food narrative

In working towards a personal food narrative there are three main aspects to my food eating habits, all basically working towards reducing the size of one’s impact, either through lessened use of fossil fuels in the production, transportation, refrigeration of the food: lessening its energy consumption, through lessening its environmental impact through sounder farming practices, and lessening its adverse economic impact through supporting ones local community “voting as a consumer”. Not to mention the physical and mental health benefits that comes with stepping back from the industrial food chain. I attempt to get my food within the tighter confines of its traditional reality: buying from who grows it, having it grown nearby, eating it in season. By reducing the level of abstraction in my food and its delivery, I make it a real thing, I demystify just about every ramification of its growth and consumption, and for the most part I find it is a better picture than the industrial landscape of food production. The second place I would eat it as a local restaurant, because we live in the city that we do it really sets us apart from the choices many others might have, but we have the option of actually supporting small local businesses, helping struggling entrepreneurs, and keeping the fabric of capitalism healthy while investing money in ones community. To all but the large national chains, it is a win win scenario. Third, I would express the inevitability that is shopping at a large chain, gas station, convenience store. The traditional paradigm of consumption is still one firmly based in a linear economic model that is unsustainable, this is no reason not to try, or to complicate life in trying to avoid such places, I simply try when shopping at such places to use my best judgement to do the least harm, as that is the best one could hope for given the current food realities of our day