“Eating is an Agricultural Act?” The Ethics of Food and Eating
In this project we read Michael Pollan’s groundbreaking book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and discussed the relationship that we--as individuals and as a society--have with our food sources. This included an exploration of the different “food chains” that we see manifest in our culture and a discussion about the ethics--or guiding principles--that impact this relationship.
My Essay
How living in Colombia opened up my eyes to different cultures' relation with food. I'm 17 years old and have grown up in small town Durango Colorado. I would consider my family relatively conscious people about what goes in their body. We home cook all our meals, have a garden in the backyard, and try to buy foods locally when we can. This past year I took an exchange year and moved to South America. Specifically Buga, Valle de Cauca Colombia. I experienced big changes and one of the biggest was the food, my diet changed, how much food, and when changed, and my overall relation with the food.
En colombia mi dieta cambió a arroz, arroz y más arroz. Es un chiste para colombianos porque saben que comen mucho arroz, y la verdad es que habia dia donde comí arroz para desayuno, almuerzo y cena. La comida más grande el dia es almuerzo, todos los días comemos arroz y un tipo de carne con eso a veces había sopa, plátano, ensalada, un tipo de vegetales, papas, o otras cosas. También, siempre tomemos jugo, o agua panela con limón. Para desayuno y cena comí menos, normalmente un sandwich, huevos con arroz, salchicha, arepa, o frutas. En colombia es muy diferente porque comen casi el mismo cosa todos los días.
Apples… Most of you see an apple as just food (I'm guilty of this as well) but there's a whole story behind every apple, and everything you eat. Here in Durango our apples don't have to travel too far for us to eat them. Many of the apples you buy in stores here come from Colorado. If it's the right season I can walk outside my house, pick it right off the tree and take a bite. That's the short story, but if you're living in Colombia that story gets a little longer. The majority of apples eaten in Colombia are from either the US or Chile. That's a long way and a lot of fuel for it to get to your mouth. When I first moved to Colombia my host family asked what things I enjoy eating, apples were one of the things. The next day they bought me some apples, they normally don't eat many of them but they wanted me to have some things in the house I liked. I would say I'm a picky apple eater, I don't like them if they aren't crisp, and the first one I ate was pretty soft. After eating many apples and none of them being as crisp and sweet as the ones we are privileged to have here in colorado, I realized it was because they had to travel so far. What do you think would taste better, a freshly picked apple or one that traveled 10 days to get to the store? In contrast there were fruits I ate in Colombia that I can't even begin to explain how much better they tasted there than in the US. Two of them being mangos and bananas. I was fortunate enough to have a mango tree in my backyard. When they were ripe for about a month or more I ate fresh mangoes and drank mango juice every day, and even the store bought ones were incredibly delicious. For the bananas they were always much sweeter and had a softer feeling, not so grainy. When you went to the store you could buy bananas that were still connected to the branch, and I always could see trees.
These are foods grown and eaten locally, but most of the time it doesn't work like that. Just like the apple that is exported out of the US and imported into Colombia to be eaten. Only 8 percent of food grown in the US is not eaten locally. This is really low. When I was living in Colombia my second host family owned farms, they had a couple different ones but the biggest one was a sugarcane farm. It was really cool to see the process behind all of it. Something I realized is how much food is grown and eaten locally. The sugarcane was grown and sold locally but also distributed around colombia; but other things like eggs, avocados, fruits...all of this is grown, sold on the streets, and eaten locally. Almost every day on my way home from school we would stop by the avocado stand and buy one or two avocados to eat with lunch. Another example of this is the eggs. You would very rarely buy eggs at the store, you would either go to this little store that sold only eggs or they would be brought to your house. Normally you would buy lots of eggs at a time and they came in cardboard cartons wrapped in string, they always tasted so good, and fresh. The little things like this I really appreciated about colombia. I felt like their connection to food was a lot stronger than here in the US.
The connection and relation with food in Colombia wasn’t just about where the food came from but also how they ate it. This probably sounds a little weird but one of my favorite things I experienced was lunch. Everyday at 12:30 everyone would get out of school, work, or whatever they were going to go home and have lunch with their family. I would sit down, talk, have a huge meal, and after take my siesta. It was a special time I got to experience with my host families. Everybody seemed to really cherish eating good food with family and friends, which personally I love. The other two meals of the day breakfast and dinner were a lot smaller and were normally eaten whenever I got hungry. I would say here in the US dinner is the biggest meal of the day, and there are lots of families who sit down and eat together, but also lots of families who don't.
I think being able to experience different countries' relation/ethic with food is such an amazing thing. There are many things I took away from living in Colombia that I would like to incorporate into my own food ethic. I feel the more I travel the deeper connection I can grow with food by seeing how other cultures work. I think that there are many things that the US could learn from different cultures that could change the united stats relation to food/how the food industry work. I also feel that there are things that other countries could learn from us.
En colombia mi dieta cambió a arroz, arroz y más arroz. Es un chiste para colombianos porque saben que comen mucho arroz, y la verdad es que habia dia donde comí arroz para desayuno, almuerzo y cena. La comida más grande el dia es almuerzo, todos los días comemos arroz y un tipo de carne con eso a veces había sopa, plátano, ensalada, un tipo de vegetales, papas, o otras cosas. También, siempre tomemos jugo, o agua panela con limón. Para desayuno y cena comí menos, normalmente un sandwich, huevos con arroz, salchicha, arepa, o frutas. En colombia es muy diferente porque comen casi el mismo cosa todos los días.
Apples… Most of you see an apple as just food (I'm guilty of this as well) but there's a whole story behind every apple, and everything you eat. Here in Durango our apples don't have to travel too far for us to eat them. Many of the apples you buy in stores here come from Colorado. If it's the right season I can walk outside my house, pick it right off the tree and take a bite. That's the short story, but if you're living in Colombia that story gets a little longer. The majority of apples eaten in Colombia are from either the US or Chile. That's a long way and a lot of fuel for it to get to your mouth. When I first moved to Colombia my host family asked what things I enjoy eating, apples were one of the things. The next day they bought me some apples, they normally don't eat many of them but they wanted me to have some things in the house I liked. I would say I'm a picky apple eater, I don't like them if they aren't crisp, and the first one I ate was pretty soft. After eating many apples and none of them being as crisp and sweet as the ones we are privileged to have here in colorado, I realized it was because they had to travel so far. What do you think would taste better, a freshly picked apple or one that traveled 10 days to get to the store? In contrast there were fruits I ate in Colombia that I can't even begin to explain how much better they tasted there than in the US. Two of them being mangos and bananas. I was fortunate enough to have a mango tree in my backyard. When they were ripe for about a month or more I ate fresh mangoes and drank mango juice every day, and even the store bought ones were incredibly delicious. For the bananas they were always much sweeter and had a softer feeling, not so grainy. When you went to the store you could buy bananas that were still connected to the branch, and I always could see trees.
These are foods grown and eaten locally, but most of the time it doesn't work like that. Just like the apple that is exported out of the US and imported into Colombia to be eaten. Only 8 percent of food grown in the US is not eaten locally. This is really low. When I was living in Colombia my second host family owned farms, they had a couple different ones but the biggest one was a sugarcane farm. It was really cool to see the process behind all of it. Something I realized is how much food is grown and eaten locally. The sugarcane was grown and sold locally but also distributed around colombia; but other things like eggs, avocados, fruits...all of this is grown, sold on the streets, and eaten locally. Almost every day on my way home from school we would stop by the avocado stand and buy one or two avocados to eat with lunch. Another example of this is the eggs. You would very rarely buy eggs at the store, you would either go to this little store that sold only eggs or they would be brought to your house. Normally you would buy lots of eggs at a time and they came in cardboard cartons wrapped in string, they always tasted so good, and fresh. The little things like this I really appreciated about colombia. I felt like their connection to food was a lot stronger than here in the US.
The connection and relation with food in Colombia wasn’t just about where the food came from but also how they ate it. This probably sounds a little weird but one of my favorite things I experienced was lunch. Everyday at 12:30 everyone would get out of school, work, or whatever they were going to go home and have lunch with their family. I would sit down, talk, have a huge meal, and after take my siesta. It was a special time I got to experience with my host families. Everybody seemed to really cherish eating good food with family and friends, which personally I love. The other two meals of the day breakfast and dinner were a lot smaller and were normally eaten whenever I got hungry. I would say here in the US dinner is the biggest meal of the day, and there are lots of families who sit down and eat together, but also lots of families who don't.
I think being able to experience different countries' relation/ethic with food is such an amazing thing. There are many things I took away from living in Colombia that I would like to incorporate into my own food ethic. I feel the more I travel the deeper connection I can grow with food by seeing how other cultures work. I think that there are many things that the US could learn from different cultures that could change the united stats relation to food/how the food industry work. I also feel that there are things that other countries could learn from us.