The Food Movement: Reinforcing The Industrial Food System

Most eaters are not aware that they are participants in agriculture. Instead, they only picture themselves as "consumers". Thinking past that, they realize that they are passive consumers. What they buy is limited to what they can get and they pay what they are charged. Most of the time, they ignore important details about the quality and the value of what they buy. The majority of urban shoppers know that food is produced on farms. However, they are not aware of what kinds of farms, or farming locations, or knowledge of skills are concerned in farming. They are almost certain that farms will not cease to produce, but they do not know how. For them food is something they do not know or imagine until they see it on a grocery shelf or on their

But in reality, the food movement actually appears to be reinforcing the industrial food system. It has been incapable of producing real and revolutionary alternatives, instead providing to the philosophy of consumerism and the marketplace through its demand on buying our way to a better food system. Our health is negatively impacted in several ways by the environmental results of industrial agriculture. The foods that are produced in the industrial system are much less healthy than those produced in an organic manner or on a modest scale. Traditionally grown and produced foods raise our vulnerability to pesticides, GMOs, and many other chemicals. Commercial food products that are highly processed and adjusted have several connections to obesity, chronic diseases, and a myriad of other health

Organic food and drink sales represented roughly 4 percent of general food and drink sales in 2010. While farmers markets continue to grow, only 2 percent of Americans do most of their shopping there. At the same time, Walmart controls a quarter of all groceries sold in the United States. If those who can afford to should pay more for healthier food, then those who can't are stuck eating unhealthy industrialized food. Instead of altering agricultural practices, such as getting rid of dangerous pesticides from vegetable production, the added cost for pesticide-free or organic vegetables is given to the consumer who is willing to pay more. This is regulation through market choice rather than ending production activities that are harmful or unfair to consumers and workers alike. From the farmers harvesting crops in the fields to the processors in commercial enterprise meat production to the food service workers serving meals in cafeterias, the exploitation of workers is a necessary component of the industrial food