Why Bother?- Eating for a sustainable future

Take a look in your kitchen and ask yourself- How much food is produced outside of your region? Or perhaps it would be easier if you asked yourself the opposite question. The reality is that much of the food that we purchase from the supermarket is imported and/or produced using large industrial farming techniques. Examination into the current food system reveals the implementation of cheap food policies that provide cosmopolitan countries with plenty of food regardless of the season. Not only does this system have significant costs to the environment and to human health, but it also affects the food we eat (both in quality and quantity) and how it is produced. 

In the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life (2007), co-author Stephen Hopp states that the majority of the fossil fuels used in the current food system are consumed during the distribution process. He explains "Each food item in a typical U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles. In addition to direct transport, other fuel-thirsty steps include processing (drying, milling, cutting, sorting, baking), packaging, warehousing, and refrigeration". Further down the page he goes on to exclaim that "If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week." 

As this oil-infused number soaked into my mind, it became more and more apparent that small changes in our consumer habits can make significant differences. Consequently, I have come up with a few steps that will enable you to make these changes within your life that will in turn, increase sustainable development at the local and national level. Based on my personal experiences and others who have shared their stories with me, these changes can be challenging, often requiring some degree of sacrifice, but they are generally rewarding in the long run. So the next time you are buying your groceries think twice before putting the container of  strawberries from Florida or that pineapple from South America in your basket. Instead, perhaps you could replace these fruits with some of the delicious apples that are grown in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia. 

What do I mean by sustainable development? 

Sustainable development is a complex and highly critiqued concept. I am by no means an expert on the topic nonetheless, I think it is important to be transparent about my current understandings of the term.

In 1987 the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) published a report entitled Our Common Future (also known as the Brundtland Report). The publication of this document led to important developments in the world's understanding of sustainability. 

Within the report, sustainable development is defined as "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable- to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The concept of sustainable development does imply limits-not absolute limits but limitations imposed by the present state of technology and social organisation on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities. But technology and social organisation can be both managed and improved to make way for a new era of economic growth...Sustainable development is not a fixed state of harmony, but rather a process of change....We do not pretend that the process is easy or straightforward. Painful choices have to be made.Thus, in the final analysis, sustainable development must rest on political will.

(WCED, 1987)