Reconnecting With Our Food - Nutritional Apathy And Growing Your Own
This is a freelance article by Helen Burgh.
We have a problem with food in the developed world. The urbanization of our culture, and the proliferation of convenience food chains and fast-food outlets have removed us further and further from the food we eat. Sure, we eat as much (if not more) than ever we did – but we have far less of an intrinsic understanding of what we’re putting into our bodies than our ancestors did. As a result, we’re losing touch with the true ‘purpose’ of food. For something that’s so essential to our lives, the growing psychological disconnect between ourselves and our food is extremely concerning. However, urban agricultural initiatives can help to give people back a certain degree of connection to that which they’re eating – something which is becoming increasingly important.
Psychological Disconnect
Not so long ago, in the great scheme of things, eighty per cent of us lived in rural environments, and the majority of us had some direct input into the production of the food we ate. Now, the entire world is trending towards urbanization, with the urban population hitting 90% of the whole in certain more developed nations. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – but lack of space and the differing work patterns of urban environments mean that food is generally shipped in and purchased rather than produced directly by the consumer. It doesn’t matter how much nutritional education you pack into people – a carrot bought from a store and a carrot dug up with your own hands have a different impact, psychologically speaking. If you first encounter your food when it’s laid out on the supermarket shelves, then you arguably have an intrinsically lesser understanding of its overall importance. After all, you’ve not nurtured and sweated over it – therefore you’ll find it easier to treat lightly, and are certainly less likely to feel that it’s something of serious import. This, sadly, frequently leads to an attitude in which food becomes a ‘throwaway’ resource, to be over or under-used as the will takes the individual. This has dire consequences at both ends of the scale.
Food As The Enemy
When food ceases to be something for which we work directly and therefore comprehend implicitly as important, it does not cease to be important for life functions. However, we can forget precisely why it’s so important. When our societal disconnection from eating as an essential nutritive function is combined with our concurrent obsession with physical ‘perfection’, the importance of food can potentially become thoroughly skewed in the minds of susceptible individuals. Eating disorders are not, of course, all about food – but nonetheless, the very concept of starving or purging oneself to become thin would have baffled any Dark Age farmer, who would see it as a total waste of all their hard work tilling the land. Indeed, sufferers of eating disorders looking to get help for anorexia or bulimia are often encouraged to involve themselves more intimately with the growing and production of their food, as it is hoped that this will help them to foster a healthier relationship with eating at all parts of the process. Indeed, it has been suggested that hands-on education when it comes to food could be a good preventative measure for tackling all kinds of eating issues.
Food As Too Much Of A Friend
At the other end of the scale, people gorge on food until it kills them. It has been noted abroad that North American food culture is shockingly disconnected from its (literal) roots, and that this leads to a strangely cavalier attitude towards nutrition. Food is seen as a plentiful resource that you purchase, not produce, and it’s used often for recreation rather than fuel. The ease with which we obtain food (and, sadly, the fatty, sugary nature of the food we obtain) all too often leads to food becoming less of a fuel and more of a friend. We use it as a psychological substitute – ‘comfort eating’ and chomping on potato chips to stave off boredom. Emotional eating is a huge problem here - but it may perhaps stem from a misplaced idea of the importance of food. Throughout most of our evolution, humans would have spent much of their time driven to seek and produce food. We no longer have to do that – but the impulse remains. Unfortunately, we choose to do this by driving to the store and buying a tub of ice cream rather than foraging with our own two feet, or working up a sweat in the vegetable patch. Obesity is a public health crisis in this part of the world – and disconnection from food may be partly to blame. Helping to grow your food – delayed gratification – can be just as satisfying as eating immediately. It’s tremendously rewarding, improves self-esteem, burns calories, and instils a sense of appreciation for your food which many Americans lack these days. All in all, reconnecting with food through urban agriculture should be appreciated for what it is – the potential savior of our food-psychology.