100km Diet Challenge Discussion

To the editor:

        We are gradually producing an unsustainable planet and the foods being consumed by many are dismantling our future.

        Before one may think that I am judging someone on what they eat, that is not the case. I am writing based on my personal experience with the 100 km diet challenge and how our environment will struggle if not conserved for food sustainability with upmost importance.

        Abbotsford is a city in the Fraser Valley with flourishing farm land growing food for the people of British Columbia and outside of the province. Although, it may seem that the agriculture is successful the diet challenge suggests otherwise. A vast amount of food included in daily diets belongs to areas such as California and locations outside of British Columbia. Even though some locations may be in Canada the conservation for the environment in British Columbia is severely affected. There is difficulty finding local produce especially during the winter season because local farm markets are closed. The availability of foods usually sold in markets mostly comes from sources outside of British Columbia. The rare amounts of local produce found were in home freezers which contained fruits in such as blueberries, strawberries and raspberries in Ziploc bags.

        In the beginning of the challenge I carelessly ate whatever I desired without knowing where the food I consumed had been produced. I recorded my findings and felt shocked to notice that most of my diet belonged to sources based out of the United States. The reason I felt this way was because of my previous knowledge on conserving the environment and ecology. California being a hot bed for produce a topped the list of sources of where foods I ate were coming from.

Being a university student it is difficult to always eat local fresh foods because of time constraints. In order to eat local and fresh foods more time is needed to cook and prepare a complete meal. With my personal experience this can be changed and adapted to by preparing meals ahead of time in order to better sustain our environment in the future. Furthermore, the foods used also need to be local to promote and conserve our surroundings more strongly.

Upon discussing possible ways of decreasing the impact on the planet it is evident that changes need to be put in place.  Although buying local fresh foods may be more expensive than imported foods there are significant benefits to this choice. These purchases allow for a decrease in harm to our surroundings by promoting more local foods to be consumed and our environment  will definitely flourish if this is implemented.

In the terms of food sustainability in my opinion decreasing the amount of food that is not local is vital for the successful future of our environment. There are issues that this may decrease our economy as a province or country but our economy will always be fluctuating. In this case our environment is more important and if food is not sustained then our economy itself will not be able to provide us with food. On the other hand, agriculture can also play a role in sustaining food. The more manipulations to make the food taste better and produce in exponential quantities can also significantly affect sustainability. Better education to agricultural farmers should encourage less use of GMOs and pesticides.