David Suzuki's Food Connections

“In the earliest surviving texts on European farming, agriculture was interpreted as two connected things: agri and cultura, and food was seen as a vital part of the cultures and communities that produced it. Today, however, our experience with industrial farming dominates, with food now seen simply as a commodity, and farming often organized along factory lines (Pretty 54).” In the essay “The Pleasures of Eating” by author Wendell Berry, he criticizes how today’s urban population is so blind to how their food is produced and how the food industry does not help people understand. Berry wants to educate and convince his urban consumer audience how to eat responsibly, shop locally, be informed of where of food comes from, and how to grow their

minimize ecological footprints and gain awareness behind the truth of our food routes. Presently, it is very easy to get a variety of different flavours in one supermarket; trinidadian eggplants, chinese bitter melon, hungarian hot peppers and many other delectable products from around the world, but what many don’t realize is that it takes on average 1,500 to 3,000 miles and 250,000

In Slaughterhouse Blues, anthropologist Donald Stull and social geographer Michael Broadway explore the advent, history, and implications of modern food production. The industrialized system behind what we eat is one of the most controversial points of political interest in our society today. Progressions in productive, logistical, retail, and even biological technologies have made mass produced foods more available and more affordable than ever before. This being said, the vague mass production of ever-available cheap “food” carries with it several hidden

In Raj Patel’s novel Stuffed and Starved, Patel goes through every aspect of the food production process by taking the experiences of all the people involved in food production from around the world. Patel concludes by eventually blaming both big corporations and governments for their critical role in undermining local, cultural, and sustainable foodways and in so doing causing the key food-related problems of today such as starvation and obesity. In this book of facts and serious crime, Patel's Stuffed and Starved is a general but available analysis of global food struggles that has a goal of enlightening and motivating the general Western public that there is something critically wrong with our food system.

Before beginning their journey Catacalos and Janzen asked themselves questions such as, “Was choosing to consume foods locally a scam or was it worth their time?” along with “Is eating locally better for the environment?” as well as “Is choosing to eat locally more expensive than not?” Within a month’s time, both Catacalos and Janzen hoped to have their questions answered (117).

The world continues to face a wide-scale food crisis. The effects of this crisis reach from the farmers who grow and raise the food to the very system of laws that are in place to govern the system itself. Food giants are reaching deep into their pockets for lobbying in order to take advantage of both the producers and the consumer all in the name of profit. Moreover, farmers are being driven to suicide, and the ecosystem’s livelihood is treading a fine line. Both Michael Pollan and Raj Patel bring to light these problems and offer suggestions to help lessen their severity. Though there are many philosophies on which they both agree, they both have their own ideas to fight back. Pollan seeks to challenge the consumer as an individual while

Though the mass production and distribution of food is already bad the company’s do not stop there they label erroneous advertisements on the packaging of food. The labels that read “all natural” or “farm grown are completely misleading and false advertisement. Apart from these issues, the documentary also highlights the harmful effects of modifying the animals’ diet both on everyone’s health and the environment. They go on about the story of Barbara Kowalcyk. She talks about her activism concerning food safety and how the death of her 2-year old son from E-coli encouraged her to stand up against the US Congress to pass a legislation for stricter and more effective USDA food regulations. That part of the documentary gave me an insight of the

Food did not originate from every continent; some food had to be imported because some regions could not grow food as they did not develop agriculture. Diamond formulates this into a question about food origination and when it arose on certain continents (94). It is also stated that there are many global inequalities that Diamond calls the HAVES and HAVES–NOTS. This leads readers to think about Yali’s question regarding New Guiana. Many people had farm power and many did not until several years later or did not have farm power at all because of the environmental and ecological issues in that society like climate. This leads to an issue Diamond calls “to farm or not to farm.” This also raises another question about food production and why

The locavore movement encourages people in towns to consume more locally grown food, by society consuming locally grown food transportation is cut down which helps better the environment. Since locally grown food is produce that is cultivated in the community transportation is down to a minimum which is a blessing for the environment. “ Eating local is better for air quality and pollution than eating organic. “ ( Source A ) less transportation use helps lessen the pollution in the air which in turn helps provide the community with cleaner fresher air. “ The move towards local food for all its trendiness highlights one of the problematic pieces of the modern food economy : the increasing reliance on foods shipped halfway round the world. “ ( Source E ) The

General Mills is currently moving their supplier base towards a supply which is more traceable and is working with an organization called Proforest towards achieving this goal (Global, 43). General Mills believes that its’ purchasing practices can help push the industry towards buying sustainably produced palm oil. While General Mills is making an effort to make their supply chain of palm oil more traceable, the company could deploy on a program that would work with the indigenous peoples whose rights are sometimes threatened due to palm oil production practices.

Prior to the Bilingual Education Act of 1968, the U.S. government had a change in attitude towards bilingualism and bilingual educations. At times, there was this permissive attitude that allowed teaching through the mother tongue acceptable. As long as it was within the jurisdiction of local towns and districts, schools were allowed to teach in the child’s native language. However, there were times in which higher authorities were against languages other than English. This hostile climate would result in the drastic reduction of any type of bilingual instruction offered by the state (Nieto, 2009). The following legislations regarding bilingual education are some of the most influential in the history of

Berry begins the article by pointing out the consumer’s ignorance as they do not realize the connection they have with the agricultural cycle. Many believe that eating is an agriculture act, however, they do not associate themselves with this act because they do not have direct contact with the actual food production process. Berry explains that the reason why people think this way is because “they just buy what they want - or what they have been persuaded to want” without a second thought on the qualities and the states of the products (3). He appeals to the reader’s emotions as he describes the nature of the consumers because it demonstrates the reality of how little people nowadays care what they consume into their body. Berry further enforces his appeal on the audience’s emotions by claiming that “food is pretty much an abstract idea” to most of the urban shoppers (4). Shoppers understand that food is produced on farms, but have no knowledge on the locations of the farms, the type of farms, and the techniques that are involved in farming. This statement supports Berry’s claims on the consumer’s ignorance because it points out the important role that consumers actually play

“ Know your farmer, know your food” goes the slogan by organic farmers to promote the consumption of locally grown food through organic frelated to survival and subsistence for many people worldwide. Based on these seven UNESCO criteria, organic farmers’ knowledge would qualify as indigenous knowledge (Sumner, 2006). In resonance with the understanding of organic knowledge as indigenous knowledge, a Canadian documentary video, titled “the great laws of nature: indigenous organic agriculture” reflects and confirms the concept of indigenous knowledge as organic farmer’s knowledge. The documentary explicates how some indigenous peoples believe that the “concept of organic” was designed by the creator following the fact that nature lives in harmony with itself without gossips or worries, living side by side with each other without fighting over that piece of land in which they are found. (Williams Ermine, Saskatchewan Elder). Through the act of studying nature, indigenous peoples identified four kinds of plant beings; flowers, grasses, trees and vegetables. They have demonstrated that to each of the plant beings, the creator gave the spirit of life, growth, healing and beauty and each is placed where it will be most beneficial. The believe that everything has life and spirit by the indigenous peoples initiated their concept that plant were put on the earth to look after all living things and everything in the universal has a purpose in its natural state. Thus, man needs to

Canada is a developed nation with most of its citizens living in food security. Most Canadians are able to live in security knowing that they have access and availability to food, others still struggle to get food onto their table. 850, 000 Canadians access a food bank every month when $31 billion dollars worth of food ends up in the landfills (CBC). One of the most valued resources to humans is being wasted instead of consumed. This research essay asks the question: why do Canadians waste their food? This essay will argue that it is people’s behaviour that causes food waste. It will look through two dimensions of food waste from consumer’s behaviour to manufacturing. It is clear to mention that it is not people’s intention to waste but because of their behaviours, food waste is still a major issue that goes on in Canadian society. Globally, one-third (1.3 billion tons), of food produced for human consumption is wasted along the food chain annually (George 3). Canadians waste about 183 kilograms of solid food per person. The solution to food waste is to stop wasting but we must look further about why do Canadians waste. The response to this question would be that Canadians need to reshape their relationship with food and modify their behaviour.

The food system is essential to sustaining human life, yet it often gets overlooked. Feeding a city comes with a lot of issues, especially feeding the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) at a population of 414,000 (Statistics Canada, 2015). Although food is required to sustain humans, it has not always been produced sustainably in Halifax. Food sustainability is not only concerned with the food people consume, but rather looks at the whole system, interconnecting social, economic, and environmental components. In Halifax, barriers to food sustainability include greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, food waste, food corporations, and food insecurity.