Food in our culture is one aspect of a larger nightmare." Write an essay that opposes, supports of qualifies this statement.
Every plant and animal on this planet coexists with each other and the plant we all live on. While large predators are on the top of the food chain and lions are kings of the jungle, no one animal is larger or more powerful than the system it lives in, the natural world. Birds build nests, beavers build dams and more recently humans have been building luxury condos, Hummers (the car) and shopping malls.
The nightmare we are all living in can be summed up as the human world where humans work to exceed the limits of this planet by using fossil fuel and technology to grow and develop exponentially, all the while developing false values. To mention some of the aspects of that larger nightmare: war, weapons of mass destruction/bombs/guns, murder, the use of fossil fuels (600 million motor vehicles on this planet, all the tractors and machines used to build huge buildings and hotels and shopping centers, etc.), the machines we depend on, the machine we live in, the population of the world (6,602,224,175 and counting), the mass power of America, the industrial food system, the starving children and adults, slavery, child labor, exploitation, all the garbage that human dump on this earth (plastic toys, diapers, strollers, garbage bags – most things will never decompose), beauty contests, designers like Prada and Gucci that have people dying for expensive bags and clothes, and it goes on. The reason the food in our culture (the American industrial food system) is an aspect of this nightmare is because like most other aspects it relies on fossil fuels, it contributes to many social problems, most of it is junk (bad for your health) and most people are oblivious and completely disconnected from it.
The American industrial food system, which includes many of the countries it imports its food from, is completely dependent on fossil fuel to grow the food, process the food, transport the food and cook the food. Fossil fuels are used as pesticides and fertilizers and then used to spread seeds and plant the fruits and vegetables, to spread fertilizer and pesticides on them, and to harvest them. Corn and soy, the main form of vegetable grown in the country goes through that process and is then transported several times till it ends up as cow and other animal feed, the animals eat the corn till they are fat enough to slaughter, then they are killed and dissected into meat by machines (and some poorly paid/treated immigrant workers) dependent on fossil fuels and transported by vehicles that depend on fossil fuel. Other foods made from corn (not meat) go through extensive processing that uses machines dependent on fossil fuels. The main point in this repetitive story is that all the food that comes to our supermarkets, restaurant and fast food chains are grown/raised, processed, packaged, transported and served to us using a great deal of fossil fuel, which is what makes it possible to feed the 300 million people that live in this country.
With so many mouths to feed and so much money to be made by the head honchos, the industrial food system is not only dependent on fossil fuels but also on cheep labor. The farmers that grow the corn, even though they aren’t directly dependent on the major corporation because they work for themselves and then sell the corn, are in a situation where they are paid as little as possible for the corn and then paid some compensation for by the government, which is all a ploy by the government to make the corn as cheep as possible for the 3 main large corporations to process and sell the corn. But what’s in store for the farmers that grow corn isn’t nearly as bad as what goes on the with immigrant workers who pick fruits and vegetables and work in the slaughterhouse and meat factories. The immigrants who pick fruits and vegetables work 10-12 hour days getting paid only $50 an hour, without health insurance, sick days, or the right to organize (create unions). The immigrant workers who work in meat factories have dangerous jobs working with hazardous machines, sharp knives and fast disassembly lines. As a result of the extremely difficult work they are required to do at such rapid speeds many of them use drugs to enhance their work ability, often given to them by their supervisors. Sexual abuse/harassment is not uncommon either; many of the women are forced to have sex with supervisors in order to get a better job or better pay.
For all the fossil fuels being used and the immigrant workers being exploited, the food we are receiving at the end of line isn’t what we should be eating. As human who have evolved over millions of years, hunting and gathering and growing whole foods we are designed to be eating whole foods. Instead we are eating highly processed food high in starch and sugar but not too high in nutrition. This is evident by the obesity and diabetes epidemics (that is only mentioning two of the many health problems this country is facing).
And lastly, how many people are aware of what is going on? For over 99 percent of the time humans have been on this plant they were hunting, gathering and preparing their own food; they worked hard to survive and had to be aware of what their food was, where is was coming from and how they were eating it. Now, people with absent minds go to the supermarket or fast food restaurant to get there food without thinking about what is in it, where it comes from or what it is doing to their bodies. There is little to no connection between Americans and the food they eat.
As of now, the industrial food system in America seems to be working, almost everyone is fed (74% of Americans are overweight, 29% obese) but fossil fuel wont last forever and neither will of system of food. Unfortunately, most of America isn’t aware of the nightmare we are living in so they can’t wake up and put an end to it.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Final: The Present and Future of Our Food
Describe the past and present of food. Predict the future of food, with reference to class materials and historical trends.
Food: The Past and Present
When most people think about the history of food they think about the ideal or cliché family farm, with the barn and the livestock and the eatable plants in the fields. Or they think about the Indians who grew corn and shared thanksgivings with the pilgrims. What people are really thinking about the history of agriculture, which accounts for only about 1% of the history of our food; for millions of years human collected all their food through hunting and gathering. Hunter-gatherers lived in small groups of people who occupied (but did not own) and survived off of the unmanipulated land. This required that the tribes of people stay small; a mother could only have a child every four years because the lifestyle required the mother to carry their children until they were old enough to keep up with the rest of the group. But when groups grew larger and people needed an easier way to feed themselves, agriculture was a very viable solution. And from there agriculture (and the world’s population) grew and developed into what we think of as the family farm that feeds everyone.
What was diverse agriculture became corn and soy agriculture, most of what the farmers in the US grow and most of what we eat is corn. Type-2 corn (not the sweet kind you eat at your dinner table) is grown and then distributed where it is processed (broken down into its many different parts and then put back together in the form of cereal or a Twinkie) or it is made into food to fatten our meat. The problem with corn, while it is easy and cheap to grow, is that we are not designed to eat it and neither are the animals. We are Omnivores and therefore, yes we are designed to eat all sorts of thing, corn included, but the mass production of corn has resulted in epidemics like obesity and diabetes. We have evolved over millions of years to become the humans we are, it is in significantly less than 1% of that time that we have started eating food like McDonalds and thrown ourselves into a food system with almost entirely processed foods, full of chemical and pesticides.
And the cows, who are herbivores and have stomachs designed to digest grass (not corn), which results in problems with the enzymes, bacteria and other diseases they carry. Once the cows reach slaughter weight (in 14 months rather than several years), they are killed, disassembles and processed. Within the processes of producing meat there are many complex issues, like those of the poor immigrant works and of the quality of the meat (20% of the time guts are broken and the meat is covered in shit). The entire process, which most of America is completely disassociated with, all gets carried onto our plates.
The most crucial part of our food system isn’t the corn though, and it’s not the processing either, it’s the fossil fuels. Without the fossil fuels there would no way to produce all the food for all the people in this country or this world. The farmers are dependent on them for their fertilizers, pesticides and tools (for example tractors), and so are the slaughterhouses, processing plant and especially the transportation companies. And with peak oil in the near future we have an even bigger problem than just the shit and chemicals on our food.
Food: The Future
Eventually, when there isn’t enough fossil fuel to run the food system we have now, there will have to be some major changes in the food we are eating and the way we get our food. In the past 100 years our culture has developed massive technology and grown by the billions. There is no way that this planet can support such an intrusive species that draws out all its resources and then continues to grow. If I were to predict what our food system will look like in the future, after peak oil hits I would say that it is possible that someone will try to invent a pill that supplements all the human nutritional values but I don’t actually think that will work. What I actually think will happen is that many people will starve and the population will decrease. Those who survive will have to grow their own food, hunt and gather their own food or depend on another person/family in the local area to do so.
The current food system is one example of how humans have pushed the earth past its limitations, and this planet isn’t designed to support what humans are trying to do. I believe this planet is designed to adapt but I definitely think there is a limit, if it hasn’t been passes yet it will be shortly; because (despite the fact that they think they do) humans do not have the power to live without the natural world that exists on earth and earth is going to force humans back to a way of life that is sustainable and without the magic of fossil fuels. That means a food systems and a life style that is scaled back, local and mostly independent from strangers.
Food: The Past and Present
When most people think about the history of food they think about the ideal or cliché family farm, with the barn and the livestock and the eatable plants in the fields. Or they think about the Indians who grew corn and shared thanksgivings with the pilgrims. What people are really thinking about the history of agriculture, which accounts for only about 1% of the history of our food; for millions of years human collected all their food through hunting and gathering. Hunter-gatherers lived in small groups of people who occupied (but did not own) and survived off of the unmanipulated land. This required that the tribes of people stay small; a mother could only have a child every four years because the lifestyle required the mother to carry their children until they were old enough to keep up with the rest of the group. But when groups grew larger and people needed an easier way to feed themselves, agriculture was a very viable solution. And from there agriculture (and the world’s population) grew and developed into what we think of as the family farm that feeds everyone.
What was diverse agriculture became corn and soy agriculture, most of what the farmers in the US grow and most of what we eat is corn. Type-2 corn (not the sweet kind you eat at your dinner table) is grown and then distributed where it is processed (broken down into its many different parts and then put back together in the form of cereal or a Twinkie) or it is made into food to fatten our meat. The problem with corn, while it is easy and cheap to grow, is that we are not designed to eat it and neither are the animals. We are Omnivores and therefore, yes we are designed to eat all sorts of thing, corn included, but the mass production of corn has resulted in epidemics like obesity and diabetes. We have evolved over millions of years to become the humans we are, it is in significantly less than 1% of that time that we have started eating food like McDonalds and thrown ourselves into a food system with almost entirely processed foods, full of chemical and pesticides.
And the cows, who are herbivores and have stomachs designed to digest grass (not corn), which results in problems with the enzymes, bacteria and other diseases they carry. Once the cows reach slaughter weight (in 14 months rather than several years), they are killed, disassembles and processed. Within the processes of producing meat there are many complex issues, like those of the poor immigrant works and of the quality of the meat (20% of the time guts are broken and the meat is covered in shit). The entire process, which most of America is completely disassociated with, all gets carried onto our plates.
The most crucial part of our food system isn’t the corn though, and it’s not the processing either, it’s the fossil fuels. Without the fossil fuels there would no way to produce all the food for all the people in this country or this world. The farmers are dependent on them for their fertilizers, pesticides and tools (for example tractors), and so are the slaughterhouses, processing plant and especially the transportation companies. And with peak oil in the near future we have an even bigger problem than just the shit and chemicals on our food.
Food: The Future
Eventually, when there isn’t enough fossil fuel to run the food system we have now, there will have to be some major changes in the food we are eating and the way we get our food. In the past 100 years our culture has developed massive technology and grown by the billions. There is no way that this planet can support such an intrusive species that draws out all its resources and then continues to grow. If I were to predict what our food system will look like in the future, after peak oil hits I would say that it is possible that someone will try to invent a pill that supplements all the human nutritional values but I don’t actually think that will work. What I actually think will happen is that many people will starve and the population will decrease. Those who survive will have to grow their own food, hunt and gather their own food or depend on another person/family in the local area to do so.
The current food system is one example of how humans have pushed the earth past its limitations, and this planet isn’t designed to support what humans are trying to do. I believe this planet is designed to adapt but I definitely think there is a limit, if it hasn’t been passes yet it will be shortly; because (despite the fact that they think they do) humans do not have the power to live without the natural world that exists on earth and earth is going to force humans back to a way of life that is sustainable and without the magic of fossil fuels. That means a food systems and a life style that is scaled back, local and mostly independent from strangers.
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