What Is Natural And Sustainable Food?

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As earth’s population grows at breakneck pace over the next several decades, who will feed the world’s people? Agriculture has undergone an extensive expansion and transformation throughout the last few centuries beginning with the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s. New technology allowed for better and greater methods of production. The destructive nature of agriculture has recently shown its hand. While our supermarkets, convenience stores and restaurants are filled with abundant food options, people forget to ask themselves where all this food comes from. Globalization has opened up economies of scale and has allowed people to tap into different types of products, whether that is food or clothing. But the availability of an increased …show more content…

The “Farm-to-Fork movement” as it is called in some circles aspires to have farmers produce and sell the food as they have for centuries – through natural processes that don’t negatively impact the environment. The result, say advocates, is a better earth, nourishing food and healthier people. The choice of natural and organic food is evidenced by the huge spike in sales by warehouse retailer Costco (Gonzalez). The Washington-based company recently surpassed Whole Foods Market as the number one purveyor of organic foods in the United States (Gonzalez). Costco is projected to make $4 billion in sales of organic products this year, representing more than 1 out of 10 dollars in the organic food sales market (Gonzalez). The Organic Trade Association, an industry group, estimates total organic-food sales in the U.S. to be around $36 billion (Gonzalez). These numbers indicate that the natural food movement cannot be ignored. With that in mind, how will the earth continue to feed itself? The answer is not an easy one. There will be many solutions, spewed by politicians, farmers, scientists and ordinary people. Whatever the answer, it is clear that the world’s people need to change course. Old habits need to be adjusted, from the voracious consumption of meat to the addiction to processed foods like soda. The world will need to find its way back to nature, back to the roots of the land that had sustained people for centuries

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