When comes to food systems, we tend to think “big.” We also tend to think the impact of the environment on our food system is out of our control, so we shrug off the responsibility and rely on others to do things for us. For many of us city dwellers, we can’t deny we have been disconnected from nature, where our food comes from, and have spent less time interacting with the environment.
According to the World Health Organization, the urban population in 2014 accounted for 54 percent of the total global population, up from 34 percent in 1960, and continues to grow. Is this good news for us? Who will take the responsibility to feed us then? And how would they help provide for the estimated 9 billion people on the planet by 2050?
If you reflect upon humans’ past experiences, history has told us that civilization was built through hard labor. This labor meant people worked together and celebrated the time they were together based on their collaborations. No one was isolated and we needed that social support to communicate and help one another. In other words, food was a pathway to bind people, and people were driven by the sense of belonging to lead their lives in a sustainable way. Therefore, people shared not only their food but also their food experiences. This is where culture comes from: food connecting people.
Food goes hand-in-hand with collaboration. If you trace back either through history or examine your own daily practices, you will find what food means in terms of relationships. From my own perspective, there are two layers of meaning in this context. First, I think of the relationship between the land and humans. The second is the relationship among people. The two layers are not parallel to each other but connected and intertwined.
With the rapid development of technology in this era, we are relying more on mass production of food to meet the needs of our fast-paced lifestyles. As technology helps us to increase our work efficiency and shorten the geographical distance between people, it also creates a gap that drags people away from manual labor and nature, while also shifting our attitudes toward convenience.
The convenience of accessing and consuming foods can have both positive and negative effects on both our health and our surroundings. Essentially, people who have the purchasing power to acquire high-quality food sometimes do not appreciate what they eat and take it for granted. The lack of appreciation and thought about what we eat and how we eat either blocks or cuts off the “relationship” we are trying to build with our environment and the people who nourish us, serve us and eat with us. Instead, we rely on mass manufacturing operations to feed us. When buying these convenience foods, we rarely ask ourselves, “Where did this food come from? Who grew it? And how the food get here?”
As food generates dialogue and creates the opportunities to help us connect to one another and the environment we live in, it also defines who we are. Like the clothes we wear, food reflects our culture and personality. We eat different food at different places; our choices are changing as we move from one place to another. Food preference is a pathway that conveys messages rooted deep in our identities.
While, as they say, “you are what you eat,” we also should recognize that our social environment shapes our diets and eating behaviors. It goes beyond individual preferences, but includes community influences, education and childhood experiences. That old saying isn’t inclusive of the various situations that help shape our food choices.
As we focus on the big picture of food systems, we should reflect on and ask ourselves those important questions, like, where is my food from? Why do I eat it? In what way can I prepare and cook my food to maximize the nutritional value? How can I preserve food and/or avoid food waste?
The point here is by simply being more aware of and taking positive action on what we can change can make a big difference regarding our surroundings — and eventually the food system as a whole. If we “think big” in terms of being aware of our environment and community, but “act small,” starting with our own daily practices, this is the key to help our planet move forward.