Monday, June 14, 2010

"The Real Cost of Cheap Food"

Shortly after making my post yesterday, I ran into this fantastic article in Time magazine. The piece was written last August and is called "Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food". It's an excellent article about all of the important food issues of our day. I highly recommend that you read it!


quotable quote from the piece:


"But we don't have the luxury of philosophizing about food. With the exhaustion of the soil, the impact of global warming and the inevitably rising price of oil — which will affect everything from fertilizer to supermarket electricity bills — our industrial style of food production will end sooner or later. As the developing world grows richer, hundreds of millions of people will want to shift to the same calorie-heavy, protein-rich diet that has made Americans so unhealthy — demand for meat and poultry worldwide is set to rise 25% by 2015 — but the earth can no longer deliver. Unless Americans radically rethink the way they grow and consume food, they face a future of eroded farmland, hollowed-out countryside, scarier germs, higher health costs — and bland taste. Sustainable food has an élitist reputation, but each of us depends on the soil, animals and plants — and as every farmer knows, if you don't take care of your land, it can't take care of you."

(See pictures of what the world eats.)

4 comments:

  1. i know when i eat fresh fruits & veg i feel great. lately processed foods have made me feel so sick, mentally & physically.

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  2. It's sickening to see the food on the tables of the Americans and Brits in the slideshow... it's 90% processed, with a couple token veggies like potatoes and broccoli. And the amount of soda is disturbing. I'm grateful that I eat more like some of the third world nations - at least I know I'm healthy. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. i know. when i have a salad or fruit at work people ask me if i'm on a diet. i tell them no, i like to eat this. they think make it seem a like a punishment to eat healthy.

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  4. I didn't know about freeganism before finding this blog 6 months ago. I just wanted you to know that I plan on going on my first dive this month. Thank you! Also, I'll be reading the book What the World Eats. Fascinating.

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