Blog #5 Food as a Commodity

In our society today it is easy to walk to the fridge and put together a meal out of simple and obtainable items. However for some that isn’t even close to possible. We have never experienced a lack of food or even close to the point of starvation. The food sources in todays society are not distributed evenly on a global scale. To this day we are “producing more food than ever before and mare than one in ten people are hungry” (Patel, 2007).

Childhood Obesity (Dai, 2010)

The global population is now the most obese its ever been. The power of large food corporations control what we eat. Developed countries are now well and truly distanced from direct farming products and the production line is now a long process that has all come down to large corporations (Wilkinson, 2013).  Poor developing countries aren’t even in the running to the advertisement from these large corporations because they know there is no point because of the low economic status which is placed upon them.

World Hunger, 2013

Pinterest as a network has a lot to do with the advertisement of certain products. Boards are created solely on food. Recipes are a huge thing pinned regularly. It is very rare to come across a message about starvation on a global scale. If you were to base your opinion of the distribution of food on a global scale based off Pinterest, you would think that there was no problem and that there weren’t kids with empty plates. Pinterest is all about indulging and current global issues are not communicated through its visual content. Wasting food is not an option. Americas current issue is that “40-50% of  food produced in the USA goes to landfill” (Wilkinson, 2013). Think about how much food you are wasting and realise that what is wasted is probably more food starving children will see in a whole week.

References

Wilkinson, R. (2013). EV1008: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, week 8 notes.

Patel, R. (2007). Stuffed and Starved: The hidden battle for the worlds food system (pp1-19).Ontario, Canada: Harper Perennial.