Food Awareness

When making choices about the food I eat, I keep a number of factors in mind. I have long considered becoming a vegetarian because of the environmental and health impacts of eating meat. However, many of my favorite foods involve meat, and I just can’t give them up. Despite this, I make an effort to purchase meat that has been grass-fed (when I can afford it). I also make sure that I read the ingredients of the food that I buy. Something can appear to be completely healthy, but the ingredient list might be full of things I can’t even pronounce. I want to actually know what all the ingredients are in my food, and not base my eating habits just on calorie or fat contents. Eating locally is also something that I try to follow through on. Whenever I can, I buy my fruits and vegetables from farmers markets. However, it is also important to buy in-season foods (which can be limiting) because local foods can be grown in hot-houses that are also not good for the environment. One aspect of being conscious about the food I eat that I find difficult to actually follow through on is the human impact of my food. Having interned at a labor rights organization, I realized that many individuals working in the agricultural sector have far from decent working conditions. I really would like to be able to say that my food has been farmed or processed in fair working conditions, but I have found that to be quite difficult. I can buy Fair Trade certified chocolate or tea, but very few products can even carry a Fair Trade label.

Of the food that I have eaten in the past day, the most environmentally harmful would have to be the Purdue chicken that I had for dinner last night. Buying organic, or GM-free meat is quite expensive, so I usually stick the least expensive options. I am pretty sure that Purdue does not raise its chickens in an environmentally sustainable way. Based on what I saw in the movie Food, Inc., I can only imagine the impact that my dinner had on not just the environment, but also the humans involved in the raising of these chickens.