Modern nutrition an ethical minefield
Wholesome foods come at a cost
“Being vegan isn’t as good for humanity as you think.” That’s what the headlines said after a study published in the j ournal Elementa found that when veganism is applied to an entire global population, the diet wastes available f armland t hat could otherwise be used to feed people.
Carnivores rejoiced at the news, proudly sharing it like a stack of flyers that proved they had been right all along. It fit neatly into their set of nutritional morals.
As specialty diets have gained i ncreased mainstream acceptance, nutrition today has started to resemble organized religion rather than conventional dietary advice. There are endless options to follow, and everyone believes theirs to be right.
When it comes to conflicting nutritional research, the literature is seemingly endless: f rom l ow- carb, high- fat diets like the meatheavy paleo diet, which claims to help weight loss and increase heart health, to macrobiotic meal plans, veganism, lacto- vegetarianism and debating the merit of the calorie itself. Instead of sorting through this mass of information, we typically cobble pieces of information that confirm our preexisting beliefs together like makeshift lifejackets.
Forget nuance. This is a survival mechanism. Everyone has to believe something if they are to successfully navigate those technicolour grocery store shelves.
Of course being able to subscribe to any specialty diet is its own privilege. It’s easy to tell people to “eat local” while proudly swinging a $ 25 bag of chanterelles and microgreens home from the farmer’s market. It’s another to relay the message to yourself as your pass a Popeye’s location, the smell of crispy fried chicken bubbling in the deep fryer. It’s yet another to relay the message to the millions of Canadians making minimum wage, or those who do not have access to seasonal markets, never mind the free time necessary to nurture a budding interest in organic seedlings and seasonal mushrooms.
And cravings and economics are only the beginning of the problem. Some of our most agreed upon, nutritionally wholesome foods are destroying natural environments and local economies in their wake.
The s udden demand for quinoa — a super food l auded by everyone and their grandmothers for its protein-packed properties — caused the price to surge to three times what it once was. A Guardian report revealed t hat t he price i ncrease meant Bolivian people who had long depended on the grain as a dietary staple are no longer able to afford the product that became a luxury export seemingly overnight.
In a similar superfood disaster, Greek yogurt is contributing to acid whey production, a toxic substance with a pH balance comparable to acid rain. A 2013 Cornell University report found that for every 7,000 gallons of milk used to make Greek yogurt, up to 4,900 gallons of acid whey is produced. Whey that isn’t properly disposed strips oxygen supplies from streams and rivers, killing marine life and damaging habitats and ecosystems. Yet yogurt companies are ending up with so much of the byproduct that Modern Farmer found Greek yogurt giants like Chobani have started paying farmers to take it off their hands. The farmers have obliged, but they themselves don’t know what to do with it.
A handful of heart-healthy almonds might be a go- to Greek yogurt topping, but the nuts are also contributing to drought problems in California. Eighty per cent of the world’s almond supply comes from the state experiencing its worst drought on record. A report published by The Watershed Agricultural Council found that a single almond takes 1.1 gallons of water to produce. Demand for heart- healthy almonds and their affiliated products has grown so strong that The New York Times found California almond farmers are drilling thousands of feet down into aquifers to pump out water, threatening critical infrastructure like bridges, roads, and irrigation canals and even potentially triggering earthquakes.
Meanwhile, an Associated Press i nvestigation found that shrimp sold at global supermarkets is often peeled by slave labourers in Thailand. Yet you shouldn’t be eating it anyway, because global consumption of heart healthy, omega- 3 rich seafood is depleting seafood supplies at rates that they cannot be naturally replenished, wreaking havoc on the health of our oceans, the planet’s most significant source of oxygen.
Even the i nnocent banana is corrupt. A New York Times report found that conventional bananas — the world’s most popular fruit — are often produced using child labour while underpaying workers and abusi ng human rights. Large banana producers like Dole and Chiquita also cut down rainforests, contributing to deforestation and turning formerly lush forests into uninhabitable deserts that displace millions of species from their natural habitats, according to a Pacific Lutheran University report.
The problems are so vast and beyond the scope of our grocery carts — themselves too often plagued by convenience and price — that it can feel necessary to ignore most issues if you are to continue eating and ultimately existing in the world.
Yes, it is exhausting to navigate the ethical footwork of eating in 2017. But the more we know about our flawed dietary habits, the better we can work toward improving them. To do this we have to leave sentiments of moral superiority on the table and accept that food has nothing to do with being right. It’s about admitting that, at least in some way, we are all wrong and, despite that, trying to be better.
A SINGLE ALMOND TAKES 1.1 GALLONS OF WATER.