The Food Issue

Volume 9 Issue 4, November 2009

Food is personal. It is communal and intimate—it comforts us, it connects us, it sustains us. Food is also loaded with political connotations: everything we eat has roots, a chain of production.

If we’re talking plant-based food, this starts off with seeds and soil. The seeds grow into plants, which can be in a huge industrial field, a mid-sized family farm, or in your own backyard or community garden. Those plants are then harvested, and then usually processed or packaged into other kinds of foods. The final products are sold in markets or grocery stores. Once sold, they are cooked and eaten. Every step of this chain of production is politicized; every step and every choice made regarding the end product, what you eat, has different consequences for different people. Growing organic produce has different consequences for the environment and personal health than growing non-organic produce. Too often, these consequences are negative for those with less power on a global scale, and positive for those with more power.

It is all, ultimately, about choice; those with resources have more power to choose what they eat and when they eat it. Those with fewer resources have less choice. This is the reality of the global food system; it favours those with wealth. This means that health, in many ways, is a privilege. It’s a privilege to be able to go to the grocery store and buy whole, nutritious foods. It’s a privilege to own, or have access to, space on which you can garden. It’s a privilege to have enough time to cook healthy and ethical meals. It’s important to acknowledge this privilege and try to make ethical decisions. The difficulty is determining what it means to consume ethically; does it mean buying fair trade, or organic, or growing our own food whenever possible? Or does it mean engaging with the global trading system in a way that benefits small farmers worldwide? Or is it a combination; maybe there are many ways to reach the same goal.

In the midst of a local food revolution, it’s important to think about the decisions made regarding food and consumption. The food production chain a”ects everyone: the farmer, the workers on the farm, the consumer, and everyone in between. What you put in your mouth has an in#nite amount of implications that, ultimately, affect the entire world. The personal is the political.

Erin Epp
Editor-in-Chief