Project 2- Draft 1
Alexa Lanteri
Professor Miller
24 March 2020
Food Essay #2
The approach we take to food has changed very drastically from many years ago to today. In the past, families would sit down at the dinner table and eat together ever night, someone would cook the food, everyone would eat, and someone would clean up. Today, it can be considered rare to find a modern family that sits down for a traditional style meal with all the components such as a true homecooked meal, proper table setting, and the overall formality of the meal. Many American’s have made it a habit to avoid cooking overall, whether is be ordering food prepared by someone else in a public setting or having it delivered to your home, or heating up a pre-made or easy to do meal that would barely scrape the requirement to be considered true cooking. In Charles Mann’s piece Can Planet Earth Feed 10 Billion People, he explains how overpopulation is an increasing issue, and questions whether our planet has enough food to keep up with the increasing demand of the population with the current eating habits we follow today. He presents the opinions of two important historical figures in his piece and the solutions both proposed to battle this oncoming issue. In the argument made by the ‘prophets’ the way to combat decreasing food resources is to change our eating habits to decrease the demand on the environment. The ‘Wizards, however, believe that technological advances are the better solution while allowing us to maintain our current way of living. Similarly, Lizzie Widdicombe’s piece The End of Food, she explains how the era of food, cooking and eating may be coming to an end. She speaks about entrepreneur Robert Rhinehart who has created the ultimate food replacement. Food substitutes such as the ones mentioned in her piece allow people to give up food completely while still getting the nutrients needed for survival and ideal physical condition. Along with this it also frees up the time, hassle and financial commitment to food that often burdens people regarding their perspective on food. Together, these essays propose alternatives to the food crisis we face today while also acknowledging the benefits and consequences of adapting to change and failing to do so.
How one approaches food has a much bigger effect on other aspects of life as well, including the environment it came from, and the people who is involved in getting your food from its natural site to your dinner plate. In Mann’s essay, he explains how feeding large populations were approached in the past, but the effects of this were unfortunately overbearing of the benefits this plan had to offer. Mann describes a situation in the seventies and eighties where rice production was increased throughout Asia. Although most of the population was eating rice, and in higher amounts that usual, there were some serious consequences to this. In his piece Mann states “the enormous jump in productivity led to enormous environmental damage: drained aquifers, fertilizer runoff, aquatic dead zones, and degraded and waterlogged soils… rural land
[became]
more valuable. Suddenly it was worth stealing…” (Mann, 6). This rush of technology that the Wizards favored was able to feed many people with enough to go around, as well as create work for farmers to keep themselves off enough. Despite these benefits, the environment was not able to sustain this fix and the consequences did more damage than the rice farming did to help. In Widdicombe’s essay, Rhinehart’s Soylent meal substitute sounds promising as a sustainable long-term swap, but concerns go farther than simply whether it will work or not. When speaking about the beneficial chemical compounds that can be gained from eating real food she elaborates that “Such compounds are not known to be essential for survival, but, in epidemiological studies, they appear to provide important health benefits” (Widdicombe, 9) as well as going on to quote the chair of nutrition at Harvard University “… We’re concerned about much more than just surviving.” (9). Although Soylent had some great benefits, such as being able to utilize time for tasks that take priority over food, and possibly improving one’s physical appearance, there were larger concerns in not eating food. Widdecombe explains that foods like tomatoes and blueberries were able to lower risks for certain pathologies or improve positive health factors. When you’re not eating real food, you do not receive these benefits, and this have effects on the overall function of our brains and bodies. Both essay’s display how solutions can look glorious on paper but be a much bigger mess, and it is important to keep in mind what are essentials in our lives and what can be sacrificed without doing harm. Keeping up with the demands of the population is important, especially when it comes to a resource as important as food. Nourishment is essential for proper bodily function. This is an essential for survival, but so is the environment that supports us. With the solution presented in Mann’s essay, it came down to picking between two poisons, feed an entire population and economy adequately and suffer the collapse of the environment as we know it, or preserve our land and resources and allow our populations to suffer. In Rhinehart’s situation, the choice is not so extreme. Nourishment is an essential to surviving, and although that is possible on Soylent, everyone must make the decision if they can live without the added benefits received from eating whole foods. While some may need these, others may be in situations where they can sacrifice these add-ons and breeze by just as smoothly. Although solutions to the main issue of resource management and overpopulation need to be put in place quickly, when forming them it is important to remember that when one problem is solved, another one is created. Planning to embrace these new challenges will lead to success in the management of these stressors.
Although the Wizard approach was not ideal, the prophet approach is not a perfect fit either.
