Locavores are people that are interested in buying and consuming locally produced food. Food miles is another name for locavores; this concept consists of how far the food travels to the consumer. Being a locavore is important to me because it is a part of my culture and developing a better relationship with my community. I grew up on a ranch in Tijeras, New Mexico; my grandparents were farmers. They did not farm to sell; they farmed for themselves. As a child, my grandparents taught me how to use the resources the earth offers (hunting, fishing, hauling wood, farming, etc.). My mom and I would go to the local markets; this is where we would get our groceries for the week, occasionally we would go to the big-box industries. I chose to buy produce that is local; the food has more nutrients and is fresher than …show more content…
They are more conscious about supporting local producers versus big industries for economic and health purposes. This movement is reaching success in the United States, but it is having a more negative impact at a global level. On a global scale, the bigger farms are more efficient and produce fewer greenhouse gases compared to smaller farms. The industrial food system is better equipped to feed the growing global population (Michel Pimbert, 2015).
Ayala, S. (2013, March 6). The Great Food Fight: Local vs. Global – Viewpoint. Retrieved September 17, 2017, from http://viewpoint.pointloma.edu/the-great-food-fight-local-vs-global/ o AZEVEDO, E. D. (2014, August 11). FOOD ACTIVISM: THE LOCAVORISM PERSPECTIVE. Retrieved September 17, 2017, from http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1414-753X2015000300006&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en o Fitzgerald, K. J. (2016). Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Locavorism and Humanist Sociology. Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: Locavorism and Humanist Sociology, 40(1), 3-21, 1-19.
Niman, Nicolette H. "The Carnivore's Dilemma." Food. Ed. Brooke Rollins and Lee Bauknight. 1st ed. Southlake, TX: Fountainhead, 2010. 169-73. Print.
Journalist, David H. Freedman, and author of How Junk Food Can End Obesity, dedicates an article to address the situation regarding the wholesome food movement. In his writings, he points out that although this new phenomenon brags about healthier foods being made available, there are some faulty aspects within the cause. Many loyal fast-food customers are put off by the anouncement of healthier menu items, while health fanatics are raving about restaurants catering to their needs. There are two types of consumers in the world of food; both of which are blind to the opposing sides’ work ethics.
Many families in America can’t decide what food chain to eat from. In the book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan lists four food chains: Industrial, Industrial Organic, Local Sustainable, and Hunter-Gatherer. The Industrial food chain is full of large farms that use chemicals and factories. Industrial Organic is close to it except it doesn’t use as many chemicals and the animals have more space. Local Sustainable is where food is grown without chemicals, the animals have freedom and they eat what they were born to eat. Lastly, Hunter-Gatherer is where you hunt and grow your own food. The omnivore's dilemma is trying to figure out what food chain to eat from. Local Sustainable is the best food chain to feed the United States because it is healthy and good for the environment.
Steindom, Joel. “My Food Manifesto, Part One: The Bad News.” Steidom.com. Ed. Joel Steindom, Heather Steindom. 2007. 24 July 2008. .
In her essay, “Food’s Class Warfare,” author Tracie McMillan promotes the inclusion of both “individual changes and structural ones” (217), particularly “class consciousness” (217), in the fight for quality diets in America. She reveals the most common sides of the healthy food debate as the inherent “just-buy-better stuff logic” (215) and the opposing “structural challenges of eating well” (215). The main strategies for defeating the American “obesity epidemic” (216) have been reaching out to the individual, as well as changing the structure of the American food system itself. The favorite concept for structuralists is “food deserts - neighborhoods with insufficient grocery stores and thus insufficient supplies of healthy food” (216). She deems the concept insufficient in practice, as it ignores smaller markets and equates large stores with a healthy food source. While the individual viewpoint and structuralists argue with each other, they share common ideals. According to
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.
In the book published in 2006, the Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural history of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan, is a non-fiction book about American eating habits and the food dilemma that many Americans are facing today. Pollan begins the book by discussing the dilemma of the omnivore like ourselves, a creature with many choices of food. Pollan decides to learn the root to the food dilemma by examining the three primary food chains: industrial food chain, the organic food chain, and the hunter-gathering food chain. His journey begins by first exploring the industrialized food industry. Pollan examines the industry by following both corn and cow from the beginning through the industrialized process. The work on the corn fields of George Naylor shows him that the industrial system has made corn appears nearly in all products in the supermarket (Pollan 33-37). Pollen then decides to purchase a steer which allows him to see the industrialized monoculture of beef production and how mass production produces food to serve the society. Following his journey, Pollan and his family eat a meal at McDonald's restaurant. Pollan realizes that he and very few people actually understand how such a meal is created. By examining the different food paths available to modern man and by analyzing those paths, Pollan argues that there is a basic relation between nature and the human. The food choice and what we eat represents a connection with our natural world. The industrial food ruins that ecological connections. In fact, the modern agribusiness has lost touch with the natural cycles of farming. Pollan presents the book with a question in the beginning: "What should we have for dinner?" (Pollan 1) This question posed a combination of p...
A major issue that is occurring in America is a phenomena known as “food deserts”, most are located in urban areas and it's difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food. Whereas in the past, food deserts were thought to be solved with just placing a grocery store in the area, but with times it has become an issue that people are not picking the best nutritional option. This issue is not only making grocery store in food deserts are practically useless and not really eliminating the issue of food deserts because even when they are given a better nutritional option, and people are not taking it. In my perspective, it takes more than a grocery store to eliminate ‘food deserts’. It's more about demonstrating the good of picking the nutritional option and how it can help them and their families. For example, “Those who live in these areas are often subject to poor diets as a result and are at a greater risk of becoming obese or developing chronic diseases.”(Corapi, 2014).
Within these past few years, more and more people have tried to use their community’s grown produce instead of large company-based products. These ‘locavores’ have grown in numbers as people have taken into account the health related, environmental, and economic consequences of choosing locally grown products. The key issues associated with the locavore movement are the economic effects and the change made in the environment of a community.
You have probably heard of the words carnivore and herbivore, maybe even the word omnivore but you probably have never heard of the word localvore. The localvore movement is a new eating habit where people make an effort to eat only foods grown or harvested within a 100 radius of their homes. (Foodshed for Thought) The localvore movement is becoming increasingly prevalent every year due to the decline in taste of food and the uprising in the need for appetizing food that can easily be obtained from nearby farms. Localvores want their food fresh and not processed through processing plants which can cause the food taste aged and flavorless. The people who participate in this movement also believe that this cuts down on costs of shipping the products, making them cheaper and allowing the farmers to earn more for what they grow, more money for the farmer cheaper for the consumer. The localvore movement can both benefit the global market, but it can also hurt the global market.
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.
The book The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food, by Wayne Roberts introduces us to the concept of “food system”, which has been neglected by many people in today’s fast-changing and fast-developing global food scene. Roberts points out that rather than food system, more people tend to recognize food as a problem or an opportunity. And he believes that instead of considering food as a “problem”, we should think first and foremost about food as an “opportunity”.
There are many problems confronting our global food system. One of them is that the food is not distributed fairly or evenly in the world. According “The Last Bite Is The World’s Food System Collapsing?” by Bee Wilson, “we are producing more food—more grain, more meat, more fruits and vegetables—than ever before, more cheaply than ever before” (Wilson, 2008). Here we are, producing more and more affordable food. However, the World Bank recently announced that thirty-three countries are still famine and hungers as the food price are climbing. Wilson stated, “despite the current food crisis, last year’s worldwide grain harvest was colossal, five per cent above the previous year’s” (Wilson, 2008). This statement support that the food is not distributed evenly. The food production actually increased but people are still in hunger and malnutrition. If the food were evenly distributed, this famine problem would’ve been not a problem. Wilson added, “the food economy has created a system in w...
Barraclough, Solon L. An End to Hunger? The Social Origins of Food Strategies. London: Zed Books Ltd., 1991.