Canadians Eat Globally, Not Locally

Introduction

Diet is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as “the kinds of food that a person, animal, or community habitually eats” (para. 1). In terms of this definition, diet can change from not only person to person but country to country. Depending on where you are in this world, you may be putting food on your dinner table that made quite a trip across the world. For the purpose of the food diary assignment, it was mandatory to complete a personal food diary. The food diary contained information on different food I ate over the course of a week, where I bought the food, and where the food or its ingredients came from. The food in my food diary was separated into four categories with one unknown category for the food I couldn’t find a location for; Canada, the United States of America (USA), and Guatemala. Out of all these categories 53.5% of my food came from an unknown source, 27.9% of my food came from Canada, 14% of my food came from the USA, and 4.7% of my food came from Guatemala.

27.9% of my food is locally grown in Canada, quite precisely my family purchased the food from a small farm just an hour outside of Calgary. This personal statistic of mine is important, because it supports the findings made by Turner (2011). Turner (2011) states that “… [Canada’s] grain imports have spiked by 100 percent since 2000” (para. 22). More of my money is being put into importing the goods that Canadian farms were once well known for exporting such as grain. The fact that I am purchasing only a bare minimum of my food locally is important because it means that I am not supporting Canada’s falling agricultural industry. Based on the completion of this food diary assignment I have found that Canadians are global food consumers, my sourc...

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...ar it is, and what our cultural heritage is based in. Completing this food diary has showed me that Canadians are global food consumers, the food I eat is dependent on what season it is, and that my Albanian heritage is greatly reflected in my food choices.

References

Chapman, S. (2012). Manufacturing taste: the (un) natural history of Kraft Dinner. The Walrus. Retrieved February 8, 2014 from http://thewalrus.ca/manufacturing-taste/

Fraser, E., & Rimas, A. (2012). How to feed nine billion people. The Walrus. Retrieved February 8, 2014 from http://thewalrus.ca/how-to-feed-nine-billion/

Turner, C. (2011). The Farms are not alright. The Walrus. Retrieved February 8, 2014 from http://thewalrus.ca/the-farms-are-not-all-right/

Oxford Dictionary. (n.d.). Diet-definition. Retrieved February 7, 2014 from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/diet?q=diet