Hello, Neighbour! + Grad project overview
I delivered the first set of my neighbourhood questionnaire yesterday evening, while waiting for the rest of them to print off. (Might have taken longer than photocopying, but it was easier to read and not messy.) I don’t know how many responses I’ll get, but if you happen to be here because you received my survey on your doorstep, welcome!
This post will give you a bit more insight into my grad project and the issues surrounding the decline of food quality in North America, also called The End of Food, so named by Canadian author Thomas Pawlick. I stress that it is not a doomsday book so much as an encouragement to make changes in your lifestyle to counteract the changes in industry.
What are the changes in industry? Well, the U.S. Government has known about it for decades, but supposedly at the behest of food processing companies, the findings were concealed from the public. The fact of the matter is that while companies growing, manufacturing, and processing foods are serving their best interests by earning money, they are at the same time reducing the quality of food they sell to us, the consumers. By quality, I mean the nutritional content and the taste, not to mention other senses: smell, touch, sound, and sight.
Essentially, as my secondary research indicates, all foods have lost nutritional value over the last 50 to 100 years, due to farming practises that, for example, deplete soil nutrients. In addition, in 1998, 55% of foods sampled in a test contained pesticides. I’d hate to think of what that number is now, as the chemicals used on foods continues to increase. Why should you care? You should care because the drop in food quality has a significant impact on our risk of getting cancer. Combine that with all the toxins in our environment and our bodies, and the body is left rather defenseless against cancer prevention. Again, why should you care? Because statistics say that 1 in 3 Canadians will develop cancer, and if it isn’t you, it could be your mother, your father, sibling, or best friend. My family recently lost one of our best friends to cancer, and while the rest of us are reasonably healthy, still we are not immune to its effects.
1 in 3. In 1900 (in the US), cancer affected 3% of the population, not 33%. While funding is pouring into finding cures, where is the funding for prevention? Prevention can start with you: choose foods that have been grown organically and locally. Tomatoes that are grown to be shipped by truck long distances are bred to be beefy and hard. You’ll notice the difference when you look at and taste a non-organic tomato versus an organic one. When buying local, it’s possible to find produce that has been grown without sprays, and it is entirely likely that you’ll find organic produce that is the same price as non-organic!.
What my project aims to do is raise and increase awareness about the degradation of our food quality. I would also like to encourage people to discuss these issues with others. Hopefully through these two measures, we can lobby lower levels of government, where people have a voice. The burden on health care will otherwise keep growing, and that is one thing the government needs to realise.
The burdens on our health are more far-reaching than whether produce is organic or not. Further issues include flavourings, colourings, and preservatives which have been shown to impact student performance AND hyperactivity, the consequences of which are far-reaching. Other issues are processed foods, other additives, packaging, and storing methods. I’m sure between this blog and the one that will be featured in my project will cover most of these topics over the coming months.
For more information on organic foods, please view my project from last semester, a website titled o: organic produce. I have learned much since then, but it will give you an overview of just why it is so important for your health, and that of the environment, to choose organic produce whenever possible.
I am a 21-year-old student with a limited budget, and I have all the reasons in the world to reduce my grocery bill, but I’m finding that cheaper isn’t always better when it comes to sacrificing quality… and sometimes more expensive doesn’t mean better, either! I can buy locally-grown produce and organic produce at the same price as other products at my local market. (The only exception is bananas which are 57c/lb at Safeway, or 56c at Superstore, but those ones went brown before they went ripe! However, organic bananas at my market are only 59c.)
I’d like to make a point of saying this project is less about encouraging people to change their habits and routines (a very difficult thing, I know!), and more about fighting for the right to unconditionally good food, no matter who you are, where you live, or the choices you make. Everyone should simply be sold only quality food without chemicals. At that point, it’s your choice whether you choose local, or choose farm markets because their prices are lower. (Marion Nestle’s Food Politics shows on page 18 a diagram of the cost distribution of the US food dollar: “80% of food expenditures go to categories other than the “farm value” of the food itself. (Source: USDA FoodReview 2000;23(3):27-30)”. 20% is the farm value, and the rest is the marketing bill, including labour (39c), packaging (8c), transportation (4c), energy (3.5c), advertising (4c), etc. Now that’s food for thought!)
If you are interested in contributing articles, personal experiences, or other writings to my project blog (or this one!), please leave a comment below or send me an email via the menu link above. I would love to hear from you!
One article (plus a copy of this entry) is currently available in the project blog here. The design is currently a default template. (Please note the name and URL of the blog may change.)