2008 Woodie Awards
Students Should Push For Sustainable Food
George Maynard
Issue date: 3/27/08 Section: Commentary
In years gone by, people were concerned about where their next meals were coming from. We at UConn enjoy the ability to walk into a dining hall or café and have a variety of food at our fingertips. Have you ever thought about where that food comes from? Probably not, and that's the problem. This easy food we take for granted is the product of environmentally degrading processes that go beyond just the destructive effects of industrial agriculture and have the backing of not only your dollars, but the dollars doled out in subsidies by Washington each year. None of this article is going to involve huge leaps in logic, so bear with me.
To figure out where food comes from, let's trace a typical lunch from South Dining Hall back to its roots. This might include a fajita chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato on it and a glass of Coke.
Coca-Cola is perhaps the more obviously bad item of the two. Coke is delivered to the dining halls as syrup that is mixed into carbonated water by a soda fountain. The cola-flavored syrup is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, which is not only bad for your health, but for the environment as well. The horrific amounts of corn syrup consumed by Americans each year has increased the demand for corn products in the United States. Giant corn conglomerates grow acres upon acres of corn, driving out small farmers by accepting government subsidies that drive market prices down and crush family-owned farms. These subsidies now account for 40 percent of all the profit made by large corn companies. That's your tax dollars at work. In addition, corn conglomerates grow their crop in large monoculture fields. This involves habitat destruction and soil degradation. With the soil unable to produce enough nutrients for the corn to grow, corn companies turn to fertilizers, which runoff the fields into nearby watersheds. This causes the water to have high levels of nutrients in it, leading to algae blooms like the ones we see on Mirror Lake sometimes. These blooms can choke out plants and fish from bodies of water. Industrial agriculture also uses large amounts of pesticides and herbicides - poisonous chemicals which have documented harmful effects on humans and wildlife. As if that's not enough, industrial corn production takes huge amounts of fossil fuels. All of the machinery needed to run the farms runs on oil. Plus, most industrial corn growth takes place in the Midwest. That means corn has to be shipped from there to places where it can be made into corn syrup and then shipped again to the Coca-Cola company to be made into syrup. Finally, the finished product ends up in the dining hall. All of this is driven by fossil fuels, a huge contributor to global warming. Think about that next time your pour yourself a glass of Coke with your meal.
To figure out where food comes from, let's trace a typical lunch from South Dining Hall back to its roots. This might include a fajita chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomato on it and a glass of Coke.
Coca-Cola is perhaps the more obviously bad item of the two. Coke is delivered to the dining halls as syrup that is mixed into carbonated water by a soda fountain. The cola-flavored syrup is sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, which is not only bad for your health, but for the environment as well. The horrific amounts of corn syrup consumed by Americans each year has increased the demand for corn products in the United States. Giant corn conglomerates grow acres upon acres of corn, driving out small farmers by accepting government subsidies that drive market prices down and crush family-owned farms. These subsidies now account for 40 percent of all the profit made by large corn companies. That's your tax dollars at work. In addition, corn conglomerates grow their crop in large monoculture fields. This involves habitat destruction and soil degradation. With the soil unable to produce enough nutrients for the corn to grow, corn companies turn to fertilizers, which runoff the fields into nearby watersheds. This causes the water to have high levels of nutrients in it, leading to algae blooms like the ones we see on Mirror Lake sometimes. These blooms can choke out plants and fish from bodies of water. Industrial agriculture also uses large amounts of pesticides and herbicides - poisonous chemicals which have documented harmful effects on humans and wildlife. As if that's not enough, industrial corn production takes huge amounts of fossil fuels. All of the machinery needed to run the farms runs on oil. Plus, most industrial corn growth takes place in the Midwest. That means corn has to be shipped from there to places where it can be made into corn syrup and then shipped again to the Coca-Cola company to be made into syrup. Finally, the finished product ends up in the dining hall. All of this is driven by fossil fuels, a huge contributor to global warming. Think about that next time your pour yourself a glass of Coke with your meal.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Timmy Knocker
posted 3/27/08 @ 12:17 PM EST
Are you really serious? or is this another satire thing
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