The Food System

A FeelGood/Organic Valley Changemaker Journey

Our relationship to food is the most basic relationship we have with our environment. The natural ecological systems of soil, water, and air are needed to produce every ingredient of every meal. If we do not feed ourselves in a way that sustains our environment, our agriculture and our communities, then as a species we are not long for this world.
Neal MacGregor Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All

Food System Basics

What is the primary source of all our food?

a) The grocery store b) Mom c) Farmers d) The Sun

Answer:
d) The Sun!
Plants capture and store the sun s energy through photosynthesis. Whether we eat the plants or we eat the animals that eat the plants, we are consuming the energy of the sun.

How our food gets from plant

...to plate

is the food system.

A challenge: Take the elements of our food system and put them in order!

Our Food System

The food chain

Our Food System

Biology (soil and plant) Biology (Human Eater)

Industrial Food System

Our Industrial Food System: An exploration in 12 questions

Energy Use

After the sun, what is the second major energy source for our food system?
a) Fossil fuels b) Farm laborers c) Naturally occurring microbes d) The Iron Chef

Answer:
FOOD PRODUCTION CONSUMES THE MOST OIL
12 BARRELS OF OIL 10 8 6 4 2 0 FOOD CARS HOUSES

a) Fossil Fuels
After the sun, the greatest energy input to our food system comes from fossil fuels. We use the equivalent of 10 barrels of oil per person per year for total food production in the U.S., compared to 9 barrels for cars, and 7 barrels for houses.

How many calories of fossil fuel energy are needed to create 1.4 calories of food energy?
a) 1.4 b) 3.4 c) 10.3 d) 40

FOOD SYSTEM EFFICIENCY

12 10 CALORIES 8 6 4 2 0 Fossil Fuel Energy In Food Energy Out

Answer:
d) 10.3
It takes 10.3 calories of fossil fuel energy to create 1.4 calories of food energy.

What part of the food system uses the most fossil fuel?
a) Packaging b) Transportation c) Pesticides and fertilizers d) Farm machinery

Answer:
c) Pesticides and fertilizers
As much as forty percent of energy used in the food system goes towards the production of artificial fertilizers and pesticides.

Why do we need so much pesticide and fertilizer?

a) F*#@ing bugs! b) Its the only way to get high yields c) Monocropping d) All of the above

Answer:
c) Monocropping!
Monocropping the high-yield agricultural practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land rather than rotating through other crops damages the soil ecology and creates a more fragile ecosystem, leading to an increased dependency on pesticides and artificial fertilizers.

Monocropping also tends to emphasize the use of expensive specialized farm equipment, adding to industrial agriculture s high dependency on fossil fuels.

In the last 100 years, what percentage of US fruit and vegetable varieties have disappeared?
a) 10% b) 30% c) 76% d) 90%

Answer:
d) 90%
It s a global crisis. 75% of the biodiversity in agriculture was lost in the last 50 years. For example: 90% of the wheat varieties grown in China a century ago are now extinct. In India, there were once 30,000 rice varieties, but now only a dozen varieties cover India s major rice growing areas. We once had 7000 varieties of apples in North America. Today, 96% of them are extinct. The same trend is happening with domesticated animal breeds.

The loss of biodiversity means the loss of resiliency in our food system, and puts all of us more at risk in an era of severe climatic change.

Environment

Which two things, essential to food production, are being depleted by our food system?
a) Soil & water b) Water & farmers c) Oil and water d) Fertilizers & pesticides e) Farmers & talented contestants for American Idol

Answer:
a) Soil & water
Soil Erosion: It takes hundreds of years for soil to be created, while it can be lost to erosion in a single season. Agricultural practices In the US result in a rate of soil loss that is 10 times faster than the rate of soil formation. Water Depletion: Agriculture consumes about 70% of the world s fresh water supply, resulting in groundwater depletion and greatly reduced river flow.

In 2007, 1.73 billion tons of topsoil was lost to erosion, equal to about 200,000 tons each hour.

What is the SECOND highest contributor to climate change?

a) Energy production b) Cars c) Deforestation d) Cow farts

Answer:
d) Cow Farts
Methane gas is the result of livestock digestion and anaerobic decomposition of manure. Livestock is the second highest contributor after energy production to atmospherealtering gases. 18% of greenhouse gases are attributed to livestock production. Methane is 20x more poisonous than CO2.

Consumption

On average, how much meat do Americans consume per day?

a) pound b) pound c) 1 pound d) >1 pound

Answer:
b) pound per day
It s twice the world s average, and 6 times more than health experts recommend.

How many animals are killed in the US every year for food?
a) 10 billion b)1 billion c)100 million d) 10 million

Answer:
a) 10 billion
Yes, it s hard to believe. And that is just in the US. Worldwide, the number is estimated to be 58 billion.

70% of the agricultural land on earth 30% of the earth s land surface is directly or indirectly devoted to raising the animals we all eat.

Health

Which of the following diseases are connected to the processed foods we consume?
a) Obesity b) Diabetes c)Hypertension d)Heart disease e)Cancer f)All of the above

Answer:
f) All of the above
Thanks to cheap, highly-processed and high-caloric foods, 32% of all children and 34% of all adults in the US are categorized as overweight or obese. And diabetes also related to diet is now one of the most common chronic diseases among children. Cancers, hypertension and heart disease are also connected to unhealthy diets, and are on the rise.

It is the increased energy density of processed foods that is causing the Type II diabetes and obesity now affecting 400 million people worldwide. 2.7 million deaths annually are attributable to low fruit and vegetable intake.

Waste

If you took all the food the US and UK throw away every year, how many people would it feed?
a) 1.5 billion b) 1 billion c) 100 million d) 10 million

Answer:
a) 1.5 billion
Tristam Stuart, author of the book Waste, calculated that the hunger of 1.5 billion people could be alleviated by eradicating the food wasted by British consumers and American retailers, food services and households.

In the USA, we waste about 40 percent of our total food supply. As a planet we waste about 30%.

Enough food is produced today to feed everyone on the planet.

a) True b) False c) It depends

Answer:
c) It depends
A lot of the meat production in the USA is dependent on grain, which is fed to the animals. Because of our heavy consumption of meat, total USA grain consumption is 800 kg per person per year. Compare that to India, where it is 200 kg per person per year. 1/3 of the grain crop gets fed to animals. It takes 10x as much grain to feed a human if it passes through an animal first. This means that current grain production provides enough for 2.5 billion people with a USA diet, but 10 billion people with an Indian diet.

Given all this, what do you think of this statement?

Hunger is not an issue of food, its an issue of relationship.

Next Journey: Re-imaging the Food System

Source Materials and Additional Resources

More Food Facts

The food system is now more than a $1 trillion economic engine in our national economy. In the USA, the average distance that a food product travels from its point of production to a dinner plate is 1500 miles. To produce one bushel of field corn takes nearly 4000 gallons of water. To put in simplest terms: it takes the equivalent of nearly 18 flushes of an average toilet to produce a single pound of corn. According to estimates from the Kellogg Foundation, only about 2% of food purchased in the United States comes from local and sustainable sources. Less than 20% of corn, soy, and cotton plants were genetically engineered in 1996; by 2010 86% of corn and 93% of soybeans were. Despite a tenfold increase in insecticide use between 1945 and 1989, crop losses due to insect damage nearly doubled. In 2007 the agriculture sector in the US used 877 million pounds of pesticides. The average American ate 30 tsp. of added sweeteners and sugars per day in 2005 more than triple the recommended amount In 2003, the cost of obesity-attributed medical expenditures in the U.S. was $75 billion taxpayers financed half.

Useful Video Resources

Carolyn Steel: How food shapes our cities http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/carolyn_steel_how_food_shapes_our_cities.html Mark Bittman on what s wrong with what we eat http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html The Story of Food http://vimeo.com/7573579 Michael Pollan Food Chain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=OmrfrsnWng8 No Free Lunch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4U097wiZGk4 Supermarket Secrets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=snP40unO0A Why Eat Local? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DhaG_Zi6izU Michael Dimock Sustainable Food Systems and Global Poverty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkmNV0T9_-Y Biotechnology: Owning the Right to Life http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kRBD0bUzRY

Major Source Documents for this Journey

Fair Food: Growing a Healthy, Sustainable Food System for All, by Neal MacGregor A Viable Food Future http://usc-canada.org/UserFiles/File/policy/ViableFutureweb.pdf US Food System Fact Sheet http://css.snre.umich.edu/css_doc/CSS01-06.pdf