What do you think are the biggest issues in food today?
Is it in food production? Distribution? Access? Waste? Consumer education? Legislation? Something else entirely? Would love to hear what you guys think.
katewilson
9yr
I'm voting food waste but I'm thrilled to see how much efforts are being put behind it now
darkchocolatepeanutbutter
9yr
I still feel the dietary guidelines are inadequate. If the USDA could consider the public over corporations, we'd have better direction.
sugardetoxme
9yr
It's two parts for me. Food waste is obviously huge. If good food was about actually feeding people then we wouldn't have hunger, but food has become a business. But let's also talk about the big elephant in the room, which is agriculture production ... Meat production ... Sourcing (palm oil) ... Which is responsible for over half of our emissions due to forest destruction. I'm not a raging vegan, but man, we can do better than this. A couple years back I read a statistic out of Stockholm that if we continued to eat meat the way we are, (20% of diet), we would bankrupt our world of potable water. It makes me look at constraints in our system (even 1 avocado takes 78 gal of water to grow). We need to appreciate food more. End of soap box!
DietID_TeamDietitians
9yr
Waste of course but I think the ag industry and its control over government. People don't wake up and say "I want to eat crappy food" they eat what is available and affordable. The real cost of crappy food is much higher than subsidies and incentives allow us to see, so we need to get profit-only focused "food" businesses out of government
mirasingh
9yr
I've been hearing a lot about transparency. I definitely want to know more about what's in my food, but I feel like it's getting harder, or when I find out what's in it, I'm just more confused. Anyone else feel like that?
annefood
9yr
Man what a question! @sugardetoxme and @Rachna nailed it for me with lack of transparency in agriculture and production - do we really understand the ramifications of our consumption, ingredient sourcing etc. And a lack of transparency in the role big ag plays in our food system overall. Luckily with regard to sourcing we have organizations like Rainforest Action Network who succeeded in getting Cargill to stop using conflict Palm oil in their snack products. They illuminate some of the otherwise invisible problems we face.
tinabeans
9yr
@Rachna yes I agree wholeheartedly. Personally I think access is huge, and I see so many communities in NYC w/o the option of even buying fresh local produce that I've taken for granted for so long. If we want more people to fight to get big ag out of government, we need to find ways to involve marginalized communities in the "good food" scene. @darkchocolatepeanutbutter good point about federal guidelines too! So much of this relates back to consumer understanding.
DietID_TeamDietitians
9yr
Yea this is why we have this community! These issues are complex so the more we can do to raise them within our own communities and friend circles, the easier it will be to make a lot of small changes and eventually make good food the default!