When it comes to responsible eating, I consider myself to be pretty darn lucky. My mom is one of those slightly obsessive health moms who is constantly reading articles on food, warning everyone that Red 40 causes cancer, and shopping at Sprouts. Mealtime in the Douglass household is quite different than many households. We pour organic, non-GMO Silk Almond Milk over our Grape Nuts, spread sugar free organic peanut butter on our sprouted bread, and have broccoli kale salad for dinner. (Maybe I'm slightly exaggerating... but not much. My mom regularly feeds us all those things). Sometimes the healthy eating gets old, but most of the time I'm grateful for my mom's wisdom. This ERW unit has taught me why my mom chooses to eat carefully. Now that I see the harmful effects that the food industry has on the health of ourselves, animals, and the planet, I am so grateful that I have been taught to eat right.
It still can be so hard to eat healthily. There are seven people in my family, and we can't always invest time and money into cooking and eating right. Life happens. It's sometimes just cheaper and easier to pick up a Costco pizza for dinner, even though we know that the environmental and human health costs of consuming it are high. Also, it is hard to be motivated to eat healthy foods when salty, deep-fried and sugary goodness can be located instantly just by telling Siri that you're hungry. What really needs to happen is changes in the food industry. If healthy food was cheaper, it would be easier for consumers to make smarter decisions. I like Mark Bittman's idea of taxing unhealthy foods, as this would be a step in the right direction in making healthy food available to all; however, several other changes, such as greater regulatory power for the FDA, changes to nutritional facts labels, and banning harmful food additives such as trans fat and artificial dyes, will have to be made if we have any intention of saving our planet.
Overall, this ERW unit has changed my attitude towards healthy, responsible eating. I realize now that consumers have power over the food industry. If all consumers stopped buying nonorganic or unhealthy products, the food industry would stop making them. If consumers demand organic or non-GMO products (as they are beginning to do), the food industry will provide them. As an ERW class, we are no longer ignorant of weaknesses in food policy. We cannot spend our time complaining about the food system and then hypocritically support the same food system we despise by continuing to purchase their products. As Ghandi said, we've got to "be the change [we] wish to see in the world."
Policy wise, I have tons of ideas for how our food industry can be better. We can follow the examples of other developed countries and ban harmful additives such as trans fat and artificial dyes. We can improve nutritional facts labels to make product information more accessible to consumers. There are a plethora of other ideas out there that I've come across as I've worked on my research paper. Real changes can only be made, however, when consumers demand them.
What do you guys think? Has this food unit motivated you to change your diet, even if only in small ways? And what more can be done to change our food system?
Before we started this unit, I had little knowledge about GMOs and our country's food policy in general. But since we've started this, I'm seeing articles about GMO's online and hearing reports about them on the news. I think Bittman's idea of taxing unhealthy foods is a great one. Similar to sin taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, hot Cheetos would be included also, ha. Its encouraging to know that big brands like Nabisco are buying organic companies, in hopes of making organic products more widespread. I wouldn't say that this unit has motivated me to change my diet, but it has made me more aware of what I'm consuming, and just because I think I'm eating healthy doesn't mean I am. Many healthy foods are genetically modified and are sprayed with harmful pesticides.
ReplyDeleteEverything that was touched on is absolutely true,but what people sometimes feel to realize is that in the long run,eating healthier is actually cheaper than eating out with fast food. If we would put the ten to twenty dollars a day we spend on fast food into going to the market and buying/cooking fresh food instead,you'd find that the healthier lifestyle is much more affordable.
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting point Brian, and I've been wondering about it myself. I know healthier food is often more expensive; for example, my mom's organic sprouted bread is more expensive than your average Wonder Bread loaf. Another example is peanut butter. Simple Truth peanut butter, which is a popular organic brand, costs about $4.79 a jar; compare that to a Jiff jar of peanut butter that rings up at $2.99. Other evidence of expensive healthy foods can be found. It is also, however, cheaper to eat home cooked, fresh meals than to eat out at a restaurant or fast food joint. So I guess it can go both ways, depending on your definition of "healthy food". This would be an interesting topic for future research. Are healthy foods really more expensive than unhealthy foods, or is this true in only certain cases? If anyone discovers research on this topic, feel free to post it.
DeleteThe reason organic foods are often more expensive than normal food is because healthy food is not the norm. Companies have to go out of their way, change their production process, to create healthier foods, so they charge more for it. They also know that the people most likely to buy organic, usually wealthier households, are willing to pay the extra dollar or two. Companies only charge as much as they can make a profit off of. If the general idea about food changed in the U.S., so would the prices of healthier food. The more people that buy organic food, the less companies will charge for them. That's why getting the ball rolling is so important, people buy organic, which lowers the prices, which allows more people to buy organic, which lowers the prices more and so on. Eventually, all families will be able to afford organic, regardless of wealth.
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