Healthy Food Everywhere But On The Table: Article Analysis

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The process of globalization in our food system has contributed to the steady rise in negative health outcome as discussed in Gabrielle O’Kane’s article, What is the Real Cost of our food? Implications for the environment, society, and public health nutrition. In Lori Dorfman and Lawrence Wallack’s article, Moving Nutrition Upstream: The Case for Reframing Obesity, the focus is on the negative ways in which we look at obesity and how it marginalizes obesity into one framework. Thomas Fullers Article, In a California Valley, Healthy Food Everywhere but on the Table, discusses migrant farmworkers not being able to afford the healthy food they harvest. O’Kane’s article focused on the serious effects the globalized food system has on our health. …show more content…

The article, points out that the retailers, like supermarkets, and manufacturers dominate what the farmers grow, leaving them with less control. With restructuring the way farmers produce food; this forced them to think more independently to survive long-term in a competitive market for higher productivity. They were forced to trade quality for quantity. In doing so, farmers’ higher productivity measures meant that they would use more fossil fuels adding greenhouse gases into our atmosphere contributing to climate change. According to the article, the mechanization of agriculture has lead to our food being filled with more fats, oils, high fructose corn syrup, and other artificial sweeteners that contribute to diabetes and obesity. (O’Kane, 2011, p.270) These cheaply made fillers and artificial ingredients make the consumer crave more of the item, therefore, it can create an addiction leading to diet-related illnesses. We are now eating food-like items that are less nutritionally dense and highly processed. O’Kane also discusses ways in which communities try to help with