Food and Agriculture

For over seven years now, I have been a vegetarian and a couple of my close friends are flexitarians (a diet that is plant-based with the occasional inclusion of meat products). Restaurant or fast food dining is a widely appreciated, and frequently practiced amongst most American families and social groups, it is part of the American culture and a social norm. Therefore the social norm amongst my friends and I, is dining out at restaurants and sampling their vegetarian dishes. Since most of us have diverse ethnicities, eating ethnic food is something we truly enjoy as a group, it’s also a big part our social gatherings, especially given that Washington DC is home to some of the best restaurants. Fast food eateries are frequented by my group as well. My battle with beef began when I was questioning what I was consuming, and that’s when I became a vegetarian. My take-away from Module 6 is that unfortunately, our eating habits as a group is not the ideal food choice. Our food consumption is taste based as opposed to a locally grown, nutritious, sustainable, and-GMO food choice. Given that industrial food production especially of animals does harm to the environment, it’s unlikely that I will enjoy a restaurant meal without understanding where the food is from and how it’s been processed.

Restaurant and fast food dining is a common social norm for different groups and individuals, such as, family entertainment, work meetings, networking events, group celebrations etc. The convenience, taste, variety, effortless availability and media makes eating out, especially fast food very appealing. In addition to the aforementioned pros the fast food industry has a low-cost varieties that allures the masses. Most of restaurant menus are filled with animal based foods items, particularly meat. In addition, eating beef like hamburgers, is large part of the American diet and culture. Regrettably eating meat, particularly beef has serious detriments to the environment and human health. The consumption of beef particularly by the fast food industry has led to factory farming that adversely affects the environment through the greenhouse gases emitted by cattle, deforestation for land needed to produce more feed crop, fossil water depletion, water pollution, and various public health concerns like antibiotic resistance, air pollution, water pollution, infectious disease transmission. Consequently factory farming for beef production is not sustainable. As fast food is the driver for these factory farms, change in the food industry is society’s responsibility. Therefore decreasing the amount of animal products consumed and demand for quality as well as nutritious food is a collective action, which begins with education of what we are ultimately consuming and its impact to the social and ecosystems.