Contemplation and self-reflection are not unusual for me. However, food is not something that I have dedicated a great deal of thought to. I tend to be very functional in my approach to what I eat, regarding it simply as fuel. Recently, during a guided contemplation regarding our industrialized food system that employed the particularly mindful enjoyment of a single raisin; I realized something. The process through which we are able to buy raisins, a deceptively complex food, at a grocer is nearly as industrial as the process through which we obtain gasoline for our cars. Actually, gasoline, hydrocarbons, and raisins have a lot in common.
Food is Fuel, Fuel is Food
Image: University of Arkansas, Little Rock
Amanda Little says that we essentially eat oil, in so much as our food system is entirely dependent on it (Little 2009). Her focus is primarily on fertilizers and how energy intensive they are to produce and how integral they are to the high yielding productivity that the American food industry depends on (Little 2009). Surely, grapes are dependent on fertilizers as much as any crop, but raisins, to be cheap and abundant also rely on massive harvesting equipment, which runs on petroleum. These facts caused me to view the raisin as an almost completely insane commodity. At the very least, the way we utilize machinery to make laborious tasks easier, made me wonder; would all of this be possible without access to cheap energy and why does the United States have a monopoly on it? I am not necessarily in a hurry to change the ease with which I obtain food, but it is nice to be mindful of the process….
Korvan Harvester
Image: Oxbo International
References/Further Reading:
Amanda Little: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6710431-power-trip
Energy costs by type: https://oilprice.com/oil-price-charts
Gasoline Prices worldwide: https://www.statista.com/statistics/221368/gas-prices-around-the-world/#0
I really appreciate that you understand what kind of eater you are. You are a person that sees food as a means to an end rather than food being the end itself. The fuel that you put into your body needs fuel to be grown, harvested, and brought to the store. I am not sure what you mean by your question “would all of THIS” — “this” being the center of my confusion. Do you mean how cheap you bought your food and raisins for? As for the second part of your question about America’s monopoly cheap energy, I would argue that it doesn’t have a monopoly on it. The EU has one of the biggest agricultural planning systems, comparable to the US’s and probably more confusing (thanks to EU regulations). Machinery and technology are spreading. Cheap labour is increasing, but is that a good thing? It means more use of oil and a continuation of the very process that you warn us to be more mindful of. Maybe the level of ease that we obtain our food need not change, but the means probably should. Overall, I think you internalized the raisin lesson very well. I hope I provided more things for you to contemplate on.