My Considerations When Purchasing Food

We all eat food, but I always wonder if we even take the time to consider the history behind the food item we are about to purchase? While growing up, I never thought about these details- food was taken for granted. However, now that I live on my own and must go grocery shopping, such questions come to mind every time I make the choice to purchase food.

The first question that comes to mind is usually, how unhealthy does this food item look to me. I make my first filter by looking at the food for a few seconds. Yet, if I get puzzled I then look at the nutrition facts to get a better idea of the amounts of elements this food might carry per serving. I  base my decision on the amounts of calories per serving, trans fats, sugars, and sodium. Yet, when it comes to juice, milk, eggs, and yogurt which contain high amounts of calcium, I them only purchase them if they are low-fat or organic.

Although my first consideration is to look at the nutrition facts of such foods, recently I also think about their environmental impact. After learning about the waste of packaging food, inefficiency of agricultural lands, energy lost in transportation and fish that is in danger of extinction, I now make sure that I am not contributing to such negative impacts. Yet, I feel largely disappointed, as many others do too, at the lack of knowledge and information about which products are environmentally sustainable, or how the product is taking more environmentally friendly choices. It is very difficult to even try to considerate the impact such food has on the environment because of the previous reasons,  in addition to higher costs of organic food choices. For these reasons, whenever I ask myself how is this product environmentally, it is usually an unanswered question.

Furthermore, when thinking about my recent purchases, I believe that the packaging of beverages- plastics and aluminum-has the greatest environmental impact. This always becomes apparent when collecting the bottles for recycling. Although, I try to recycle as much as possible, the packaging of other items always generates so much waste. I feel that this is because we are a market for products and the more elaborate and attracting a product looks, the more we want to buy it. Having lived in Ecuador for a great part of my life, I am always impressed when I go to the market there, and at how little packaging this type of shopping requires- usually a large basket in which all the fruits and vegetables are thrown into. I wonder if here in the United States, will we be able to see this as a common practice in the future?