When people think about food, they tend to think about where they get their food and what they eat. Most people don’t know that the average time food takes to get to the dinner table is almost 4, 200 miles. They also do not know how much environmental damage is being done to get the food to the supermarket that they buy from. Either that or they don’t care because the only concern for most humans is that they have food to eat. The process of producing the food to such a large population, however, is something that needs to be looked at through the lens of the Treadmill of Production theory. In order to understand what all goes into the processing of food, one must understand what exactly the Treadmill of Production is and how it came about.
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It is then processed, packaged, transported, bought and then placed on the dinner table. However, that is the simple way of explaining. It is so much more complex than that. Production is the first step. Growing plants that are harvested and raising animals for food is the first part. Some foods are even caught or harvested from the wild. The first step in food production can cause contamination that are harmful to human health such as pesticides that are used. The pollution from the machines are also harmful to the environment. These are known as additions which are part of the Treadmill of Production. The next step is the processing. This is when the plants and animals are transformed into something we recognize and buy as food. The processing usually requires very harsh conditions that are unsanitary. This was seen in the film watched in class when the chickens and pigs were shown in conditions that they are not used to and certainly can’t survive in. The next step, distribution, is getting the food from farms or processing plants to the consumer. The consumer plays a major role in the Treadmill of Production because the consumers are what generate the profit to keep the system going. The transportation process plays a major role in the pollution that enters into the atmosphere whether it is from trucks on land, boats on water, or airplanes in the sky. The final step is the preparation of the food to get ready to
It is then processed, packaged, transported, bought and then placed on the dinner table. However, that is the simple way of explaining. It is so much more complex than that. Production is the first step. Growing plants that are harvested and raising animals for food is the first part. Some foods are even caught or harvested from the wild. The first step in food production can cause contamination that are harmful to human health such as pesticides that are used. The pollution from the machines are also harmful to the environment. These are known as additions which are part of the Treadmill of Production. The next step is the processing. This is when the plants and animals are transformed into something we recognize and buy as food. The processing usually requires very harsh conditions that are unsanitary. This was seen in the film watched in class when the chickens and pigs were shown in conditions that they are not used to and certainly can’t survive in. The next step, distribution, is getting the food from farms or processing plants to the consumer. The consumer plays a major role in the Treadmill of Production because the consumers are what generate the profit to keep the system going. The transportation process plays a major role in the pollution that enters into the atmosphere whether it is from trucks on land, boats on water, or airplanes in the sky. The final step is the preparation of the food to get ready to