Final Food Assignment: Our "New-Found Livelihood" (second draft)

http://www.earth360.com/diet_paleodiet_balzer.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter-gatherer

Over the course of our evolution, human beings have developed these unique and complex brains; as a result we have art, literature, math, science. We have an entire world of academics and learning that was previously unheard of on earth, amongst other species and human beings alike. But how; why did this come to pass and what allowed us the luxury to persue these "New-found livelihood"'s? Since the creation of agriculture the human brain made room for more "noble" quests, but with it also came the difficulty of class difference, a sense of ownership of the natural land, population increase, and "dramatic changes in our smug self image" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). In this day and age we have seen a dawn of new problems; the food industry is entirely out of our hands and thrown to wealthy, profit-bent capitalists. Of course they don't actually do the work themselves; instead they pay migrant farm workers low wages and systematically demolish the beautiful gifts given us by mother earth. And, worst of all, they are paid beneath minimum wage to ravage our earth for its natural resources which, at this point, have been taxed to non-repair.This system with which we handle food is unsustainable and it sacrifices the wellbeing of others, plants and animals included, for a specific standard of living that people feel entitled to. In order to allow for universal equality and environmental prosperity we must revert to a more, hunter-gatherer way of surviving in which food is not grown in excess, and we control all that we put into our bodies.

Before we approach the whole concept of Hunter-Gathering from our current, comfortable social stand point, we should first understand why agriculture started in the first place. Agriculture, as we know, allows for mass production of select crops in one region; but what change would stimulate the need for such methods of survival? Professionals have noticed that as our ancestors numbers multiplied, so did their demand for food, and thus, we now use agricultural farming methods to feed the masses. Instead of going through the laborious task of finding food day by day, we can now sit back and relax comfortably and dawdle around with other such life difficulties that have arrived as a result mass farming. For our still relatively simple ancestors, agriculture meant "an efficient way to get more food for less work" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). For us on the other hand, agriculture is a standard of living that most individuals would not be willing to sacrifice.
But what was before this, before we developed this wide expanse of interests and expressive mediums? Something along the lines of 10,000 years ago mankind was still picking berries off trees and running along side his prey, armed with a spear and ready to kill. The hunter gatherer man killed and managed his own diet accordingly to what he could find for sustenance and, unlike farmers, they had to look for their food and eat whatever they found. And because food is scarce in every environment they had to travel around season to season to stay alive. Their entire lives revolved around eating.
Of course, like any system, agriculture has its benefits; "agriculture is an efficient way to get more food for less work. Planted crops yield far more crops per acre than roots and berries. Just imagine a band of savages, exhausted from searching for nuts or chasing wild animals, suddenly grazing for the first time at a fruit-laden orchard or a pasture full of sheep" (The Worst Mistake in the History of the human race, Jared Diamond). It also allowed us the liberty to lounge about and relax, which as we all have seen, can, if left unproductive, lose its appeal after some time. Thus began the world of art, mathematics, and science and other such intellectual or personal journeys. So, as one could probably guess, our lives no longer revolve around food...at least not in such a direct survival related way. Most of the people in our country, hell, the world, are entirely removed from the process of preparing, eating, and gathering what we eat.
Eating: Looking at your average American one can see this alienation quite clearly reflected in our actions. Every day I wake up to people rushing, people working, sticking to their strict schedules like some massive spider web, their bosses, the giant black widow licking their chops a few feet away. But what are we so busy doing if we aren't out searching for food? We are out working at jobs, each in their respective category of math, science, and art, begrudgingly placing one more obstacle on the direct path for getting food. We have created an un-necessary middle man that stands between us and our daily bread, and this stands true for all agricultural societies, not just America. Work, being as stressful as it often is, starts incredibly early, so one can imagine how challenging eating and enjoying a meal can be. Instead of cooking their own breakfast or going out and collecting food for their morning nourishment, what do Americans do? We rush out of the house to the nearest fast food drive by terminal and get some processed junk with indeterminable ingredients that we then, over time, convince ourselves is real food.
That there is one of our largest problems in regards to eating; we don't know what goes into most of what we eat. All we know is calories, fat, sugar, and carbs. I was reading the ingredients off of a can of soda my brother had just purchased and not one of the ingredients made sense to me; whats sorbitol? whats high fructose corn syrup? Whats potassium benzoate? and the list goes on and on... But sadly, this is our idea of the food world; we entrust massive companies like Coka Cola and Mc Donalds with our diets and leave it to them to not poison us. So as you can clearly see, it is out of our hands while we sit back and let others decide what is put into our slobbery gullets. Hunter Gatherers knew what they were eating.
Also, on a side note, self prepared food just tastes substantially better than prepackeged food. Not only is it fresh and lacking in preservatives necessary to keep it good on shelves for months at a time, but it involves you in the process of preparation. Just think to yourself: what is more pleasurable? Handing over a few bucks and having your food handed to you, or working in the kitchen for an hour or so to prepare a dish with home grown or even store bought goods and then sitting down and enjoying it? Personally, I'd go with the latter of the two, but in our instantaneous pleasure society one could see how someone may not feel the same way.
However, in our culture, we are offered up a variety of different foods and food lifestyles, so we aren't nearly as limited as it may seem. If you like fast food (god knows how anyone could) we have mickey dee's and KFC. If you're looking for organic and local food there are plenty of local farms and markets around to go to...of course there aren't nearly enough family farms and cheap organic growers to satisfy our entire population because the general populous often prefers the efficiency of fast food joints and simply cannot afford to buy organic even if they want to. However, with enough widespread demand for products of that nature that could change over time. On a more important note; according to Michael Pollan, author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma," the vast abundance and instantaneous availability of food in our culture complicates the entire process of eating and deprives us of any one specific food culture. This lack of a steady food culture has left us susceptable to the varying words of scientists and marketers alike, thus further removing us from our own food. And having been raised on this artificial shit we now perpetuate its reign over us by eating and supporting it. Instead of taking our own initiative we sit back and watch intelligence-reducing television and pray homage to our new-found livelihoods.
But, as we spend our idle time reading our books, creating our artistic masterpieces, and ultimately searching for individual happiness, somebody else is doing that work, picking our fruits and vegetables, and slaughtering our meat. But it most certainly isn't us out here in New York or even America for that matter; most of those jobs go to immigrants on both sides of the legal fence. They make low wages and are, more often than not, beneath the poverty line...but, because minimum wage laws explicitly exclude farm workers, they continue making wages that can't rightfully support the lifestyle of any human being in this culture, no matter how low to the ground it is. Almost all the food we eat is picked by these people and we owe our entire lifestyle to them, yet we continue supporting it by keeping ourselves in this little "not me" bubble. I have seen way too many people reflect on how insignificant such efforts would be and then continue living like the inconsiderate pig that they are. If we all sacrifice our own beliefs and call what we support a futile cause then nothing will get done, but if we all live by example and do as we would want others to do we could end that. Of course, with this new stance a new way of living would have to be upheld, but what does that compare to sacrificing the lives and liberties of others for our own selfish and indulgent way of life.
And it is here that I begin to broach on the topic of population and its impact on our farming system...