Windows, statues, paintings, and domes had their own balance of organization with artistic freedom. Order and Chaos, balanced. When the pendulum swings too far to the Order side, things become predictable, robotic, mundane, and we lose interest. However, when things swing over into Chaos, things become tumultuous, confusing, lawless. We like a degree of certainty, but not too much. We like an ounce of chaos, but not too much. The things that hold our attention, indeed, those that give us awe and wonder, are ones that are larger than ourselves, outside of our direct control, but still follow an unpredictable pattern. 

It’s likely that, on first glance, we think of things being both Consistent and Variable much like oil and water; they don’t mix. How can something be the same and different? But in fact, the world around us is in a constant state of consistent variability. The waves crash on the beach consistently, day and night, but with varying frequency and intensity. We can’t say whether this wave will be bigger than that wave, but we know the waves are coming. The clouds roll in with some semblance of certainty, but not so much that we can bet the farm on it every day. The wind blows through, and the trees move mostly as expected, generally, but not exactly. We know what wind does, but we can’t know what it will do next. The four seasons come and go with a degree of predictability, but not so much that we can know exactly what any one day will be like. Our galaxy’s stars would be boring if they were laid across the sky as predictable as a city block in New York City, like when you fly to a major city at night and descend amongst a million little stars in a neatly packed grid. How many hours we have wasted invested staring at the flames in a campfire, drawn to the beauty of the current flame, waiting expectantly for what the next flame will do. Knowing the flame will come, but not knowing what form it will take. How similarly we behave around lightning strikes and thunderstorms! Even snowflakes fall consistently, but never the same. We can know that a leaf will fall, but we couldn’t reliably pick where on the ground it will land. When something balances a healthy dose of structure with a hint of uncertainty, we are drawn in.  

Thankfully, our food follows the same patterns of Order and Chaos. We know that too much order in food and too much automation in food production creates “things” that are frighteningly identical in size, color, and shape. When our food becomes too predictable and formulaic, then it’s a good sign that it’s not meant for us. Things like frozen pizzas, cookies, snacks, and pre-packaged vegetables have a heavy dose of “order”, while things at the drive-thru and county fairs lean towards chaos! I love our fresh bread from Rachael because every loaf is just a little different.  

A good rule of thumb to use with the food you eat is to make sure it has both Consistency and Variability. Shout for joy when two peppers are oddly shaped, when squash are different sizes, and bananas are different colors. Be thankful that head of broccoli will take some knife skills, and the carrots aren’t as straight as they could be. That’s how you know your food wasn’t optimized for packaging, nor is it fit for pig food. Right in the middle is food that’s fit for you to eat. 

May we spend more hours gazing at the stars, listening to waves crash on the beach, watching the clouds drift by, following the dance of a fire, and creating and cooking our own food.  

A couple years ago, a friend of a friend (and fellow Box of Good recipient!) was moving her small business to Snohomish, and she contracted me to set up all the technology for her new retail store. Before the computers, printers, Wi-Fi, POS station, credit card readers, and receipt printer worked, we needed to get a new internet router. So I went where everyone else goes, and headed to our local family-owned shop around the corner called Amazon. I picked out the right router that covered the appropriate square footage of her store and purchased it on a Thursday afternoon, around 1pm. I only needed it to arrive at her store by Monday to start setting up shop. But later that afternoon, she texted me to say that the router arrived at the new store! I was flabbergasted. 

While this complex system of distribution works great for consuming more and more cheaper items, it’s not such a great system for food that we actually consume. A router is not bothered by sitting on a shelf for a year, or in a container for 6 months, or a ship for 3 weeks. Nor do cell phone chargers, tires, a broom, a book or a rowing machine! My 94-year-old grandpa just bought himself a rowing machine from Amazon on his cell phone, delivered to his nursing-home “studio” in 3 days, because it’s still not too late to start something new! How long was that rowing machine waiting on a shelf for him? Who knows. 

Unfortunately, we’ve made our food system more like our non-food system, rather than the other way around. We’ve pushed too hard on the “convenience” button and tried to make every food item available all the time in whatever quantity we can dream up. Prioritizing food for storage and transport has come at the cost of the very nutrients we should be consuming. Too often, the same nutrients that our bodies desire also make food expire, but those are replaced with items that enhance their shipping and storage lives. If we were blindfolded and released into a grocery store and told to grab a handful of items, it’s more likely that your shopping cart would be full of items designed for the shelf, not for yourself. The main intention behind the shape, color, texture, presentation, density, price, and ingredients of each product is that it needs to be in a truck, freezer, cooler, warehouse, or storage for an unknown amount of time. It’s made to sustain the temperature changes, shaking, and squishing, rather than sustain our stomachs. 

But fresh local produce and grocery items flip the tradeoffs in our favor, so the nutrients we crave are left in the food, and the costs of a complex storage system are removed. The single-use plastic is eliminated, the gas and electricity are minimal from storing and moving items around between distribution centers. The fresh bread in your Box of Goodis baked by Rachael the morning that you receive it. The raw milk in your delivery comes from Tilly the day before you receive it. The bar of chocolate is made by Kevin the same week you receive it. The kale and carrots are grown by Ray and John, picked a day or two before you get it. The blueberries from Karen are picked a day or two before you eat them. That’s why I can’t eat just one pint! 

A famous person once said, just because it’s possible, doesn’t mean it’s beneficial.  

The Food and Drug Administration publishes the changes to our nutrition laws on their website, and it can be a dull read sometimes. Each year, the FDA makes changes to the National Register, which makes them part of the Law across the Land. I don’t know many people that keep up to date with the FDA regulations, so you’d be forgiven for missing the FDA alterations amongst other things like Twitter changing their name, or the Paris Olympics memes, or any other Very Important News®. Most years, the FDA makes a dozen or so updates to the food regulations, but so far in 2024, there have only been 3. We are 1) reducing sodium use, 2) updating “health” claims on yogurt, but the most riveting one is 3) revoking the standards for frozen cherry pie. What?!? 

In 1967, the FDA made a proposal to regulate the Standards of Identity for frozen cherry pies, meaning that the public was confused about what was and was not a frozen cherry pie. More specifically, the public was not sure whether the sweetener in the cherry goop was artificial or not.  A solid four years later, the proposal was finalized in 1971 and ever since then, we’ve had nothing but perfect frozen cherry pies. In 2020, the American Bakers Association (who else?!) petitioned to revoke the Standards of Identity around frozen cherry pies, asserting that “that non-standardized fruit pies have been sold throughout the country for many years without any evidence of public confusion”. So in March of 2024, the FDA relaxed the rules on frozen cherry pies, saying “the standards are no longer necessary to ensure that these products meet consumer expectations, and revoking the standards will provide greater flexibility and the opportunity for product innovation”. Keep an eye out for some innovative frozen cherry pies coming to a retailer near year! 

As we head into fall, we’re entering peak pie season. The usual pie suspects make this season go ‘round. The classic apple pie, pumpkin pie, pecan pie and chocolate pie are never far from reach. Or you can go the savory route and make sausage pies, delicata squash pies, turkey pies from Thanksgiving leftovers, cheddar pies, chicken pot pies. Quiche is even a pie! And don’t forget custard pies, meringue pies, or sweet potato pies. You name it, you can make a pie out of it! A pie is like the soup of the oven: throw all your extra ingredients in a pie crust, cover it with something, and bake it off! No one will be sure exactly what is in it, but it will taste good! 

If pies are not your thing or you need to be pulled away from the pies, Box of Good will begin offering nutritional classes In October. The class will be once a week for 5 weeks, and it’s a combination of 1 part nutritional education, 1 part sugar detox, and 1 part support group. Laura Conley is a Functional Nutritionist and will be leading the class through education around digestion, healthy fats, the impact of sugar and refined carbs, and how to fight back with whole foods, preferably local and organic when available. To register, look for more info on our website and the space will be limited. We will offer both daytime or evening classes to fit flexible schedules. 

A quick way to summarize the class is a great quote from author Michael Pollan: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” 

Every once in a while, a phrase makes it into our global lexicon. These phrases are usually tied to an event or time that we all collectively associate. We can often remember exactly where we were and what we were doing. I remember learning a new phrase soon after September 11^th, 2001, where all the newspapers and TV shouted “Shock and Awe” on repeat. I’d never heard that before, but suddenly, it was everywhere!  

Shortly before that, we added the “Dot-com Bubble” to reference the fall-out from very speculative tech companies after reality settled in that they may not be as important as they thought. Then we added “Great Recession” and learned all sorts of fun new financial words like derivatives, credit default swaps, and subprime. Without wasting time, we quickly added “Occupy Wall Street” and “Top 1%”. Then we moved on very quickly to “Black Lives Matter” and “Cancel Culture”. Finally, we’ve rounded out the last four years with a plethora of phrases regarding “Social Distancing” and “Flattening the Curve”. 

One interesting thing reading these phrases is that you can often recognize feelings, images, thoughts, or memories surrounding those very phrases, without me providing any further context whatsoever. With just a few words, we can all remember a singular season of life and where we were or who we spoke to. I remember exactly where I was for the first videos of 9/11, as well as when Washington State went into lockdown (if was half-time of my soccer game!).  

My favorite phrase is “Too Big To Fail” because it is accurate enough to cover all sorts of time periods and events. It’s a timeless truth that can apply to the railroads in the 1800s, the oil companies in the 1900s, the car companies after that, then the telephone companies in the 80s, then finally the banks in 2008. Even now, we could still apply it to the tech companies of 2020s, or CrowdStrike in July 2024. We could even apply it to the United States itself across many individual decades. We could also apply it to the Romans, the Dutch, the British, and many other empires in between. The underlying sentiment is that something becomes so critical, so dependent, that even if it fails (and fails those that depend on it), it lives on. Very few other aspects of life get to operate in this spectrum. When my peach tree gets too big, too heavy, too far out from its trunk, and I don’t trim and thin it, the roots give out and it naturally snaps and falls over. As it should, since it can’t support its own weight. Last week, a couple of famous arches in the Utah desert collapsed, and we, so far, have not spent a billion dollars to prop them back up to maintain an unsustainable structure. 

Eventually, some companies become a little too big, a little too important, a little too dependent, and a little too extractive. The tides slowly turn from producing lots of value for the local economy, to gradually sucking all the value in a larger and larger radius. When a company starts taking more value than it produces, people are left wondering where it all went, and is it still worth it to maintain it? The cure for this lose-lose situation is to notice these patterns early, get off the train at the next stop, and decide that these companies are Too Big To Follow. 

In late 2023, Seattle’s local organic chocolatier, Theo’s, was merged into the massive American Licorice Company. To “ensure the future of the company”, they closed their original Seattle manufacturing plant, laid off 60 of the people that got them there, and moved the operations out east. Meanwhile, our friendly account rep that worked with us turned into an automated inbox, our chocolate shipped from the East coast instead of Seattle, and the bars arrived further and further after their production date. They published an eye-opening press release of how they became too big and had to cut ties to their roots. That’s how trees fail too.  

We will always operate “upside-down” and when something gets Too Big to Follow, we’ll go the other direction and look local, look small. Next week, we will begin offering Miodo Chocolate, from our own backyard of Camano Island. Our friend, Kevin Miodonski, has been making single-origin, small-batch, dark chocolate for over 20 years. Our new fresh bread starting this week from Water Tank Bakery follows a similar pattern, from a small local baker using all Northwest ingredients to get bread to your door right after its baked. Stayed tuned for more hyper-local producers of honey, pasta, meat, pizza dough, salad dressing, hummus, even dishware and nutrition classes! We’re gearing up for a full harvest season!