Living Off the Food Systems
Three distinct food production systems make up our everyday food choices. Some Americans will never move past the very first food chain where little connection exists between nature and the plate. In Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he walks through and explores each food chain in detail. Pollan holds a strong desire to closely experience every aspect of the processes and origins of the food that humans eat. His introduction explains what the book’s message and journey are all about: “Omnivore’s Dilemma is about the three principal food chains that sustain us today: the industrial, the organic, and the hunter-gatherer. Different as they are, all three food chains are systems for doing more or less …show more content…
These huge organic farms do not operate like Joel Salatin’s farm. In fact, a spokesman from Grimmway said that they are in the organic industry for the profitability. Unlike Polyface Farms, these large corporations are not bound by the seasons. Instead, they make use of extreme amounts of energy in order to distribute their food around the world: “The combined company now controls seventeen thousand acres across California, enough land that it can, like Earthbound, rotate production up and down the West Coast in order to ensure a twelve-month national supply of fresh organic produce” (Pollan 174). If this is the case, my lifestyle relies even more heavily on the industrial food system because the organic food that I eat comes from farms which closely resemble their industrial …show more content…
Because almost all of the food that I eat is supplied by large companies, I am not helping to reduce the carbon footprint through my food choices. My family and I do not go out of our way to eat food produced locally except for the food that we grow in our own garden. Some environmental impacts of supporting the industrial food system are the growing lack of diversity, chemical run-off, and growing pest-resistance. Economically, my food choices are contributing to the transformation of crops into commodities. Farmers are told to produce higher and higher yields regardless of the sacrifice of uniqueness and diversity. The government and large corporations demand for farmers to focus on quantity versus quality by providing subsidies and rewards for higher yields. In my first paper, I stressed the importance of health ramifications on my personal food choices. I wrote about the industrial use of chemicals, dyes, and preservatives as well as the stripping of nutrients from basic ingredients and the possibility of bacteria from feedlots. Unfortunately, my choice to support the industrial food system helps increase the threat of these health
Three distinct food production systems make up our everyday food choices. Some Americans will never move past the very first food chain where little connection exists between nature and the plate. In Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, he walks through and explores each food chain in detail. Pollan holds a strong desire to closely experience every aspect of the processes and origins of the food that humans eat. His introduction explains what the book’s message and journey are all about: “Omnivore’s Dilemma is about the three principal food chains that sustain us today: the industrial, the organic, and the hunter-gatherer. Different as they are, all three food chains are systems for doing more or less …show more content…
These huge organic farms do not operate like Joel Salatin’s farm. In fact, a spokesman from Grimmway said that they are in the organic industry for the profitability. Unlike Polyface Farms, these large corporations are not bound by the seasons. Instead, they make use of extreme amounts of energy in order to distribute their food around the world: “The combined company now controls seventeen thousand acres across California, enough land that it can, like Earthbound, rotate production up and down the West Coast in order to ensure a twelve-month national supply of fresh organic produce” (Pollan 174). If this is the case, my lifestyle relies even more heavily on the industrial food system because the organic food that I eat comes from farms which closely resemble their industrial …show more content…
Because almost all of the food that I eat is supplied by large companies, I am not helping to reduce the carbon footprint through my food choices. My family and I do not go out of our way to eat food produced locally except for the food that we grow in our own garden. Some environmental impacts of supporting the industrial food system are the growing lack of diversity, chemical run-off, and growing pest-resistance. Economically, my food choices are contributing to the transformation of crops into commodities. Farmers are told to produce higher and higher yields regardless of the sacrifice of uniqueness and diversity. The government and large corporations demand for farmers to focus on quantity versus quality by providing subsidies and rewards for higher yields. In my first paper, I stressed the importance of health ramifications on my personal food choices. I wrote about the industrial use of chemicals, dyes, and preservatives as well as the stripping of nutrients from basic ingredients and the possibility of bacteria from feedlots. Unfortunately, my choice to support the industrial food system helps increase the threat of these health