The Hidden Problems for Our World Food System
We live in an interesting time where some areas have a high access to food, yet can still be suffering from malnutrition. We live in a world where we know very little about how are food is grown, where it comes from, or it’s nutritional value. We live in a world where fast food, which can be very unhealthy, is cheaper than fruits and vegetables when comes to feeding a family. In Raj Patel’s book, Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, he explores the inequities of our global food system from the beginning phases of food production, all the way to it being distributed and consumed. It is a process where we don’t often see all the steps, but Patel’s book pushes to look deeper into this issue and become more aware of the problems that it holds.
We see too often that corporations place profit above the well being of people, and this holds especially true with our food production. The food we put on our plate and into our bodies is part of a systematic problem that affects our overall health. Despite the high volume of food we produce, a lot of it ends of being thrown away. This is absolutely devastating because many countries have individuals suffering from starvation and malnutrition and the food we are throwing away or deemed not attractive enough to be placed on the shelves of supermarkets is being thrown away or left to rot. France has been able to come up with a solution to combat against food waste. They became the first country in the world to ban supermarkets from throwing away or destroying unsold food, and to instead donate it to charities and food banks. If this was done at a global scale, we can greatly lower levels of starvation, undernutrition, and malnutrition.
Another issue that goes along with access is the affordability of healthy food. We can see how communities of color or areas that have a lower income sometimes face food deserts. The USDA defines a food desert as parts of the country vapid of fresh fruit, vegetables, and other healthful whole foods, usually found in impoverished areas due to a lack of grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and healthy food providers. This means that these areas usually have a high number of fast food restaurants or convenience stores in their areas the typically serve unhealthy food. However, often times, fast food is what people in these areas are only able to afford. The high consumption of fast foods leads to a high rates of obesity among these communities and other health problems as well. Obesity leads to a variation of health problems such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and breathing problems. This problem is not only prevalent in adults, but starting to grow within children and adolescents. This is why we need to make healthy food more affordable for low income families so that they are able to get the proper nutritious food that they need to avoid getting health problems.
Although increasing the access to food would help in some ways, there is another pressing issue with the quality of the food we are producing. The process of producing food has become globalized so in order to keep up with the demand of food, farmers have been increasing their use of pesticides. Due to this, our food has become a toxic site and a “culmination of this perpetual toxic exposure could spell chronic disease or even early death.” There needs to be more sustainable ways of growing our food that doesn’t use high amounts of pesticide.
Pesticides not only affect the consumer, but the individuals who produce the food as well. Pesticides cause acute and chronic effects on farmers and pickers that come in contact with them. These effects can cause various types of cancers, Parkinson’s, and rashes to the skin. There is very little that is done to protect workers, both on and off the field. Workers are mistreated and their labor is often exploited. A lot of these workers are immigrants or undocumented workers that cannot organize or unionize because they fear of being replaced or losing their jobs or facing deportation. The production of food is a process that hardly crosses the mind of consumers and therefore we hardly see the hardships that these people face.
With our complex production of food, there is can not be just one solution or one problem tackled. It is a series of steps and policies changes that are needed to improve the quality of life for all of those involved in the food making process. The food we put on our plate in the future should be produced ethically in order to ensure a healthier population.
