How Food Shapes Our Cities

Carolyn Steel examines the deep connection of people to food past and present. She describes how city weas shaped around food in pre-industrial times. City markets were the center of urban settlements which was the social fabric of the community. Buying food was back then the opportunity to socialize and network with others throughout the settlement. "Ounce (food) roots in the city are established they very rarely move". Society lived with food at the center food was how humanity is connected to nature. But "after the trains came cars and this marks the end of this process, its the final emancipation of the city from any apparent relationship with nature at all." It meant that meat did not need to be brought in the city but outside and out of society as well as grains and crops could be moved greater distances in less time preventing it from going bad. Before "cities used to be constrained by geography"
The connection with nature and essentially the social fabric that came along with buying food was gone. Now it is possible to drive to the grocery store and buy your food and not talk to anyone but the cashier. The sacred significance of food was lost "we don't value food, we don't trust it instead of trusting it we fear it, and instead of valuing it with throw it away". This has distanced us from nature and is unsustainable "A billion of us are obese and another cant get enough". "It takes 10 calories (of fossil fuel) to produce 1 calorie of food in the western world". "A 3rd of annual grain crop is fed to animals". These are just a few examples that Steel shares about current food produce and eating practices.
Her solution is to somehow put food back into the center of life. More people are needed to think about food on a regular basis be it male or female. She imagines a utopia or "sitopia" as she calls it where all society is once again focused and centralized around food. "sitopia exist as little pockets everywhere the trick is to join them up." The solution the global food crisis will involve a change in the public's opinion toward food. "We know we are what we eat we need to realize that the world is also what we eat."

Citations: www.ted.com
by Carolyn Steel

Picture:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/