Christina Galbraith - Awareness and food production

Hellen Keller gave us a unique perspective of what it is to become aware rather than growing into it. Her description of her awakening to the world of language as a "misty consciousness" being lifted from something that was once forgotten is a beautiful metaphor. I feel as though it can be applied to the human race and our awareness of nature. Thinking of that video that we were shown in class, of the reflections of the business world but also the chicks being processed in a factory, I feel that if we change the way we view our food we will change the way we view our relationship with nature. With the technological revolution we have been starkly separated from nature, especially in how we raise our food (i.e. livestock). This degree of separation is exacerbated by the fact that many people are not actually aware of how food gets to their shelves. Agriculture literacy, an understanding of food or agriculture, is very low in the United States. An online survey put out by the Innovation Center of U.S. Dairy revealed that 16 million people think chocolate milk comes from brown cows. There is a severe disconnect between the food that is raised on farms and what is placed on people's plates. I feel that if people were to be made aware of how their food was produced they would have more respect for it. For example, I'm of the mind that if people saw the chickens stuffed into cages, and calves that are taken from their mothers, they would drastically change their consumer habits. I know I certainly did. I make an effort to buy only cage-free eggs and avoid buying beef unless I know that the cows were treated humanely. This conscious consumerism is a way that people can reconnect with nature, by supporting farms that naturally and humanely treat their livestock. Encouraging more humane standards of farming will allow more people to reconnect with ecology as stewards of nature rather than harvesters.