Walk into your local grocery store, what do you see? Aisles and aisles of food, the option to eat anything you could ever want. This is a relatively new experience in our existence, many people see this abundance as a positive thing. We no longer have to go out and forage or hunt food for ourselves, we can just walk into the same building and buy food any time we need it. Contrast this to the past when you either had to know how to grow your own food or hunt for it. I think we can all agree that grocery stores and restaurants are major improvements to the previous way of doing things. However with every advancement comes new issues that need to be addressed. Walking into that grocery store, among the endless aisles of food that you see, how much of that is grown within 100 miles of the grocery store? When you go out to eat, how much of what you are eating is sourced locally? The answer, unfortunately, is little to none.
Our food system is an extremely centralized system, meaning that the flow of goods is super consistent and controllable. However, this also means that the source of all our food can come from hundreds of thousands of miles away. Logistically, this makes sense. If you have a steady supply of food from all over, then if one area experiences a drought or other ecological disaster, they won’t have a food shortage because their food supply is coming from somewhere else. Environmentally though, this system is very damaging. The environmental impact of the transport of the food from its origin to the consumer is very high. Tons of greenhouse gases are emitted as a result of this transport. On top of that, the amount of land it takes to supply the massive demands of goods is extreme. They rely on monoculture farming techniques (which I’ve talked about the negative impact that has on the environment in previous posts) which requires massive swaths of land which destroys natural habitats. They use harmful chemicals on the foods to ensure high yield, but cause health issues to people who eat these products and negatively impact our water supply when they runoff into lakes and rivers.
In contrast, community-based food systems have been the norm for most of human history. Basically, humans ate food that was around them. The positives of this food system are that it’s generally a more sustainable way of eating. What you eat comes from what’s around you, what you’re able to farm, forage and hunt. It promotes taking better care of your environment because that is the source of your food, which is a lot more obvious in this type of system. Like anything though, this also has its negatives. These food systems are less secure as the weather can determine how much food is available. You also won’t have access to as many things in this system as you would in a more centralized food system because, depending on where you live and what season it is, you may not have access to certain foods. (So long avocado toast, northerners!)
This begs the question, is there a way to combine the best of both systems? Is there a way to have a food system that is environmentally sustainable, nutritious and healthy, and reliable and consistent? In my mind, a return to a community-based food system is necessary if we want to sustain our environment and eat healthier. However, I do think there needs to be some adjustments as well. To make this system more consistent and reliable, I think the use of local indoor farms and gardens are necessary. Indoor farming is resistant to droughts and other environmental disasters because we can control every aspect of the indoor environment. You are also able to grow plants in regions that they otherwise wouldn’t grow in. (Welcome back avocado toast, northerners!) Getting rid of monoculture farming is also a necessity in this new food system. Because you are getting all of your food locally, it wouldn’t make sense to grow massive amounts of one single crop. Instead, it would be better to grow a lot of different crops to increase the kinds of foods you are able to sell to local markets and restaurants. This type of agriculture is also more sustainable and actually regenerates damaged ecosystems. (See previous posts about regenerative agriculture.) In this system, these types of farms would be the backbone of the system, with indoor farming being a supplemental support of it.
This system would also boost local, rural economies, areas that need economic stimulation the most. More and more people are moving out of rural areas and into cities, this hurts these small towns, as they have no way to compete with these larger cities economically. This means that the people left in rural areas tend to suffer from poverty more than those that live in cities because they have less access to education and resources. (1) Giving rural areas this economic boost will be vital for lifting these areas out of poverty, giving residents better access to the resources they need to live well.
Overall, I don’t think there is one right answer to the issue of fixing our food system. There are many ways we can choose to make it better. I gravitate towards this solution, though, because the benefits don’t just fix one problem, it addresses multiple. It addresses an environmental problem, a social problem and an economic problem. It also may positively impact other things that are as of yet unseen. I’m not so blind as to believe that this will solve all the problems of the food system or that it won’t potentially create new ones. But I do think it would be a definite improvement to the current system we have in place.
The Cultural Chef 