A huge issue all of these authors seem to be addressing is the loss of tradition as a result of globalization of food; the sad thing about globalization: health along with culture is sacrificed. This was clearly the case for Native Americans, and may be the case for Indians. It’s also the case for many cultures who have recently began importing “American foods.”

The issue of monoculture comes up again, but monoculture and the lack of biodiversity makes a huge impact on nutrition. Furthermore, “we are now eating eight commodities” (Shiva), meaning variety is almost nonexistent. How can humans attain all the vitamins and minerals needed to stay healthy when we’re only eating a handful of crops?

It was amazing to me to hear about all of the crops the Indians in the desert ate; they knew the land so well they could transform a seemingly inedible food into staple food. (I’m from the desert in California and have almost no knowledge of the vegetation there, so I’m impressed with the knowledge of the land.) These individuals had variety in their diet, and suddenly, individuals unfamiliar with their culture want to change their ways because their foraging method isn’t “productive enough.” Then, a slew of health problems followed.

It’s encouraging that LaDuke’s relatives are working to change the lack of biodiversity and reviving their culture. The fact that the corn and squash they grow, which are non-GMO, are more resilient is amazing, too. Planting different crops gives us different nutrients, and the non-GMO variation can be more nutrient dense, non-GMO plants a more viable option for agriculture.

Obviously, eliminating GMO’s isn’t as easy as just looking at something small like this. In some cases, like Vitamin-A-rich golden rice, which helps prevent vitamin A deficiency in countries where rice is a staple food, GMO’s are actually a good thing.[1] Last semester a professor mentioned that a GMO banana containing vaccines for diseases like cholera and hepatitis is in the making. Other than that, I don’t really think GMO’s are a good thing. Some people might argue that they’re necessary to fee the world population we have, but maybe if more individuals took an interest in farming or we stopped the insane amount of food waste[2] we could feed more people.

As a nutrition major, I think GMO’s, culture, and food waste are an important thing to consider because I’ve found that many people in nutrition just focus on nutrients and nothing else (not all nutrition majors are this way, but I’ve found a lot of people to be this way). In reality, these issues could be part of the root of our diet related health problems.

About a month before my semester ended, I had a short conversation with a food studies grad student. Her thesis was about food waste, and she did a project involving waste from slivered almonds. A company that sold organic, slivered almonds would throw out the crumbs that didn’t get slivered. She collected trash bags full of the wasted almonds and turned it into almond butter. These were perfectly usable almonds that were getting thrown out. Like me, she studied nutrition during her undergrad years, but decided not to become a dietician. She wanted to be involved in food policy because she felt that too many individuals in nutrition did not care enough about where food comes from. I’m not sure how, but I would like to be someone in nutrition who cares more about more than just nutrients, but the nurturing aspects of food, too.

[1] http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/agriculture/problem/genetic-engineering/Greenpeace-and-Golden-Rice/

[2] America wastes 31% of its food, and 1 billion dollars are spent just to get rid of this food waste (http://endhunger.org/food-waste/)