Introduction

We are two Education Block students interested in learning more about the food we eat, the things we buy, and the peace of mind we take for granted. We'll be using this blog to investigate the true cost of our consumption.

We'd like to model our blog after the Story of Stuff website, which perfectly illustrates the concept. Check it out!

Sarah will focus mainly on industrial agriculture and where our food comes from. She'd like to see our society move towards a more sustainable way of feeding ourselves; one that doesn't result in the degradation of our health and environment. There are currently many policies that keep this system in place, but some of the big ones are:

Research and Technology (When big business puts all of their time and money in one area of research, such as the use of pesticides, leaving farmers with fewer options for maintaining their crops.)

Subsidies (Strong government incentives for farmers to produce select crops, resulting in a surplus of commodity grains. Surpluses aren't always beneficial. In agriculture it means less money and more debt on behalf of the farmers.)

Marketing (As the old cereal commercial goes, "We eat what we like." That isn't always the case, however. Even if we don't realize it, much of what we eat is dictated by the media.)

For more information about these topics, please visit the Union of Concerned Scientists.

One policy we're all familiar with is the "Got Milk" marketing campaign set forth by the USDA. While the benefits of consuming more dairy are certainly questionable, the policy is in place to promote industrial agriculture, not our health. One goal of this blog is to get readers to think for themselves, and not eat everything someone with an acronym for a name tells them to. (FDA, USDA, we're talking to you!)