Whether it is following the 100 Mile Diet or eating less meat, refusing bottled water, eating organic or supporting a ban on genetically modified food, awareness about the impact of the food and drink we consume has exploded into the mainstream consciousness. Phrases like ‘buy local’, ‘food security’, ‘SUV diet’, ‘gmo free’, ‘fairtrade’, ‘carbon miles’, ‘humanely-slaughtered’ and ‘organic’ are all now increasingly becoming part of our food discourse.
Each day in California alone, more than 3 million plastic water bottles are thrown into landfills.
With our newfound food fluency comes the need for increased awareness and responsibility. Every consumer choice we make has political and environmental ramifications. Is that café latté made from fairly traded coffee and is the milk free from bovine growth hormone? Are you using a recycled content cup or did you bring your own? How many plastic water bottles do you contribute to the landfill? Unfortunately for the rest of the planet, North Americans have adopted extremely resource and waste-intensive consumer habits.
We need to reconsider buying a living lettuce in a plastic box shipped from Mexico and eating strawberries in January. Or, that each day in California alone, more than 3 million plastic water bottles are thrown into landfills. We need to think about the billions of disposable coffee cups and styrofoam and paper plates used each year. We need to stop using the estimated 500 billion single-use plastic bags consumed each year.
We need to wake up.
It was a mistake to hand over control of our food production and water security to corporations whose only interest is making money. It was a mistake to sit back and let our food become so industrialized and automated that in many instances the food is no longer recognizable, nutritious or even edible.
Now is the time to ask questions, grow our own food, re-establish relationships with farmers, raise meat humanely, buy local, and purchase food grown without genetically modified ingredients and pesticides. In Defense of Food author Michael Pollan encourages us “…to vote with our fork”. It is only when we refuse to be complacent with our current system that things will start to change. Our food and drink choices are political, now more than ever.
Valerie Williams is a writer living on Salt Spring Island, Canada.
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