What really stuck out to me the most in the lectures, was just how big of an impact industrial development and politics have on the distribution of food. Breaking things down and reading through the brief history of the food system really put it into perspective for me, and made me appreciate just how far the world has come in such a short time period. Before, you would only be limited to eat the food in your local area, and today we are fortunate to drive five minutes to a grocery store and pick out food that’s been sourced from all over the world.
Thomas Malthus’s theory stood out to me as well. When you look at his thought process, it makes sense on paper. However, his miscalculations and inability to predict the industrialization of agriculture shows how capable and innovative society can be. Mass production needed to happen for the economy to grow, and for the food system to grow as well, but it’s interesting to see now how people are starting to resist it. Nowadays with global warming, and other environmental impacts, people are starting to eat locally sourced produce and products, organic foods, and adopting plant based lifestyles. I’m curious to know, where our food system will be in the next one hundred years. It has changed and developed so rapidly in the last one hundred years, and I’m excited to learn if there have been any predictions or insight into future changes.
Wow, great insight! I hadn’t thought about it before, but before globalization people ate local food as a rule, now people eat local food because of the benefits to themselves and society. We’re really lucky that way, because now we can eat WA grown potatoes with Indian grown turmeric.
I’m also interested to see where we’ll be at in one hundred years. There are so many advances in agriculture like aquaponics, GMO crops, automation, etc. that could really change our diets.