#4: How is your relationship with food?
*DISCLAIMER* all facts and statistics were taken from my lecture material, but since I don’t know the sources, I won’t be citing them specifically.
Every day in every meal we connect to nature through food. When my professor said this sentence in my Zoom lecture last Wednesday, I realized how the standard procedure of eating is so central to our lives yet often so overlooked. In fact, perhaps I take it for granted because I’ve never gone a day without it.
Not only that, I think this sentence goes back to the first blogpost I did asking “What is your relationship with nature?” and, as I’m wrapping up the semester and, therefore, these blogposts, I think what follows will go full circle.
We connect to food in various ways. The most obvious one is physical since we ingest and digest food (a bodily process that still fascinates me, to be honest). We also connect to food in spiritual and cultural ways not only because of our beliefs and values, but also because of the geographical environment in which we live and the species with which we interact. These combined also make our connection to food very personal. Lastly, our connection to food is also political since policy dictates subsidies to certain industries, resulting in food being more or less economically accessible to different people in given societies.
These different connections to food illustrate how our relationship with it is an important aspect of our individual and collective identity. In fact, we define ourselves by our diets. Whether our reasons are to protect the environment, to fight for equity and justice, to follow religious or spiritual practices, or even health-related, what we eat is (mostly) our decision.
Here is some food for thought (pun intended): Since we connect to nature through food, what are we feeding ourselves? How are we feeding ourselves? And what do our choices say about who we are and the impact we have on the planet?
Food is fundamental to our survival. From hunters and gathers until now, food and its practices have been present and ever evolving, showing how central it is to the foundation of our societies. Only 4% of the global economy currently comprises of food production while 18% of food produced is exported internationally.
To be honest, I expected higher percentages for both categories. If food is so central to our livelihood — and this includes agriculture, forestry, and fishing—why is the production of it not seemingly central in the global economy? Well, that is because most economies mostly count on other manufactures and services to sustain themselves.
Regarding greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), however, transportation for food exports accounts for 6% while food production globally is responsible for 25% of the total of GHG. Our food choices show that they have vast environmental impact, even though this is an oversimplified analysis.
As for what we are feeding ourselves, diets vary worldwide. A 2016 study found that if many people switched to plant-based diets, the world would see health, economic, and climate benefits. And then I asked via the Zoom chat: But how do make fruits and vegetables affordable for everyone? The answer to this goes back to the political dimension of our relationship with food since meat industries are largely subsidized and, consequently, prices are more affordable.
But our relationship with food is beyond what we eat and how we produce it. We also have those — who unfortunately are many — that are victims of food insecurity and hunger worldwide. 14% of children in South Asia are underweight, twice more than children in Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa and the Middle East (7% in each region). Food insecurity, in turn, is caused by weather extremes, conflict, and economic shocks. In 2019, 135 million people around the world experienced food insecurity, and the Covid-19 pandemic has contributed to that number increasing given the disruption in transportation and distribution of food all around.
Another important facet of our relationship with food concerns food waste. One third of the food that is produced globally is wasted because it is not eaten. Moreover, food waste contributes 8% of GHG emissions. And there are two different categories or justifications given to throw uneaten food. While there are those that are low-income (and causes include bad roads, lack of refrigeration, poor equipment and infrastructure, and heat and humidity) and high-income (aesthetic rejection, over-serving, and over-ordering).
But there are solutions to these problems. For example, in France supermarkets are now forbidden of throwing food out that is not used or sold. Another creative solution to food waste was changing the design of plates by 20% in a restaurant in Brazil to not only raise awareness about waste, but also concretely reducing food waste (Viegas).
Although my brief overview about our relationship with food shows that it’s complicated, it’s still up to us to come up with solutions to these problems.
References
Viegas, E. “Campanha lança prato 20% menor pra alertar para o desperdício de alimentos.” Hypeness. https://www.hypeness.com.br/2013/08/campanha-lanca-prato-20-menor-pra-alertar-para-o-desperdicio-de-alimentos/
