Blog Reflection

The following readings and activities were about the food industry. How it was, How it is, and what it may be like in the future. Food is is an element that is essential to life. If we were to stop burning fuel for energy and stopped harvesting materials for shelter we would still survive, (there are some who live in the world today with neither). But without food life would be impossible. As Carol Steel pointed out civilization (urbanism) itself was possible only with agriculture at the center.

Like every other resource given to us as a species we have managed to overuse and destroy food materials and an alarming rate even without the entire population benefiting from it. The affluent western society has expanded and grown out of control. Farmers have been forced from a lifestyle of quality, health and sustainability to a world of quantity, a unsustainable and uncertain future.

I looked at my own diet for the first time in this light. In the last 48 hours everything aside from a few fruits and vegetables were frozen and packaged at one time or another and most likely shipped large distances at one time. Most of the fruits I eat are those grown in California and Florida because they cheapest foods at the store. I drink alot of milk and I eat meat often though not on a daily basis. What I see as more relevant is how disconnected I am from what I eat. Once its gone I forget it was ever there. The only time I think of food is when I'm contemplating what to have next. This blind consuming is habit of the majority of people today especially urban-living people. It has come to the point were everybody is fixated on there own business. It would require an unnecessary amount of time for most to think about what they are actually eating, where it came from, and where the leftovers will end up. When I think about my own diet I realize that my taste for extravagance is an issue. I do not like eating the same thing within a few days this requires more exportation of a wider variety of produce. But I have made it a habit of eating whats on my plate so my waste is usually minimal, I also have the luxury of living in a city surrounded by agriculture so much of my food doesn't have to travel far. I can easily take more action on the problem in buying local, I would greatly reduce my footprint without hindering curious appetite.

Photo:
http://www.liquidmatrix.org/blog/