Alexa Melendez

REL 3492

Professor Bauman

Food Consumption Essay

Food, a nutritious substance consisting of carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, and

vitamins consumed by human beings on daily basis, significantly contributes to maintaining the

health and strength of individuals. For this reason, it becomes very important to know about the

source of the food consumed regularly, the ingredients it contains, the conditions of the food

producers, and the ways in which the food is grown in farm and factories to obtain adequate

energy from it. Moreover, it is essential to familiarize oneself with the food issues related to the

ecological footprint in order to produce and consume environment-friendly food.

Upon carefully analyzing my daily diet, I realized that it is a combination of fresh food

items and the fast food. In breakfast, I prefer to eat eggs, bread, bacon, and a fresh seasonal fruit

like apple, banana, or pear. For lunch, I often consume the dishes made of pasta or noodles such

as mac and cheese, chicken noodle soup, or pesto pasta. These dishes usually contain a variety of

ingredients including water, eggs, chicken, vegetables, cheese, flour, olive oil, salt and pepper,

and butter. In my dinner, I love to consume burgers, fries, and pizzas containing bun, olives,

pepperoni, cheese, potatoes, red meat, onions, tomatoes, ketchup, sauces, spices, and corn flour.

The food consumed by me on daily basis comes from agricultural farms as well as from

the food-processing factories by travelling around 1300 miles from farms to my dining table

(Tontisirin 2004, 5). For instance, the fruits and vegetables consumed by me in breakfast and

lunch come from farms where they are grown and harvested by farmers, then sold to the
collection points, and finally processed and packaged in factories in the large crates. From these

factories, the packaged food is transported to grocery stores through large trucks and is bought

by me. In contrast, the meat, eggs, pasta, and bread eaten by me are prepared in poultry farms

and factories where the animals are bred and food is prepared to be stored in huge refrigerators

and freezers for retaining its quality and freshness (Tontisirin 2004, 9). From there, both fresh

and frozen food is transported to grocery stores in large vans and is bought by the consumers.

Despite a considerable improvement in human rights during the past few years, the poor farm

and factory workers involved in making food are constantly neglected by their owners. It is

estimated that more than 20 million people work in the food industry in the US whose livelihood

completely depend on the food sector produce (Lo and Jacobson 2011, 5). These miserable

workers, involved in farming fresh fruits, breeding healthy chicken, and making hot bread for

me, are usually underpaid, poorly-fed, and overloaded with work making their life difficult.

However, the recent food policies like APHA Policy is determined to improve labor conditions

by providing them financial security, reducing their working hours, and improving worksite

safety (Lo and Jackson 2011, 10). These improved conditions of farmers and food employees

have made me hopeful that my food, like fruits and vegetables, is now produced organically in

farms without using harmful pesticides. Similarly, the animals consumed by me are raised under

healthy conditions without injecting them with sterilizers and feeding them inorganic fodder to

increase their weight and milk and egg production.

After knowing about the source of my food and its production and travelling

mechanisms, it is essential to recognize the relationship between my ecological footprint and

certain food issues troubling the modern scientific world such as the quality of imported food,

the demerits of genetically modified food items, and the ethical and religious concerns related to
food production and consumption. It is now a well-known fact that many food items including

onions, tomatoes, bananas, and garlic are imported from other countries as they are not grown

locally in Canada after a significant reduction in Canadian agricultural farms producing fresh

fruits and vegetables (Tek 2020). This raises a pertinent concern regarding the quality and

freshness of food imported from international markets as the food produced under unknown

conditions is now becoming the vital cause of increasing pollution and disturbing the ecological

environment. Moreover, now the food is prepared through genetically modified means in large

factories to increase its production causing the transfer of allergic genes to food which not only

becomes harmful when consumed by people but also increases the amount of carbon and other

pollutants within our natural ecosystem (Sanford 2017, 153). Furthermore, as I mentioned in my

ecological footprint assignment, various religions of the world are responsible for destroying our

natural ecological system by encouraging brutal slaughtering and consumption of animals. This

excessive reduction in the number of useful animals increase the quantity of wild plants and

bushes which ultimately affect our planet Earth in a negative way. Moreover, overconsumption

of meat makes us obese and lethargic destroying our healthy lifestyle. It further leads to

increasing intolerance and decreasing compassion for the poor living beings making meat

consumers selfish and egoist (Sanford 2017, 161). For these valid reasons, it is the need of the

hour to recognize these significant food issues to improve our ecological footprint by

contributing positively towards the political, economic, and ecological sustainability of our

world.

In conclusion, healthy food consumption is essential to maintain a strong body and a

vigorous mind. The food we eat on daily basis should contain a proper amount of all nutritious

ingredients devoid of any junk item to keep ourselves active and healthy. Moreover, we must be
fully aware of the source of our food, the way it is produced, the conditions of the food

producers, and the ingredients present in our food to avoid unhealthy food consumption. With

growing food technology and artificial food-processing methods, it is essential to resolve food

issues by keeping our ecological system natural, our food fresh, our animals healthy, our farmers

and food workers satisfied, and our consumers up-to-date about their food so that we all can

breathe and live in a natural fresh environment happily consuming healthy food.
 Bibliography

Lo, Joann and Jacobson, Ariel. 2011. “Human Rights from Field to Fork: Improving Labor

Conditions for Food-sector Workers by Organizing across Boundaries.” Race/Ethnicity:

Multidisciplinary Global Contexts 5, no. 1 (Autumn): 61–82.

https://doi.org/10.2979/racethmulglocon.5.1.61.

Sanford, Whitney. 2017. “Food.” In Grounding Religion, edited by Whitney A. Bauman,

Richard Bohannon and Kevin J. O’ Brien, 150-171. New York: Routledge.

Tek, Simple. 2020. “How far did your food travel to you today?” Directed by Oak Point. January

14, 2020. YouTube Video, 10:35. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIoef8E9UqQ.

Tontisirin, Kraisid. 2004. “Globalization of food systems in developing countries: impact on

food security and nutrition.” FAO Food and Nutrition Paper 83, no. 5 (Spring): 1-107.

https://www.fao.org/3/y5736e/y5736e.pdf.