The Future of Food is Where it Comes From
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By Zoe Schacht
Writing was my first love. While attending my first poetry slam at age nine, inspiration struck. I scribbled my first poem onto yellow construction paper and read it to the crowd. Whatever adrenaline rush came with the slam stuck with me. Currently, I am studying journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder where I have written for the CU Independent since my first year of school and am now the managing editor. In my free time, I love cooking & baking, reading, hiking, and really anything that includes being outside.
Towards the end of my high school career, I was allowed to stay on a farm for a week. I decided to stay and work on an organic peach farm in Palisade, Colorado. The goal of the trip was to teach high school students about where their food came from. Most often when you go to the grocery store and see a packaged hamburger, your first thought does not revolve around the cow it came from, the farm where it was raised, or how many miles it traveled to reach the shelf.
I was beyond impressed by the care that the farmer I shadowed put into his peaches. He would sleep in his pickup truck beside his orchard ready to fight frost the minute his temperature alarm signaled to do so. I observed him hand-picking weeds, trimming his young trees himself by hand, and watched each day as he watered new trees he bought to fill a lot that he was prepping with his two sons. This is where organic, local food thrives. As for his peaches, they are juicy, sweet, sticky in all of the right ways, and filled with nothing but love from an older farmer dedicated to keeping his crop organic.
Based on population growth expectancies, by 2050 food production must increase by 70 percent to feed 9.1 billion people. Those living in developed, highly populated areas like New York City, are the ones who will feel this need for an increase the most.
As we see greater needs for food production, smaller organic farms like the one I was lucky enough to stay on are dwindling. Larger, pesticide-filled crops have begun to monopolize production. Our food is no longer ethically farmed, which is not a sustainable option. Desertification, when fertile soil turns to desert because of inappropriate agriculture, is rampaging our world. Monoculture, where farmers only grow one kind of crop, has taken over regions like the Midwest. Driving through the country and seeing only corn or wheat fields for miles is not normal, and our soil is suffering.
As a world population, we must recognize our food’s origins and the need to change our agricultural practices. Integrating greenhouses and urban farms within large cities will become a must. Finding new sources of proteins such as insects will be essential. Disposing of monocultures and integrating crop rotation at a smaller scale is necessary to save our soil and slow desertification.
The climate crisis is here, we will always have more mouths to feed. Understanding where your food comes from, how it was grown, and how it affects the planet is the future of food.
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Zoe is a junior at the University of Colorado at Boulder majoring in journalism with a minor in communications. She is a managing editor and staff writer for the CU Independent. Zoe has a passion for social issues, sustainability and educating those around her.
Opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Best Served. To achieve our mission of bringing more voices to the table, we are committed to sharing a variety of viewpoints across the industry.
