Factory to Table: How Industrial Agriculture is Changing the Food Landscape and the Inequity it Perpetuates

Keywords: Industrial Agriculture, Food, Landscape, Culture, Mass Production
Abstract Type: Poster Abstract

Abstract

Between our fields and our tables, it isn't exactly clear what happens. Sure, our packaged dinner comes with the fries, corn, and chicken nuggets we carefully selected at the supermarket, but was there ever any question of how that food got to our lips, beyond the silverware? Have we entirely forgotten where our food comes from? And would we recognize the modern image of it if we saw it now? This paper aims to explore modern agriculture and its vast impact on our current food landscape. The alteration of how raw ingredients are grown is explored, and how naturally, the backbone of all products are then altered as well, having now found ourselves in a stew of homogenous goods. Not knowing exactly what we're eating, we've significantly derailed what we consider unhealthy and healthy. Farming practices, from chemical use, to crop patterns, to livestock treatment is analyzed in an attempt to draw conclusions about the collective thought and consumer demands that drive these practices. The concept of consumer choices is expanded further, addressing the importance in education and exposure to better choices in making better choices. The most unrecognizable of foods mentioned above are infiltrating disproportionally marginalized communities, creating a cycle of unfulfilled eating habits. It is necessary to touch on issues of inequity in this discussion and how it follows our foods path from the farm, to the table. This full account will be compiled through a series of interviews, observations, statistical tests, and a historical understanding.