Week 2: Food and the City

As this week’s readings have pointed out, urban centers have historically relied on the hinterlands to produce the food to feed the urban residents. However, some major shifts have occurred in our relationship with food. During the time of the Greek and Roman empires, food was celebrated. Festivals, fasting, and lifestyles revolved around food. Today however, food has become simply a means of nourishment, although it seems to lack the actual nourishment. Food has become something to make the hungry feeling subside. Much of today’s food lacks the vitamins, minerals, and proper ingredients to truly nourish us. As Food, Inc. taught us, these nourishing ingredients have been replaced with sugary, chemical fillers, which not only lack any real nutrition, they are actually harmful to our bodies.

The mass production of meat and other ingredients spurred by the industrial revolution has removed us from the agricultural process. We no longer see where our food comes from, or what goes into it. Even worse, in many cases we prefer to be ignorant to the process. The city, separated from the country, has become unaware of how the food provided by the farmers in the country is made. We do not see the unsustainable and cruel practices that produce our food. Farmers claim this is the only fiscally possible way to produce our meat and crops. However, the change needs to come from the consumer first. We need to reduce meat consumption to allow for more sustainable and animal-friendly farming practices. It has become a “fact” to some that we need to eat large quantities of meat to sustain ourselves. However, this “fact” is false. How do we make people with such staunch beliefs about food see that we can remain healthy and satisfied while transitioning to more sustainable practices? Or even better, that we would be even healthier if we changed our food habits?