Sustainable Food

Food is a key source of energy for any living being. Aside from a decent amount of sleep (at a bare minimum 6 hours per night for us humans) food is the only other source of energy our bodies get on a daily basis in order to function as expected. It is for these reasons that I applaud the organizers of the annual Blog Action Day for choosing food as the topic for this year.

The food we eat shouldn’t highly tax our planet, that is, eating local food is better than eating foods from another continent. Why? Because transporting that food across the planet tends to have minor side-effects on our environment in the form of emissions. Eating local foods isn’t just sustainable when it comes to the environment. It is also sustainable when it comes to our local communities. Buying local food will send the money you spend on food to local farmers, so what small amount more the food is will be offset by the fact that you’re supporting families much like your own, and keeping the money in your local economy.

Aiming to be sustainable in where and how an individual or family gets their food is a simple task. But in retrospect its the larger institutions, like hotels, college campuses, hospitals, etc. that have a larger challenge when it comes to sustainable food. In these places you’re easily dealing with hundreds, even thousands, of people yet the same basic layer of the importance of sustainable foods. There are many aspects of these issues to deal with, and it truly is a complicated puzzle. In my case, as with my fellow Johnnies, we can know that to an extent Saint John’s is considering these issues, but we’re one small spot on the map of these institutions who all need to commit to sustainable foods (and other sustainability measures) in order for our planet to have some relief from the burdens we place it under. Plus, sustainable foods are ultimately going to be healthier for us.