Tag Archives: history of food

How Food Shapes Our Lives

It’s truly extraordinary that we have so much food so readily available, anywhere you might want it, at pretty much any time of the day or night. We don’t really give it much thought. It appears, we take it for granted, and we’re put out if it isn’t in perfect shape. What, the mid-winter tomatoes have a few bruises?!

I’m a TED Talks addict (and proud of it), and find they most often live up their tagline of “ideas worth sharing.” How Food Shapes Our Cities by Carolyn Steel is no exception. I enjoyed the quick history examining how cities originally grew in relation to food and how over time revolutions in transportation allowed the creation of cities that no longer have any connection to the food that feeds them.

Steel raises many important issues, from food mismanagement (half of the food produced in the US is discarded, while a billion people starve), to the obscene volume of grain it takes to feed our growing appetite for meat, to contemplating how we return to a healthy, balanced relationship between our cities and our food.

It’s food for thought…