Eating Ethically

"Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser hits on a subject near and dear to my heart.     I consider myself a "foodie". What that means to me is that I love food and I am thoughtful about what I eat. When possible, I want to know where the food comes from and the impact it has on the planet.

Do I sometimes indulge in fast food? Yes, for convenience or from a craving established in my college years. But I feel that every meal I eat that supports healthy, sustainable agriculture is a tiny victory.

Schlosser suggests there are other things we can do, aside from avoiding fast food. We should push Congress to ban advertising targeted at children and pushing unhealthy food.  We should demand better health safety laws. He goes into great detail around how the meatpacking industry that has often been driven by the fast food industry is a disgrace. There are high rates of worker injuries. Both meatpacking and fast food rely on high turnover employees, with limited access to quality health insurance, training, career advancement, or even basic fair treatment. He has a great quote, "When labor unions have too much influence, they can become corrupt and encourage inefficiencies. But the absence of unions can permit corporations to behave like a criminal enterprises, violating labor laws with impunity." Our food supply is not as safe as it should be and that has been tolerated while the occurrences of food poisoning  continue to grow. The right pressure applied by consumers could result in change faster than anything the government can do. I wonder what the tipping point will be.
 
Imagine a future where more and more of those that can afford to spend more of their income on local, organic, sustainable food decide to do so. That means more restaurants spring up that deliver healthier food. That means more small farmers establish themselves. This could result in the rebuilding of small town America. This means more jobs that do require intelligence but also hard work and not necessarily an over-priced college degree. As this network of farming grows, prices can begin to drop. Once the farmers have more security and a more consistent consumer base and delivery channels, the food can become more and more affordable. While I expect it might take some time before farmers can make a livable profit,  with increased opportunities to work remotely, one spouse/partner could continue to hold a more conventional job.

Spending in the U.S. will slowly shift. One can hope that spending more on food results in less of the cheap, useless goods from China being bought. Perhaps even some of those dollars can be directed to spending on other healthy choices? It is hard to say how that could all play out.  Health care spending should level off as American become healthier.