Political Ecology Of The World Food System Essay

PAGES
2
WORDS
580
Cite

¶ … Food System Unintended Consequences of Pursuing Cheap Food

We have become accustomed to pursuing cheap food. On surface, it is a rational choice. The cheaper the food we buy to eat and drink the better, as the assumption goes. Coupled with this understandable human desire is the ubiquitous corporate advertising of cheap food and business attempts to convince the consumers that the cheap food offers much greater variety of choices than otherwise would be possible. Most consumers fall for these marketing strategies. But there are at least two unintended consequences of pursuing cheap food. Cheap food -- more precisely, what we buy as "cheap food" -- is unhealthy, which we are choosing consciously. And cheap may be not as "cheap" as we assume. There are evidences showing that pursuing cheap food may lead to food crisis and hunger.

In our culture, we are...

...

And manufacturers, including food corporations, skillfully exploit this cultural pattern for their own benefit. Using elaborate packaging and cool-sounding names, food producers come up with new products every year, introducing around 15-20,000 new food products to the market. We have lost track of the effects of this, assuming that these varieties offer us greater choices. In reality, as Patel argues, "we don't really choose our food -- our food chooses us. . . . Most of what we consider our choices at the consumer end of the food system have been narrowed and shaped before we even begin to think consciously about them" (Patel 253, 255). As Patel further explains, the choices are made for us by the food corporations whose ultimate purpose is maximizing their profit. Even nutritional science is subjugated for…

Cite this Document:

"Political Ecology Of The World Food System" (2012, May 09) Retrieved April 20, 2024, from
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/political-ecology-of-the-world-food-system-57663

"Political Ecology Of The World Food System" 09 May 2012. Web.20 April. 2024. <
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/political-ecology-of-the-world-food-system-57663>

"Political Ecology Of The World Food System", 09 May 2012, Accessed.20 April. 2024,
https://www.paperdue.com/essay/political-ecology-of-the-world-food-system-57663

Related Documents

Political Ecology: The World Food System Global difference in food patterns is one of the most noticed and researched traits of world's nations. What we eat and how we consume it, is part of our culture and living style. It is very obvious that an Arab living in KSA is going to consume more dates rather than Fish as compared to a Bengali living in India. Availability is a key factor

Political Ecology of the World Food System One of the common challenges that have been impacting the world is the automation of various food systems. This is in response to less people living in the country and more residing in urban areas. Moreover, changes in technology and the commercialization of the food industry are making it difficult for individual farmers to survive. As a result, the food system has become commercialized

Political Ecology of the World Food System In the readings examined for this paper, the one central theme is the way politics affects how the environment is treated and how that treatment of the environment then correlates to the food and clean water supply of people all over the world. Nitrogen in fertilizer is one of the big problems, because it does more than just get into the crops which it

Food Policy Political Ecology of the World Food System "While warning about fat, U.S. pushes cheese sales" by Michael Moss According to Michael Moss' article "While warning about fat, U.S. pushes cheese sales" from the New York Times, the U.S. government is sending profoundly mixed messages about the consumption of cheese to the American public. Dietary advice is confusing when it is solicited even from objective research studies, but the government has further

Raj Patel's Staffed and Starved. It begins with a summary of the content then followed by an evaluation and critique of the content.The chapter highlights historical background, development of soya production in the United States and Brazil. Political Ecology of World Food System This chapter begins with a poem from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the poem is relevant to the introductory section of the chapter titled, Secret ingredients. This

Political Ecology One of the biggest challenges facing the world is controlling the natural resources of the planet. This is because population growth has been leading to increases in demand on available land (in an effort to produce food). The problem is that the world is using more of these resources at an alarming rate and global warming has been impacting weather patterns. In many cases, there are different nitrogen and