Food is the most important thing in our lives because it sustains our lives. However, in our modern world, food production has become unsustainable; slowly destroying the planet and ourselves. Cities and the countryside have always been interlinked. People knew where their food was coming from, there were livestock in the cities and many people's diets were based on grans and vegetables.
In our modern society, the country and the city have been divided, cities have been "made cleaner" by getting rid of animals and a town common has been replaced with skyscrapers and landscapes.
It was very interesting to read about the history of British farming because it shows how much agriculture has changed due to technology and the quest (and consequences) for cheap food.
Now, the quest for farming and the demand for meat has gone global. Millions of hectares of rain forest are being cleared in Brazil to produce grain and meat for China.
Genetically modified seeds are being used because they're more "resilient" yet are failing thousands of small-time farmers in developing nations and the companies that produce them are bullying farmers to not keep their seeds to constantly buy more. All the while, farm land in Britain dwindles and have to import their food from other nations when food surplus is up and billions of people are starving. Our modern food system does not make any sense and that's because we have let asphalt and steel divide us from soil and trees. We have become to live separate from nature, where our food comes from and reliant on the soul-crushing, oil-consuming machine that fuels our economy and our bodies.
It is up to us as a planet to make wiser choices about where we get our food from, to limit our intake of unsustainable food sources- like meat- and to realize that food shouldn't be controlled by a plutocracy driven by profit but by farmers, growing a harvest of natural foods, sustaining the Earth and her people.
I loved your last line, "... food shouldn't be controlled by a plutocracy driven by profit but by farmers, growing a harvest of natural foods, sustaining the Earth and her people."
ReplyDeleteHow do you think we can start to turn away from unhealthy, unsustainable practices? There is definitely a lot of small farm movement in urban areas- almost every city seems to have a community garden of some sorts. I think this is important as a teaching tool, but obviously it is not enough to feed everyone in the city. Do you think self-sufficiency is possible in urban landscapes, or should we just stick to our supermarkets?
I completely agree, current food production methods of big businesses and corporations have become completely unsustainable in terms of environmental and economic impacts it makes. The people who control food production in the country are generally more concerned about profits than creating good food that benefits citizens and the planet. The history of food production has been affected by technology and industry practices such as GMO's and pesticides. And despite advances these methods have made in food yields, the system that has been made still cannot feed everyone on the planet, or offer all the nutrients that people need to be healthy. Foods are subsidized in such a way that unhealthy food is cheaper, and healthier foods are more expensive, just as you have noted. We definitely need to make wiser choices to reverse our food practices and develop more equitable and sustainable food systems.
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