The Ant and the Grasshopper

Years ago, I had to study Maslow's 'heirarchy of needs' which explains that our basic needs for shelter and food must be met before we concern ourselves with safety and security, or belonging or self esteem and only once our needs have been met in succession, can we realize our full potential as individuals.  I suppose that is why, as we evolve as a society one of our main concerns is convenient access to plenty of food - we are after all supposed to be progressive by nature aren't we?  We take comfort in the fact that this basic need is met.

However, our current food system wastes approx. 45% of our food.  From farm to grocery store shelf to home that is, there are losses each step of the way in transporting, storing and displaying food.  As foragers we are drawn to color and bountiful displays - would any of us shop at a store that didn't have generous displays of fresh food in every color of the rainbow?  If a store only put out what it thought would sell that day, would we feel as comfortable and excited to shop there?  One of they keys to Wholefoods' success is their displays of food, it is suggested that what they offer in addition to natural and organic products is 'food porn'.  Well conceived and stocked displays that appeal to our foraging instincts - we quite literally salivate!

Salivating is not the only result of regular exposure to these displays, one of the more serious side effects is that we have become profligate with our food and anesthetized to what goes into the creation of those displays.   No, not the hands that stack them with painstaking care, but the hands that grow and nurture the mounds of green peppers, zucchini, cucumber, tomatoes . . . each one of those items takes anywhere between 60 to 120 days to grow and in that time we are not only nurturing healthy plants, balancing soil pH levels and measuring and adjusting mineral nutrient, but we are also protecting it from bugs, animals, fungi and a range of other influences that may ruin a crop.  We have become so acclimatized to having constant access to food that we no longer respect the growing process, and no longer pause to be grateful for the harvest.  And really, all that work only to throw 45% of our food away?


In addition, we don't show the growers respect either, we are paying farmers less and less for their work, corporations like Walmart create monsopolies that dictate prices to farmers.  More and more mid-size farms are no longer viable - you can read this publication by the USDA for statistics on farm size in the U.S: http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/November07/PDF/Datafeature.pdf, the number of small farms and very big farms is on the increase.  That means we are either getting our food from farming corporations, or neighbors - those are our choices.

How about we choose a different option?  Instead of pushing our farmers to grow more and more for less and less, why don't we create a different system?  One where we change our shopping habits and reduce our food waste to just 15%.  Let's not stop there!  How about we pay our farmers 30% more to grow what we need?  We aren't giving up ground in the cost of our food, just creating a healthier, more sustainable food system - let's not live like grasshoppers, and let's give ants their due!