Food Choices are Money choices

Food choices are something that I try to be conscious about but I find it increasingly difficult to do while I’m at college. There are a number of things that can be considered, for instance- where it’s grown, if pesticides were used in the production, the personal health implications of the product, and if there are any other environmental impacts from the production. I try to keep all of these in mind, eating meat only once a day and trying to by local organic products. (American made this a little easier when they started bringing the local farmers market to campus). At home this is easy because these products are easily accessible and I’m not the one who is paying for it, but at school this all changes. Not only is it more difficult to get to a farmers market, or just a grocery store in general, I have to also be conscious of the money spent on food and unfortunately organic products are expensive. Often times I am left simply eating what is available, which is never very satisfying, but unfortunately money is the biggest consideration that determines what I eat.
What makes things worse is often times college students must eat at a dining hall or a restaurant. In these venues it is more difficult to determine the eco-friendliness of a product. You are not sure where the product was purchased from, if it’s organic, or how it was prepared. There is a certain amount of trust that the consumer places in the venue to articulate the correct information to them or to assume that they have a set practiced standard. The same argument can be made about the supermarkets, because often times a label on a product is misleading, so the consumer is placing trust in the corporation that they are giving them what they want.
Over the past two days I would probably say that the beverage items that I’ve consumed have had the greatest impact on the environment. Typically my diet consists of mostly vegetables and proteins, and yesterday I (unintentionally) used all fresh vegetables. The meat I ate had an impact, I’m not entirely sure how it was raised but I know that the slaughter process was not environmentally friendly. I’m not sure where the meat came from, or how far it was shipped, but I do know how it was cooked and it was done in a way that caused little environmental damage. But there are is so much about beverage production that I don’t know, which is frightening. Typically I drink in terms of beverages water, milk, juice, and coffee. I don’t drink soda which cuts down a lot of health risks, but high levels of sugar in juice and caffeine in coffee can cause issues. The treatment of these beverages is where the real concern lies. I know that the tap water in DC is not safe and must be filtered, because it is treated with chemicals which must have some environmental impacts. The milk must be pasteurized which is another process that most likely takes some kind of toll on the environment. The juice comes from fruits, and after reading a report on the pesticides used on pineapples in Costa Rica a few days ago, it frightens me as to what type of pesticides are used and what the effects could be for my health and the health of the environment in the farm. And the production of coffee has caused a stir among many developing nations who are attempting sustainable development because of the corruption and destructive nature. This doesn’t even take into consideration the bottling of any of these products, even if they use recycled bottles there is still a degree of degradation that occurs. It’s frightening to think about the potential that one bottle of orange juice in the morning can do.