The Actual Cost of Food

2539 Words6 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The effect of agriculture on the world

Food is something each and every person is faced with making decisions about on a recurring basis. From the meat and dairy products to the packages of pseudo-food being consumed on unprecedented levels even the tasteless colorless vegetables being thrust at consumers every time they enter a grocery store there are many choices to be made. Not everyone approaches the question of what to eat in the same way. Most people will think about what sounds good, what seems the easiest, or for many what is the cheapest. The everyday decisions made about food and what to eat have an enormous impact. The influence the agricultural market has on everyday life is much greater than many people realize, including the vast effect on local economies, public health, and the environment both locally and globally. Conscious and purposeful eating becomes vitally important when addressing these pressing concerns. When the question becomes why to consume instead of what to consume many changes can be made to promote positive change.

The first step to solving this enormous problem is to eat with purpose. Making conscious and informed decisions about food is critical to the solution. Considering the source of the food is a major component to purposeful eating. One aspect to take into account is the recipient of profit from the purchase of food. In the article “Slaughterhouses and Processing” found on the website sustainabletable.com it says that “as of 2005 four companies controlled the processing of over 80% of the country's beef…” (par.1)The same is true of the chicken and pork industry. This means that there are not a significant number of people profiting off the sale of these products. If a farmer is not affiliated with one of the top companies like...

... middle of paper ...

... 3 Dec. 2000.

Kenner, Robert, dir. FOOD Inc. Perf. Micheal Pollan and Eric Schlosser. Netflix. Magnolia Home Entertainment, 2008. Web. 20 June 2011.

Mead, Paul S, Laurence Slutsker, Vance Dietz, Linda McCaig, and Joseph Brisee. Centers for Disease Control. “Emerging Infectious Diseases: Food-Related Illness and Death in the United States.” Vol. 5. 3 June 2011. Web. 7 July 2011.

“Mississippi is the fattest state for 6th straight year, Colorado still leanest, Rhode Island getting fatter, Alaska slimmer.” Calorielab.com. 2011 Web. 7 July 2011.

Oliver, Sarah. “All About: Food and Fossil Fuels.” CNN.com. 17 Mar. 2008 Web. 30 June 2011.

“The Issues: Slaughterhouses and Processing and Economics’ of Local.” Susainabletable.com. Grace, Sep. 2009. Web. 1 July 2011.

Webb,Sarah. “FDA Approves Food from Cloned Animals.” Discovery Magazine 13 Dec. 2008. Web 17 June 2011.

Show More
Related

  • Barbara Kingsolver Called Home

    1391 Words  | 3 Pages

    Moreover, this system of mass farming leads to single crop farms, which are ecologically unsafe, and the unnatural treatment of animals (Kingsolver 14). These facts are presented to force the reader to consider their own actions when purchasing their own food because of the huge economic impact that their purchases can have. Kingsolver demonstrates this impact by stating that “every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we

    Read More

  • The Omnivore's Dilemma Sparknotes

    836 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan challenges his readers to examine their food and question themselves about the things they consume. Have we ever considered where our food comes from or stopped to think about the process that goes into the food that we purchase to eat every day? Do we know whether our meat and vegetables picked out were raised in our local farms or transported from another country? Michael pollen addresses the reality of what really goes beyond the food we intake and how our lives are affected. He does not just compel us to question the food we consume, but also the food our “food” consumes.

    Read More

  • Documentary: Hungry For Change

    1698 Words  | 4 Pages

    As obesity and medical problems due to diet become a larger issue within society, it is imperative to educate humans on the importance of maintaining a healthy diet. This is exactly what Hungry for Change does. One of the key points made in the documentary is that humans no longer eat a natural diet like their ancestors did; when humans first began to inhabit the Earth they lived off a diet of fresh fruits, vegetables, grains, and meats. During these periods famine and disease was rampant, so humans adapted to store nutrition more productively. Now that humans live in a more developed society, they have a (practically) unlimited supply of food. However, much of this food is processed and manipulated to have a better flavour and a longer shelf life, and though this sounds like a positive situation, it has become a huge problem. According to best-selling women’s health author Dr. Christine Northrup, “We’ve lived on Earth for a millennium where there was a food shortage. You’re programmed to put on fat whenever there is food available. Now there’s a lot of food available, but it’s the wrong kind.” (Northrup, as cited in Colquhoun et al., 2012). This is a logical and widely accepted theory as to why humans continue to overindulge on foods despi...

    Read More

  • The Pleasures of Eating

    1568 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the essay, Berry logically progresses from stating the problem of the consumer’s ignorance and the manipulative food industry that plays into that ignorance, to stating his solution where consumers can take part in the agricultural process and alter how they think about eating in order to take pleasure in it. He effectively uses appeals to emotion and common values to convince the reader that this is an important issue and make her realize that she needs to wake up and change what she is doing. By using appeals to pathos, logos, and ethos, Berry creates a strong argument to make his point and get people to change how they attain and eat food.

    Read More

  • America’s Food Crisis, by Bryan Walsh

    961 Words  | 2 Pages

    American society has grown so accustomed to receiving their food right away and in large quantities. Only in the past few decades has factory farming come into existence that has made consuming food a non guilt-free action. What originally was a hamburger with slaughtered cow meat is now slaughtered cow meat that’s filled with harmful chemicals. Not only that, the corn that that cow was fed with is also filled with chemicals to make them grow at a faster rate to get that hamburger on a dinner plate as quickly as possible. Bryan Walsh, a staff writer for Time Magazine specializing in environmental issues discusses in his article “America’s Food Crisis” how our food is not only bad for us but dangerous as well. The word dangerous could apply to many different things though. Our food is dangerous to the consumer, the workers and farmers, the animals and the environment. Walsh gives examples of each of these in his article that leads back to the main point of how dangerous the food we are consuming every day really is. He goes into detail on each of them but focuses his information on the consumer.

    Read More

  • Escape From The Western Diet Essay

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    When we think of our national health we wonder why Americans end up obese, heart disease filled, and diabetic. Michael Pollan’s “ Escape from the Western Diet” suggest that everything we eat has been processed some food to the point where most of could not tell what went into what we ate. Pollan thinks that if America thought more about our “Western diets” of constantly modified foods and begin to shift away from it to a more home grown of mostly plant based diet it could create a more pleasing eating culture. He calls for us to “Eat food, Not too much, Mostly plants.” However, Mary Maxfield’s “Food as Thought: Resisting the Moralization of Eating”, argues differently she has the point of view that people simply eat in the wrong amounts. She recommends for others to “Trust yourself. Trust your body. Meet your needs.” The skewed perception of eating will cause you all kinds of health issues, while not eating at all and going skinny will mean that you will remain healthy rather than be anorexic. Then, as Maxfield points out, “We hear go out and Cram your face with Twinkies!”(Maxfield 446) when all that was said was eating as much as you need.

    Read More

  • Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. New York: Perennial, 2002.

    Read More

  • The Omnivore's Dilemma Analysis

    1384 Words  | 3 Pages

    Our current system of corporate-dominated, industrial-style farming might not resemble the old-fashioned farms of yore, but the modern method of raising food has been a surprisingly long time in the making. That's one of the astonishing revelations found in Christopher D. Cook's "Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis" (2004, 2006, The New Press), which explores in great detail the often unappealing, yet largely unseen, underbelly of today's food production and processing machine. While some of the material will be familiar to those who've read Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" or Eric Schlosser's "Fast-Food Nation," Cook's work provides many new insights for anyone who's concerned about how and what we eat,

    Read More

  • In Vitro Meat

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    Chiles, Robert Magneson. "If They Come, We Will Build It: In Vitro Meat and the Discursive Struggle over Future Agrofood Expectations." Agriculture and Human Values 30.4 (2013): 511-23. Print.

    Read More

  • Essay On Factory Farming

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    Cruelty toward animals, huge economic problems, and major health concerns are just three reasons why factory farming should be banned worldwide. Many people argue that factory farming is the only way to meet growing demands for food in the world today. However, factory farming is just not necessary, especially when it comes down to killing innocent animals in order to feed people. A way to put an end to the factory farming system is by buying our food from smaller, sustainable farms. These businesses still aim to profit from their labor, but that’s not their only objective. (The Issues: Factory Farming, n.d.) They simply will not sacrifice the health of the land or the quality of food simply to make a few extra dollars.

    Read More

  • Problems of the Food System

    2097 Words  | 5 Pages

    And, because food now comes at a low cost, it has become cheaper in quality and therefore potentially dangerous to the consumer’s health. These problems surrounding the ethics and the procedures of the instantaneous food system are left unchanged due to the obliviousness of the consumers and the dollar signs in the eyes of the government and big business. The problem begins with the mistreatment and exploitation of farmers. Farmers are essentially the backbone of the entire food system. Large-scale family farms account for 10% of all farms, but 75% of overall food production (CSS statistics).

    Read More

  • Foodborne Illness

    2492 Words  | 5 Pages

    Food borne illnesses are caused by consuming contaminated foods or beverages. There are many different disease-causing microbes, or pathogens. In addition, poisonous chemicals, or other harmful substances can cause food borne illnesses if they are present in food. More than two hundred and fifty different food borne illnesses have been described; almost all of these illnesses are infections. They are caused by a variety of bacteria, viruses, and parasites that can be food borne. (Center 1)

    Read More

  • Rising Food Prices

    1504 Words  | 4 Pages

    The growing world population is demanding more and different kinds of food. Rapid economic growth in many developing countries has pushed up consumers' purchasing power, generated rising demand for food, and shifted food demand away from traditional staples and toward higher-value foods like meat and milk.

    Read More

  • Should People Become Vegetarian?

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    However, many people still refuse to be a vegetarian for different reasons. Some people prefer the taste of meat, and some people believe that they are born to eat meat. Despite that about 2 billion people in the world live basically on the meat diet, around 4 billion people live mainly on a plant-based diet because of food shortage(Pimentel ＆ Pimentel, 2003, pp660S). As everyone knows, the number of population is growing. For example, the total U.S. population doubled in the previous 60 years, and it may double again in the next 70 years (Pimentel ＆ Pimentel, 2003, pp660S). People won’t have enough meat to eat in the future. On the other hand, a well-planned vegetarian diet offers many health benefits. Therefore, people should become vegetarian because it benefits to huma...

    Read More

  • Sustainable Development Goals Essay

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    This can not be done with the same ineffective tactics that were used in the past, so that’s why people are developing new ways to eradicate hunger. When the Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2) was held, they discussed the nutrition component and how important it is that it is not overlooked. By paying attention to nutrient-dense foods and recognizing the different entry points for improving nutrition, the ICN2 argues the world will be one step closer in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal. Some of the entry points they discussed include “the promotion of crop diversification…, strengthening local food production and processing, and exploring regulatory or voluntary instruments for promoting healthy diets” (goals 2). Promoting the nutrition aspect of the goal can help achieve it because nutrients are what keep people alive and

    Read More

More about The Actual Cost of Food

Open Document