Menu for the Future - Week 2

This week's chapter "Anonymous Food" in the NWEI Menu For the Future Discussion Course was about discovering where our food comes from, and unless you're eating locally, most likely you have no idea (Iowa is a good guess if it's a processed food...)

So why is it important to know where your food originates and how it was raised? Because the choices we make in food affect the world around us. Because pesticides harm our bodies. Because the average a food travels from where it was grown to your plate is at least 1500 miles, increasing our need for fossil fuels. Because processed foods are not the best choices. Because bee populations are diminishing at alarming rates, and let's face it, no bees no food. Because our local economies suffer when we support big business, even if it is big organic. Because a million other reasons, too, like the old saying we are what we eat, and these days, we eat a lot of "crap." It matters, because as Barbara Kingslover says in Animal Vegetable Miracle, "The way we eat determines how the Earth is used."

The group delved into the chapter essays in an animated discussion, but now it's your turn to chime in. This week's NWEI Circle Question is "How do you make food choices? Do you consider long-term or short-term impacts, if any when making food decisions?"