As I continue to work towards my double major in Environmental Studies and Sociology/Anthropology, I am noticing progressively more connections in the material we cover in both disciplines. Along with several of my ENVS peers, I am taking a SOAN course titled “The Political Economy of Food” (SOAN 249). This course shares exceptional number of intersecting ideas with ENVS 220. Much of the material covered in The Political Economy of Food deals with environmental concepts we have grappled with in Introduction to Environmental Studies (ENVS 160) and Environmental Analysis (ENVS 220), as well as issues I will further examine as I continue working on my concentration over the next two and a half years. In The Political Economy of Food, we have been working to situate food at the intersection of culture, society, and political economy through an exploration of how food is produced, consumed, and assigned meaning. Among a variety of other themes, we have focused on sustainable food practices; hunger and food equality; global agri-food trade; NAFTA; climate change and food security; and agroecology. These topics are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the interconnected ideas we have explored, both explicitly and implicitly, in ENVS 220 and SOAN 249.
In other words, such authors are suggesting that the power to make necessary change is in the hands of the consumer. Many of my peers, all of which come from various disciplinary backgrounds—Economics, Environmental Studies, Political Economy, and Sociology/Anthropology—critique these “solutions” as elitist and problematic. Through our discussions, we all agreed that yes, eating is an agricultural act, but these arguments require more thorough solutions. It is inadequate to simply “vote with your fork” because of its elitist framework, and if we focus on voting with our forks alone, we can only make a difference on the micro-level. In order to make a change, the system needs to be reworked from the top down. Michael Pollan makes this clear in “Farmer in Chief” (2008), where he points out that it is necessary to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, inspire small farming, and rework our food policies.
Individual action can influence what collective actions are made. It is important for consumers to try and educate themselves on the source of their food, as much of this information is often hidden from us in the interest of big business. While it seems daunting and nearly impossible to make changes to our current food system, we may be able to remedy this issue by balancing collective and individual action to make changes from both ends of the spectrum.
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