Should you query the word FOOD on Google...
Results may vary from Google to Google...
... you will find many different results. Me, I found recipes and Wikipedia's definition for the word: "any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body". However, in this space I'd like to talk about food as a social phenomenon, not just a 'yummy' cultural experience (although I do talk about food in that fashion in the other blog).
Food is important. Period. If you don't have it, you need it. If you don't need it... I think you know. Millions of people all over the world suffer malnutrition and starvation. More than fifteen thousand children die each day because of food depravation, hunger-related causes. And, ironically, much more people (over one billion) are overweight.
Food has changed. The way we manipulate it has changed as well. The way we supply it. The way food is supplied to us. As mankind 'evolves' throughout history it is only natural that our sustenance 'evolves' as well. As we acquire different needs we try to find novel ways to mitigate them.
Picture this: In order to produce sufficient chicken breasts poultry farming relies on intensive means of making the little birds fat with food and chemicals and whatnot. Aside from many considerations about how that makes the animals feel and 'live' we find that many of those substances used on them have a nocive effect on man. Funny how now we have organisations that certificate the non-nocivity of the ways of producing food.
Food is no longer just any substance and, of course, it is no longer a simple issue. Man has transformed food into an industry, into money and into interests that go much much deeper than just the nutrition of the world. And what is the future of food ? Will it continue to mutate to a point in which we will not recognize it anymore ?
And what should we do ? And what can we do ? At least in this place and time we have to be responsible and follow our ideals. We have to stand strong and act consciously, thanking for the given food we enjoy and enjoying in giving food to the world through our actions. We have to be socially responsible not just today, World Food Day and Blog Action Day but everyday that is to come and not just for ourselves but for the coming generations.
