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Sustainability in Food Production and Distribution Reflection Essay

Last week, my Human Geography class was researching food production and distribution. From Monday, October 4^th to Thursday, October 7^th, I had to document every single piece of food that went into my mouth including what the brand was and where that brand’s factory was located. For example, I had a glass of Mott’s apple juice with my dinner on Monday and it came from Rye Brook, New York. Another day, I had a banana with my lunch. The banana came all the way from California. So that one banana had to be grown with steroids at a factory in California, shipped all the way on the other side of the country to Maryland. Then finally, it will be at a supermarket for my family to buy. Wouldn’t it be much easier to go to a local farmers market to by a batch of bananas? They grow their own bananas with no fillers or steroids at a local farmers market. In this essay, I’m going to talk about everything that goes into food production and distribution that I have learned and my feelings about them. I am sure you will find some of this very surprising!

I feel that the production of food is very nasty once you learn about it. Everyone knows that in order to have a hamburger, you have to kill a cow as well as all of the other meats, but at fast food places such as McDonald’s, their Southern Style Chicken Filet has ingredients such as modified tapioca starch, sodium phosphates, carrageenan, and maltodextrin in their chicken…how is that normal? Chicken should be strictly chicken, no fillers, or extra ingredients that no one even knows what they are. That is the same with every possible food that is produced by major companies. No one knows what’s really in it. Is Goldfish really made out of cheese? How do we know if Ore-Ida French fries actually have potato in them? The only way we can find that out is if you read the ingredients that are on the box and research what exactly you’re eating. How do we know what carrageenan is even though we are eating it? Carrageenan comes from seaweed, so technically we are eating seaweed or algae when we eat a Southern Style Chicken Filet from McDonald’s. In order to know exactly what you are eating and what it is produced from, you need to research it.

Another problem with food is its distribution. The typical food that you eat every day comes from all over the country, sometimes even all over the world! On Tuesday, October 5^th, I had a chocolate donut from Pennsylvania, Gatorade from Chicago, a bag of Goldfish from Denver, some Dr. Pepper from Texas, and also a banana from California. That shows you how insane food distribution is. There are only a few major factories in this country. Many brands of food own other brands of food, so there is a lot of dictation over food in this country. In modern times, you can’t just go to the grocery store and buy some food that came from in-state. Almost everything in a grocery store comes from a factory out of state that makes food with un-natural fillers and distributes them to supermarkets all over the country. I even had some Sweet Tarts from Vevey, Switzerland last week! That just comes to show you how crazy the distribution and production of food is now-a-days. You never really know where your food is coming from unless you buy it from a local farmers market.

I will personally make a few changes to my diet based on what I learned about food last week. Since I learned about all of the nasty fillers and un-natural ingredients that go into fast food restaurants’ food, I am going to be eating a lot less of that! Also, I will try to get more organic foods instead of the regular brands. When you eat organic, there are no un-natural ingredients, No persistent pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. There are also no hormones or steroids in the meat or any food for that matter. And most important, they treat the animals well and feed them with healthy food to eliminate the chances of E. coli and other diseases in the animal which would switch over to the meat that we eat. I will urge my family to but fruits and vegetables from local farmers markets in my town. Harford County is known for their farmland, and there are so many farmers markets around town. If we bought fruits and vegetables from local markets, it might cost a little more than the fruit at the grocery store, but it is worth it because it is much better for your health! People need to realize that your health is so much more important than the cost of something. Would you rather die at 40 because of a heart attack from all of the disgusting fast food that you eat, or die at 75 because you had a healthy diet? I don’t know about you, but I would prefer the healthy diet.

 

What really surprised me about the food distribution and production that I recently learned about is what factories put into their food in order to make it taste better and last longer. The most shocking thing that I saw when I was doing my research was all of the ingredients that are in the McDonald’s foods. It is all said to be 100% natural beef, but what about the algae that they put in the chicken? And the cheese that they put on their cheeseburgers isn’t even real cheese! It has extra little ingredients to make it all taste the same. That is the one thing that really blows my mind about all of this food that I have been studying.

 

As you can see, the food industry is filled with a lot of mystery, and unless you really research what is going into the food that you are eating, you will never know. The only food that you can really trust to be fully healthy for you is fruits and vegetables that you buy from farmers markets, and not ones that you find at the grocery store from South America!

Food Distribution Map

This is my Google Map of where all of my food came from from Monday, October 4th to Thursday, October 7th. The total mileage in country was approximately 4100 miles. With the amount of mileage that a big rig truck gets (which is about 10 miles per gallon), it would cost about $1128 to get all of the food I ate this week to my house. I also had some SweetTarts that came from Vevey, Switzerland. The distance between Vevey and Bel Air, Maryland is around 4050 miles.

Food Journal

Monday:

Dinner: Barilla pasta (from Ames, Iowa) with salt, and Motts apple juice (from Rye Brook, NY)

Tuesday:

Breakfast: Entenmanns chocolate donut (Horsham, PA) , glass of water.

Lunch: Peanut butter sandwich with JIF peanut butter (Orrville, Ohio), school fries, red Gatorade (Chicago, IL), original nacho cheese doritos (Dallas, TX)

Dinner: 2 slices of little caesars cheese pizza (forest hill, MD), cup of mountain dew (Chicago, IL)

Snacks: Dentyne ice 2 pieces of gum, a bag of goldfish (Denver, CO), berry propel (Chicago. IL), 2 chocolate chip cookies from Safeway (bel Air, MD), glass of dr. pepper (Plano, TX), strawberries

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Bisquick pancakes (Minneapolis, MN), water

Lunch: Austin peanut butter crackers (Battle Creek, MI), deer park water (Wilkes-Barre, PA), strawberry fruit by the foot (Minneapolis, MN)

Dinner: a slice of little ceaser’s pizza

Snacks: goldfish (Denver, CO), berry propel (Chicago, IL), bag of sweet tarts (Vevey, Switzerland), code red mountain dew (Chicago, IL), dole banana (Westlake Village, California)

Thursday:

Breakfast: chocolate donut from Safeway (Bel Air, MD)

Lunch: peanut butter sandwich with white bread and JIF peanut butter (Orrville, Ohio), bag of Doritos (Dallas, TX)

Dinner: Safeway ground beef (Bel Air, MD), Oreida golden crinkles French fries (Pittsburg, PA), Mott’s apple juice (Rye Brook, NY)

Snacks: mountain dew (Chicago, IL), Twix,  Mott’s apple juice (Rye Brook, NY)