I was struck by Dr. Vandana Shiva’s talk on “Solutions to the food and ecological crisis facing us today” because of her emphasis on the interconnectedness of bodies and soil. She talks about how nature is not “out there”, how environmentalism does not interfere with growth and how everything is interconnected. I think this emphasis on the interconnectivity is incredibly important. In our modern world of globalization (and with it specialization), too often we find ourselves thinking so narrowly that we end up treating the symptoms rather than causes (if we are lucky).

Dr. Shiva’s point about “if only we could think about circles and cycles” is incredibly powerful. What if instead of creating fish farms because the wild populations are so overfished we took a pause and examined the root cause of the depletion of fisheries? Would we not be better served thinking critically about how we got here to begin with rather than about what bandaid we are going to slap over our problems to mask them for today?

We need to take a step back and reflect. In our constant whir of information and cash flow pausing is becoming incredibly difficult. We are pressured to constantly be thinking two steps ahead. This pressure is very problematic and something that Dr. Shiva touches on: “Environmentalism cannot be considered the enemy of “progress.”” Viewing nature as something to be overcome is never going to work and feeling like we don’t have time to think about the systemic, underlying problems of our problems will never lead us to lasting, meaningful solutions as it ignores the cycles that will only keep on repeating if we do not examine the cause. There should always be a place in the conversation for food issues as “food is life.”

We think of ourselves as separate from the food movement or environmentalism if we are not out on the streets rallying or in the dirt planting; however, every single one of us partakes in this system through the simple act of eating. And it really is simple, to change these systems, to change our course, for those of us who are privileged enough to have a choice, all we need to do is take it one meal at a time.