Do you participate in agriculture daily?

“The Pleasures of Eating” by W. Berry emphasizes that “eating is an agricultural act.” I don’t know about you, but when I sit down for dinner I do not question where my meat came from or under what conditions my vegetables were grown. This article analyzes how people see themselves as consumers, rather than participants in agriculture. But what is the difference between the two? Berry describes the ignorance behind the consumer. Sure, people know that the food they consume comes from a farm. What they don’t know, is where the food came from? How far did it travel before coming onto their plate? What costs did the transportation add to the product? Without knowing the answers to these questions, consumers have become “passive, uncritical and dependent.” This is what industrial production wants from its consumers.

The “industrial eater” is one who doesn’t see the connection between eating and agriculture. One who doesn’t see the struggles behind their food. A consumer ordering food from Peapod, an online grocery store that delivers the food to your door, isn’t considering the obstacles the farmers faced. Berry believes that most consumers will not change the problems associated with the economy of food, until they take an active role in attaining more knowledge about their food. Because consumers turn their head away from the food industry, the focus on health has been lost due to an obsession with volume. The food industry has dramatically increased the volume to reduce the costs, but this chain reaction doesn’t stop there. As the volume continues to increases, the diversity of products decreases as well as the health. By increasing profits, the dependence of drugs and chemicals needs to increase. When consumers are trapped by the influences of industrialism, we lose the ability to eat responsibly. If one wants to experience pleasure from eating, they need to understanding the world that their food came from.

Question for discussion:
In what ways is Berry’s explanation of this industry similar to Salatin’s view of “industrial organic”?