Food Consumption: Kill or Save the Planet?
“Eating is an agricultural act,” stated Wendell Berry in his article “The Pleasure of Eating” (630). However, it is also an ecological act. By rushing, people do not even think what they eat, how the food is made, and how this production affects the environment. Practically, we eat whatever food producers “put” in our mouths, but many manufacturers do not care about the harm caused by such production; their main concern is to generate a profit. Moreover, the selections that we make every single day directly affect our lifestyle. It might sound difficult at first, but a few simple steps that change the way we eat can assist us in making this planet a cleaner place to live. Some uncritical …show more content…
Many local farmers who can produce better quality goods with less harmful effect on the environment struggle to survive. So, according to the search “Can Local Farms Survive Globalization?” the share of small commercial farms in the U.S.A. fell from 41 percent in 1982 to just 14 percent in 2007 (4). This is mostly due to the new technology that has one objective – the speed. In order for the local farmer to compete with such production, more financial input is needed. By investing more, the farmer is still not able to match the prices offered by the large companies. The reason for such difficulty is financial budgeting. “Passive consumers” who visit grocery stores in search of a better deal aggravate the situation. In order to decrease the pollution on the environment, instead of buying the food in large chains, we need to support the local …show more content…
Large companies such as Nestle produce food utilizing machines and fertilizers. This process, in turn, releases carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, which both contribute to the global warming (“Hidden Costs of Industrial Agriculture”). While carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas, agriculture produces more emissions of nitrous oxide (from fertilizers), and the latter has greater global warming potential than CO2. European food industry accounts for 31% of greenhouse gas emissions (“Eating as an Ecological Act: Environmental Impact of the Food System”). How could we correct such negative impact? We need to seriously think about the damage we create to nature by constant atmospheric emissions, and, along with decreasing a demand of industrial food, reduce contamination of air by engaging ecologically friendly production
“Eating is an agricultural act,” stated Wendell Berry in his article “The Pleasure of Eating” (630). However, it is also an ecological act. By rushing, people do not even think what they eat, how the food is made, and how this production affects the environment. Practically, we eat whatever food producers “put” in our mouths, but many manufacturers do not care about the harm caused by such production; their main concern is to generate a profit. Moreover, the selections that we make every single day directly affect our lifestyle. It might sound difficult at first, but a few simple steps that change the way we eat can assist us in making this planet a cleaner place to live. Some uncritical …show more content…
Many local farmers who can produce better quality goods with less harmful effect on the environment struggle to survive. So, according to the search “Can Local Farms Survive Globalization?” the share of small commercial farms in the U.S.A. fell from 41 percent in 1982 to just 14 percent in 2007 (4). This is mostly due to the new technology that has one objective – the speed. In order for the local farmer to compete with such production, more financial input is needed. By investing more, the farmer is still not able to match the prices offered by the large companies. The reason for such difficulty is financial budgeting. “Passive consumers” who visit grocery stores in search of a better deal aggravate the situation. In order to decrease the pollution on the environment, instead of buying the food in large chains, we need to support the local …show more content…
Large companies such as Nestle produce food utilizing machines and fertilizers. This process, in turn, releases carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, which both contribute to the global warming (“Hidden Costs of Industrial Agriculture”). While carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas, agriculture produces more emissions of nitrous oxide (from fertilizers), and the latter has greater global warming potential than CO2. European food industry accounts for 31% of greenhouse gas emissions (“Eating as an Ecological Act: Environmental Impact of the Food System”). How could we correct such negative impact? We need to seriously think about the damage we create to nature by constant atmospheric emissions, and, along with decreasing a demand of industrial food, reduce contamination of air by engaging ecologically friendly production