To talk about the social injustices of the food industry we must first understand what the “Food Industry” is as a whole. The food industry is a multi-billion dollar industry, it is “a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world’s population.” as defined by wikipedia. It covers a variety of food processes from agriculture to financial services.
One of the social injustices found to have been done by the food industry is ‘Food Apartheid’ this is a system of segregation which seperates those with acess to nutritious food to those who are deprived of nutritious food due to system injustice. A study shows that the more fast-food restaurants are generally located in poorer African American communities, This food is usually cheap and affordable. This has led to more obesity and chronic illnesses amongst these African American communities.
Another factor to consider is advertising. Fast-food restaurants such as McDonalds for example, use African American celebrities to persuade African American customers to eat more there and promote sales in poorer African American communities, which once again results in higher levels of obesity and chronic illness amongst African Americans. Comparatively, this is less frequently seen in more upper class or less poverty stricken neighborhoods.mSuch examples are LeBron James, Serena and Venus Williams.
Another injustice of the food industry is ‘Food waste’ and ‘food loss’. Although you might think they are, they are not the same. As written by Harvard T.H Chan. “ Food loss occurs before the food reaches the consumer as a result of issues in the production, storage, processing, and distribution phases.” and “Food waste refers to food that is fit for consumption but consciously discarded at the retail or consumption phases.”. Roughly a third of the world’s food is wasted, that’s about 1.3 billion tons a year, 40% of food produced goes uneaten and 95% ends up in landfills. In 2014 alone more than 38 to 39 million tons of food waste was generated. With only 5 % redirected from landfills to compost. In America it has been estimated that if we could reduce food waste by 15% more than 25 million Americans could be fed per year.
Not to mention food waste is negatively impacting the environment, as food production requires energy, land and pesticides. Methane which is released during food production(mostly meat) has a 84 times higher global warming potential than Co2 over a period of 20 years.
The global food system adds up for roughly 30% of global greenhouse gas emissions with food waste being a major factor of this having a carbon footprint of 3.3 billion tons of Co2 released into the atmosphere per year.
To conclude, The food industry is not only a multi-billion dollar industry, it’s a industry benefiting off of hidden racism, affecting the lives of a ethinic minority which is leading to devastating consequences such as chronic illness and rising obesity. The Food industry, as well as other supporting factors, contribute to environmental costs immensely. By a simple change in what is thrown out or discarded, the industry can feed the millions of poverty stricken citizens of the world essential food, that they would otherwise be deprived of.
