{"id":257,"date":"2017-07-02T07:03:20","date_gmt":"2017-07-02T07:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/?p=257"},"modified":"2017-07-03T07:21:51","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T07:21:51","slug":"a-relationship-worth-saving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.washington.edu\/ps385\/a-relationship-worth-saving\/","title":{"rendered":"A Relationship Worth Saving"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Kale for Sale” – Photo by Michael Kostors<\/p><\/div>\n

As a professional chef, avid world traveler, and conscious global citizen, analyzing the industrialization of food is of particular interest to me, and equal parts fascinating and disturbing. Humans\u2019 relationship to the food they eat, for most of history, was based on what food was available in a given geographic area. That same type of relationship continued as humans became agrarian societies. Then things started to change dramatically as globalized food trade, importing and exporting became a driving force of economy, politics, and power.1<\/sup> The immense changes in food production and distribution\u2014namely those that followed the industrial revolution of the 20th<\/sup> century\u2014created the ability to feed billions more people hundreds of additional food items, but they also created a major disconnect between the majority of consumers and the path from farm to supermarket.<\/p>\n

Also, a huge amount of food became less and less \u201cfood-like\u201d in an effort to appeal to or to meet the demands of economic, dietary, and aesthetic sociocultural and political trends. As Michael Pollan cleverly noted, the food industry started selling to consumers \u201cthe problem and the solution in the same packaging.\u201d2 <\/sup>The industrial process took basic plant foods, processed them down, dissected and reduced them into chemical\/nutrient component selling-points (e.g. carbs, fats, vitamins), and subsequently came up with seemingly infinite ways to attempt<\/em> to piece those components back together to deliver something as nutritious as the original plant sources. Government agencies of the Global North, such as the USDA and FDA, have played a huge role in this food metamorphosis.3<\/sup><\/p>\n

Following major advancements in studies of health, nutrition, and environmental science, the 21st<\/sup> century has brought with it important movements, legislature, and campaigns to undo some of the negative effects of the industrialization of food. For example, organic farming, farm-to-table, and non-GMO initiatives aim to not only reconnect the consumer with knowledge about the source of the food they eat, but also to address problems such as pollution and sustainability.<\/p>\n

Each time I travel to someplace significantly more distanced from the industrial food world than the U.S., such as Andean towns in Peru or small fishing villages in Southeast Asia, I find people who have a much more sincere and conscious connection to the food they eat, the ingredients used and where they came from, and how that food\u2019s journey toward the plate impacts the people and world around them. That is a good thing. Our intimate relationship with food is one worth saving..<\/p>\n

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