Impact of a Borderless Society

Impact of a Borderless Society

Introduction

It is currently estimated that food in the United States does travel nearly 1300 miles and even change hands approximately half a dozen times before it is finally consumed. This shocking information may soon turn out to be highly and deeply problematic especially when we consider the environmental factors that could be involved in the process (Gussow, 1993). As an example, food eaten by most people from North America comes from all over the world yet little is known as to the exact source of food (Kloppenburg and Stevenson, 1996). As for may two major meals, I eat out most of the time; for breakfast, I mainly take McDonald's breakfast burrito w/orange juice while for Lunch I usually go for Wendy's quarter pound cheese burger mainly with French fries and a bottle of water. Though this diet is very common and easily available, there is no doubt that it could have originated from different parts of the world and have also exchanged hands several times. Gussow (1993) has pointed out that this distance from where our food comes from can be used as a representative of the gap of knowledge that we have as to how and by whom the food we eat is produced, processed, as well as transported.

Global Food System

The biggest question is if the production, processing, as well as transportation of all this food is destructive to the human community and land remains. There is no doubt that as much as we need different food products from different parts of the world, we also need to appreciate the fact that we could be helping to propagate the impact further. We sought to understand all of the implications associated with our own participation in this global food system since most of the processes related to the food we eat are located in other parts of the world and unfortunately we are obscured from them (Gussow, 1993).

The question then that we ought to consider here is if it is possible to act effectively and responsibly despite the fact that we do not understand where our food is originating from. I could probably guess that the cheese I take is from France, but with the modern society that is seen to be free of borders, there cannot be a conclusion as to that. The only way we can contribute towards change in this food industry and in a society that is free of boards is if we do clearly understand how this food system does work and the role that we play in it (Whatmore, 1994).

Kloppenburg and Stevenson (1996) have argued that global food system has both far reaching social and ecological destructive effects and this has prompted various analysts to consider the option of searching for solutions based on the specific socio-geographic place. In this kind of a system, there will be a food system that is self-reliant, locally as well as regionally available as opposed to the global food ...