Exam 1 Assignmnet: New York Times Magazine - The Food Issue

FOOD SYSTEMS AND EMERGING MARKETS EXAM 1ByInstitution
Food Systems and Emerging Markets Exam 1
The industrial revolution and the desire to profit from the growing population led to mechanization and subsequent large-scale production of crops and animals. However, unethical practices mar the system and leads to consequences that are dangerous to the human population but cunningly concealed in the corporate practice. This study examines the food system, the legal implications of federal practices, and the alternatives that may be useful.
* Food Systems
Michael Pollan offers an avid description of the evolution of food systems since the beginning of the 19th Century. Food systems refer to the processes and activities associated with the movement of food from the farm to the consumers’ table. They include cultivation, harvesting, storage, processing, marketing, distribution, purchasing, and branding among other activities. In Omnivore’s Dilemma, the author posits that the eating disorder experienced by the American society is because of wrong information perpetuated by nutritionals over the years. It is funny how the nation has a great assortment of foods that the public could freely choose from but still finds difficulty on what to eat at a particular time.
This eating disorder, according to the author, presents the omnivore’s dilemma. The author states that other animals with specific dietary requirements are not worried with what to eat, but man and other omnivores struggle with food choices due to the large varieties at our disposal. The demand for food has led to commercialization of the production, processing and selling of food, with the main aim of satisfying the increasing appetite of the rapidly growing population. Commercial production of crops and animals is on a large scale in the United States., combined with even larger factories specialized at different processing stages of the final product.
In his analysis, Mike Pollan identifies that the large-scale production of agricultural products has a very great influence on the eating behaviors in the country. Some large firms such as the Rosendale Dairy in Wisconsin that produces approximately a million gallons of milk per year, and Fair Oaks Farms producing 90,000 piglets per year and 30,000 calves per year, represent the commercialized nature of the American agriculture that struggles to satisfy the growing populations’ demand. In this food system are firms that process the various farm output into other products such as cheese, butter, French fries, buggers, beer, bread and corn syrup among others.
The author provides a worrying trend in the agricultural sector which heavily depends on the oil industry for fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fuel for farm machines and other products developed using petroleum that find their use in the agricultural sector. The heavy use of such unhealthy products causes soil and water pollution, and may travel to the consumer through the unhealthy products. Although America’s agricultural lands are constantly producing healthy foodstuff such as vegetables, fruits, corn, and animal meat; the population highly consumes processed foods while the healthy foodstuffs come at very high prices. The food s...