Consciousness Food

Consciousness Food

According to a concept closely linked to food diet consciousness it is fully aware of what and how much to eat to be healthy and live better.
Only it is possible to reconcile the appearance of the healthy nutrition with social, often involving family members, colleagues, friends, relatives etc.
From a strictly personal point of view, good food conscience can not ignore the understanding of the physiology of taste. The taste depends solely on our habits, you can educate.
We need to understand the fundamental difference between innate and acquired tastes tastes and learn to discriminate the good high-calorie foods because of the good ones because of high quality.
Until a few years ago the concept of Consciousness Food was limited only to these nutritional and physiological factors not dealing completely, except for vague references to the relationship between what we eat and its impact on the food system.
As we say instead latter aspect is becoming, and will become more so in the coming years, one of the issues where we play much of the future of humanity.
Our eating habits do not leave indifferent the ecosystem and food economies; If we consume more dietary protein and vegetable producers orient towards the increase of the herds, and if we have little time to cook we increase the production of ready-made foods with an increase of some joint costs (such as packaging, processing chains, refrigeration cycles, etc. .).
Not to be outdone the landscape and urban factors, so much so that modern social organizational structures and their combinations are intertwined issues with the food system.

These two simple examples make us realize that more and more of our food choices, and with them a good food consciousness interact and interfere with agricultural and food systems more than we can suppose.
So if you prefer to feed on the products at Km zero (as long as there are available) instead of products from major interfere retail chains on distribution systems, transport, on productive organizations, and last but not least, on production systems of farms with direct impact on the ecosystem and natural agriculture.
Given that the production of food, having also only and exclusively for the primary sector (ie agriculture) interferes on delicate ecological and environmental balance (distribution of biodiversity, useful insects, eco sustainability of practices, etc.) It is evident that the Politics can not be indifferent to this delicate and complex matter.
This highlights one of the most sensitive issues especially for the so-called countries “developed” as their social organizations are, from a century or so, because it affects agricultural models with a delicate ecological bomb defusing.
We eat every day, but often we do not realize that the food that is so readily available in supermarkets is often there with different costs to the environment. As Rosemary Stanton notes, what we consume is very important for our ecological footprint and impact on climate change. Our choice of foods has the potential to increase or decrease the effects of global warming. Issues such as feeding the growing world population and have enough water and food for all are part of the bigger picture of how to use our resources wisely. With the choice of food that has less packaging, has not traveled long distances and was produced in a sustainable way, we can help reduce our footprint.
Here are some tips to reduce the carbon footprint linked to food production or its management. Let’s see what you want to do:
1. Buy food that is produced with short production chains –
The more the company is close to the consumer, the less fuel is needed to transport the food to the table. Although imports of ‘Australia are only about 10 percent of fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in a year, the sheer size of the country means that, in many cases, food travels long distances, requiring refrigeration and storage.
2. Buy from local producers market –
A farmer’s market is one where local farmers sell their products. All products sold must have been grown, reared, caught, fermented, pickled, baked, smoked or processed on site and a few steps.
3. Plant a garden and grow their own fresh produce –
Grow your own fruits and vegetables reduces the energy used and the waste that normally produce to bring food from the field to your plate, such as transport, refrigeration and packaging. It is possible, though not easy, monitoring the amount and type of fertilizer and nutrients used to grow food.
4. Avoid processed foods –
The production of processed foods using large amounts of energy, water and materials in the production, refrigeration, packaging and transport, as well as the production of large quantities of waste. Buy fresh fruits and vegetables rather than canned or frozen, although these are sometimes a necessity.
5. Eat seasonal foods –
If the fruits and vegetables you want is not available, choose the ones that are in season. If you eat fruits and vegetables out of season, remember that you have traveled long distances is a place where they are in season and / or the energy used in cold stores or, again, they were produced in greenhouses with an increase in emissions gas significantly enhanced greenhouse effect to those produced without forcing and locally. Buying local and seasonal food means a reduction in food miles, less energy used in the storage and required less packaging to preserve fresh produce. Also our body, with its most delicate organs (such as liver, pancreas, kidneys, etc.) Has periodicity of food needs (eat 365 days a year Tomato means, even if the product is free of pesticides or synthetic products , to accumulate toxins that, like it or not, they accumulate all foods).
6. Buy organic foods –
The biological cultivations (ie without the use of chemicals) and other types of low use of resources agriculture use a minimum or no pesticides and fertilizers, which are energy-intensive in their production / consumption; Furthermore organic farming not only save up to 40 percent of energy but also help to sustain wildlife, constantly altered and threatened by pesticides and fertilizers.
7. Choose foods that have no or minimal packaging –
To produce packaging and pack products large amounts of resources and energy are necessary. Disposal of packaging has further negative environmental impacts.
8. Drink tap water instead of bottled water –
The cost of bottled water is about 500 times more than tap water, and industry emit thousands of tons of CO2 each year. In Italy we have a reliable and safe supply of drinking water supply and drinking water bottle does not offer health benefits. Since no materials are used individually wrapped and is generally of local origin, the tap water is more green, the cheapest option.
9. Eat less meat and eat more plant foods –
Meat and dairy products are the foods to more intensive use of resources that we have. Large amounts of energy are required to grow, harvest and produce animal feed, transport and slaughter of animals, for the processing and packaging of the meat and refrigerate. It is estimated that only one meat dish creates five kilograms of greenhouse gases. It takes an average of 1,350 liters of water to produce one kilogram of wheat but it takes 16,000 liters to produce one kilogram of beef. This does not mean banning animals from farms, because they play an important role in the cycle of organic matter and total ecology, but it means direct their livestock to totally different criteria.
10. Do not waste food –
The commandment should be: buy only what you eat. Check the expiry date on the product label. The production of food uses water and energy and the food we do not eat creates immense amounts of waste. In Italy every day they go to landfill thousands of tons of food, and their packaging. Many individuals and families could easily reduce the consumption of food in general.
11. Changing consumption patterns –
The amount of water needed to produce one kilogram of food varies from 500 liters to 1,350 liters for potatoes for wheat, 2,000 liters for soybeans, 3,500 liters to 16,000 liters chicken and a beef.
12. Do you produce compost or at home or in community composting projects –
Leftover food such as vegetable peels, apple cores, egg shells and most biodegradable waste into a rich fertilizer that can be used in gardens and can reduce the amount of organic waste in landfills.
13. Buy fair food and drink –
When you buy food from abroad, if you own one can not do without (joint diets or needs) we try to buy fair trade products. These products encourage investment in human resources, the promotion of social justice, local economic development and fair prices.
14. Buying sustainable seafood –
More than three-quarters of the world’s fisheries have been so exploited that are now below sustainable levels. You can use consumer power to protect species in danger of extinction.
15. Ask the schools to provide local and organic products or fair trade. Provide an outlet for local food, organic and / or fair trade helps promote outstanding sustainability practices.
16. Reuse glass jars as storage containers.
So far all I can citizens but this alone is no longer enough because there are two activities which instead must necessarily delegated to the state as the supreme body of social protection, namely:
• Appropriate fiscal policies incentive / disincentive towards a low carbon footprint of the food;
• Large public investments in training, education and awareness of citizens, teachers, professionals, etc ..
A state that does not care about Consciousness Food is a weak state, destined to impoverish increasing both from an ecological and environmental point of view, both from the social point of view because it increases the gap, more and more of the social ecosystem and the ‘ environmental ecosystem.
A political class that does not deal with Consciousness Food and related and related policies is suspicious and ignorant.

Guido Bissanti