What is the real cost of our food? After reading Michael Carolan’s The Real Cost of Cheap Food, I realized there are many hidden costs to the food choices that we make. In Carolan’s book, he outlines the complex commodity chains that our food products undergo on their way to our kitchen tables. At first, we may see this commodity chain as a reliable way for us to receive food and a productive way for farmers and manufacturers to ship out their products.
However, this system of production can become quite fragile. An interruption from within this chain, such as a shortage of a particular crop, can easily heavily impact the economic stability across the globe. The job security of many farmers and laborers working in different countries can be determined just based off of one seasons yield. Not only this, but a chain reaction would occur, leading to an overall economic impact toward the price of those goods produced. Through all of this, the end result is still an affordable product for the consumer at the grocery store. This affordability, or “cheapness” is the main reason why there has been a shortage of local farmers. The monetary benefits are a lot less than the costs that these farmers have to endure to maintain their crops year after year.
There are also other numerous constraints when it comes to the types of foods that we produce, such 
as the use of water, pollution and resources extracted. One of these constraints revolves around the use of what is called virtual water, which documents the size of our water footprint towards the production of a food product. Foods such as chocolate amount to large quantities of virtual water due to the exploitation of power relations, water scarcity and efficiency during harvesting and production. This is a helpful tool to place a new perspective upon the different types of food that we eat and helps us determine the background factors that give us a global reaction to our personal choices. As we contextualize the food system that we have, it’s important to address topics such as pollution, resources extracted, and how long we can continue this trend until we reach an epidemic.
Picture Source: http://www.irinnews.org/report/94208/bangladesh-government-shopping-farm-land