Most of us, when presented with a foreign meal usually ask the question “well, what’s in it?” Underlying this question is the notion integrated into all of us that we have a right to know. Now, we are not always talking about legal rights when we ask. Most times, we simply think the other person has a moral obligation to tell us. Inarguably, human life is fickle. Physically, we are one of the weakest beings on this Earth. Hence, this question, simple as it may seem, is crucial in ensuring our survival. Today, we face the simultaneous challenges of a growing food shortage and food waste problem. Considering the nature, characteristics, and source of these problems, it appears that a deontological perspective can best remedy the situation …show more content…
However, ironically, even in these bountiful countries, there exists a significant part of the population that lack access to food. If the manufacturers asked themselves, “could I live on the food I am marketing at the rate I am pushing for consumption?” and aligned their own interests with the interests of everyone else, the quality of food in the market would not be compromised. Similarly, this logic would also solve the problem of food waste because the person disposing of a ton of unconsumed food would ask himself “what if everyone in the world disposed of a ton of food today?”
Prior attempts from utilitarianism to try to calculate and predict which decisions will yield the best results has obviously not worked. The result of the cost benefit analysis upon which governments have decided policies have proven to be inaccurate due to the existence of the food crisis. The wellness of its people is the fundamental duty of a government. If the government truly made decisions based solely on its duty to the people and withdrew itself from adverse and unnecessary politics, we would not find ourselves in this crisis. Large firms spend millions on lobbying to nurture and fuel their unethical practices. They also spurt out threats of laying off thousands of workers if their grasp on the market is not sustained. However, on the other hand, the subsidies continually received by these large firms are costing the people their
He probes them to learn the what, where, and how of dinner – knowing what is going into the body, knowing where that food came from, and knowing how that food was made. By first knowing what is being consumed, people can make better informed decisions about their purchases. Nutrition, or lack thereof, is a key component in the battle against obesity. Food giants are hoping to hide the often unnecessary filler present in their products by use of dodgy claims and socially engineered advertisements. In general, most consumers probably couldn’t say where their food came from. This usually boils down to the fact that shoppers typically don’t think about it. Breaking this reliance on mass-grown foods is the second part of Pollan’s proposition. The third and equally important element is how the food is produced. More specifically, Pollan is concerned whether or not the food has been produced in a sustainable manner. Preserving the biodiversity of food, maintaining fertile land for future generations, and ensuring consumers receive food that does not compromise health are all factors of sustainability. Without informed consumers, what, where, and how will continue to be unanswered questions. Whether it is for nutritional or ethical choices, a particular food’s history is something that needs to once again become common
When we have just about any type of food available at our fingertips, it tends to cause a dilemma, an omnivore’s dilemma. We tend to make poor decisions due to the fact that we have so many choices. To answer the question “What should we have for dinner?” Pollan decides that he needs to know where food comes from. Through his journey Pollan discovers many problems with how food is produced such as, food preservation techniques, and sanitary transportation.
The different sections of the book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” embody the flawed system that America is currently facing, particularly the food industry. There is a limited understanding of what constitute an ideal meal, and process of prepping one. It could be that the information available are not clear and direct, or most consumers are choosing to overlook the lurking dangers behind the accessible food products. Either way, it is evident that most consumers have fell out of touch with knowing what they eat. The book provides a precise, comprehensive, and intuitive summary of the elements on the definition of foods. “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” is written in a direct, clear, and informative manner for the general audience, including farmers, consumers, and those who actively involve with processing foods. Readers will be able to establish a deeper understanding of the evolution of collecting food, and how that has affected the choices of putting together a perfect meal.
After watching the Food Inc. documentary I now look at our nation’s food industry differently. As a consumer I feel that there are many things being hidden from us. Nowadays the top four companies for meat control about eighty percent of the market. There’s only about three or four companies controlling everything and they are more powerful than ever. A majority of these companies are putting profit over consumer’s health. They are not considerate about the health and safety of the food produced or about the animals being raised. We have bigger and better food now but we have also have obesity, and diabetes problems and many other health related deficiencies that use to not be as big of an issue back then.
Should food background be important to us? The article The Pleasures of Eating by Wendell Berry states that for us to eat responsibly, we need to be free, and for us to be free we must know about our food. He says that you should not let anybody control your food and its sources or at least know where your food comes from and know what you are eating. I agree with Wendell Berry because I feel that we cannot be manipulated by the big food companies and just look at food as just food. Many food consumers buy their food without knowing about it.
Food waste is an environmental, economic, and ethical problem that can lead to less calorie intake and unnecessary damage of our assets. Individual behavior can redesign food waste at home and lead to bigger changes in the ecosystem. The problem is Americans throw out more food than glass, paper, and plastic. Also about 25% of food grown, processed, and transported in the US will never be consumed. When food is disposed in a landfill it rots and becomes a significant source of methane— a potent greenhouse gas with 21 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.
About fifty million Americans are not certain when their next meal will be and in a society filled with food insecurities, the fact there this so much food waste is perplexing (King, 2015). Around the world, about two billion tons of food is wasted through production, transportation, distribution and retail, and post consumer (Glickman 2013). This amount of food
Many businesses waste food especially by overstocking. In farmer’s markets many farmers overstock their crates with produce to have appeal to the buyers. Delaney Zayac gives us an example that if he would have sold more chard if people saw more of it in the crate compared to seeing only some (Last Week Tonight). This is because many people have the assumption that if it’s the last one there must be something wrong with it. With that being the case many farmers overstock produce so that it takes away that assumption and people would buy their product. But overstocking also causes food waste, with farmers overstocking their produce to make it look appealing to buyers they
From the moment in time which marked the emergence of the human race, food has been an integral part of society. It has served as more than just sustenance aiding in the formation of cultures, civilizations, and technologies. However as the human mind evolved, so too did views on the value of food. The degradation of these views has resulted in between 1.3 and 2.2 billion tons of food being wasted globally each year (Finn et al. 2). Most Americans are guilty of having to thrown away a forgotten piece of food that has spoiled, but the problem is far bigger than that. Annually thirty-four million tons of food waste finds its way into American landfills (Buzby et al. 2). Unfortunately a majority of American citizens are ignorant to this fact. These citizens perceive the food they seen thrown away as the lost of a few dollar at the most and therefore not a serious problem. However, a large number of the United States’ social, economic, and environmental issues which need to be understood and addressed can be attributed to food waste.
Have you ever thought food waste is a really severe problem? I think food waste is a big problem because a lot of families are without food and I don’t want families to starve. Up to forty percent of food in the United States is wasted. Also one in eight families struggle to put food on the table. Article two. Sixty-two million tons of food is wasted every year. Globally up to one-third of all food is spoiled. Article one. Food waste is the biggest occupant in America's landfills. 160 billion dollars is wasted on food waste. Article three.
In the past fifty years, there has been such a vast change in the Industrial Food Industry. Food went from being grown naturally to being processed and packaged for convenience and cheapness. This is where the problem starts, and the greed for money is to blame. The industry has been altered in order to find convenience in making product faster because we all know, time is money. It has been altered in a manner of scamming to get all you can out of as little as possible to of course, save money. It has all become a game of money and profit rather than right and wrong and I have found more than enough examples to
On the other hand, from the point of view of the manufacturers of food, only the numbers matter. No business ethic impedes them from selling more than what people actually need. For that reason, producing food in a
There are billions of people struggling every day to have enough to eat, and billions of tons of food being tossed in the garbage, food waste is gaining increasing awareness as a serious environmental and economic issue. Research shows that about 60 million metric tons of food is wasted a year in the United States, with an estimated value of $162 billion. About 32 million tons of it end up in landfills, at a cost of about $1.5 billion a year to local government this economic crisis is worldwide! My research estimates that a third of all the food produced in the world is never consumed, and the total cost of that food waste could be as high as $400 billion a year. The food discarded by retailers and consumers in the most developed countries would be more than enough to feed all of the world’s hungry people, but it is not just those countries that have problems with food waste, it is also an issue in African countries like South Africa. The problem is expected to grow worse as the world’s population increases, unless actions are taken to reduce the waste. Food waste is not only a social cost, but it contributes to growing environmental problems like global warming, experts say, with the production of food consuming vast quantities of water, fertilizer and land. The fuel that is burned to process, refrigerate and transport it also adds to the environmental cost. Most food waste is thrown away in landfills, where it decomposes and emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
The food industry has a large impact on individuals and will affect wider communities in the future. The rush of today’s society has pushed food production to become more commercialized with prepackaged/premade based foods. For numerous reasons such as time, work and costs of living, people are wanting meals that are cheap, fast, easy and don’t require much effort. This is due to many obligations and priorities in life that are put above
Coxe has studied the sector for more than 35 years as a strategist for BMO Financial Group. He says it didn’t have to come to this. “We’ve got a situation where there has been no incentive to allocate significant new capital to agriculture or to develop new technologies to dramatically expand crop output.”