It’s something we do daily, often without thinking about it. Everybody likes it, but some people do it better than others. Humans have done it as long as we have been around, and without it, we would all surely die. Of course, I’m talking about eating food. In the modern United States, however, food production and consumption have become increasingly linked to corporatism and consumerism – with implications that may be huge.
For the better part of our existence, the primary concern of humans was either finding or growing enough food to survive. Historically, we live in a unique age: most people (in the U.S., at least) are not concerned with food production. This has had some very positive consequences. It has allowed humans to organize a society based on something beyond mere survival. Division of labor is perhaps the single most important contributing factor to the progress of humanity, and it would not have been possible were it not for the advent of large-scale farming.
But large-scale farming is child’s play compared to modern industrial farming. Today, farmers control huge areas of land and sell their products to multinational corporations, who in turn mass-produce and process chemically-infused food to market on a global scale to consumers.
For instance, today I ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast. My lunch consisted of chicken tenders, fries and a Coke. My dinner was hotdogs and an egg (an odd combination, I know). It is unlikely that anything I ate today came from anywhere near Atlanta or even Georgia. Furthermore, most of these foods probably had some kind of chemical additives to enhance the taste or preservatives to ensure that they did not spoil during their long journey from wherever they originated to my plate.
Clearly we are growing more and more distant from our food, geographically as well as mentally. This is not inherently bad, but with increased distance comes decreased knowledge: where did our last meal come from? What was in it? Who profited from it? These are not questions for which we usually have the answer to, and it is certainly a long haul from Joe the farmer selling grain to Bob the baker who makes bread for Tom the common laborer.
Without the answers to these types of questions, we, as consumers, may be easily manipulated and misled by major corporate industries. This is not the conspiratorial babbling of a cynical skeptic either.
Take the example of soy. Tofu, soy milk and soy burgers all evoke images of health-conscious, au naturale hippies. This is the careful work of the soy industry, which would have you believe that its product is good for you. This perception is not necessarily the case, however. Soybean oil, used extensively in fast food, contains an unhealthily high amount of omega-6 fatty acids in proportion to its relatively low amount of omega-3 fatty acids. When the two are in balance there are no problems, but the current proliferation of omega-6 in our diets can lead to heart disease and even cancer. Yes, that very same staple of the “healthy” diet can lead to the number-one killer in the United States.
The solution to this corporate hijacking of our plates and our minds is one we already know, and we have been told it over and over again: Support local farmers. The budding “locavore” movement reflects the cognizance that today’s industrial farming practices are neither beneficial nor sustainable. The argument for local farming can even be made without reference to health at all, taking into account environmental and economic concerns such as sustainable farming techniques and support of small businesses.
While industrial farms benefit from economies of scale, costs of shipping, marketing and advertising are inevitably built in to their products as well. While expecting everyone to revert to feudal days of peasant farms is ludicrous, supporting local business is anything but.
After all, it is unlikely that the industrial food giants will end their stranglehold on the most basic activity everyone participates in – eating food – unless we, the eaters of food, take collective action against these corporations to improve our health, our environment and our lives.
William Hupp is a College sophomore from Little Rock, Ark.
Cartoon by Mariana Hernandez
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