Where did your meal come from?

The waiter puts your food in front of you and all you can think about is how good that first bite is going to taste. Never would you ever think to turn your head and ask "which farm did this steak come from?" Many of us just accept food as being available and never even wonder where the food we eat originates from.

Picture courtesy of myrecipes.com

I have spent the last several weeks researching and analyzing factory farming operations and their large scale.  It could almost be guaranteed that the boneless wings you'll eat at Woody's later today are from the meat of a chicken raised in a factory farm, among thousands of other chickens that are in cages so small that spreading their wings is an impossibility. According to an article written by James McWilliams in The New York Times, these chickens are grown so quickly, that they soon become too heavy for their legs to support. This causes broken legs and the eventual death of the chickens that cannot walk to their food and water. The mistreatment of animals in factory farms is becoming common knowledge, but that does not stop consumers from buying McNuggets.

And the burger that you'll eat later this week at Union Market is probably another product of a factory farm, made from a cow that was grain-fed and kept in confinement for all of its life. These cows are raised for the sole purpose of selling its meat. But even knowing what a factory farm is and how they affect almost every meal you eat does not make you conscious of the facts when you're hungry and the food tastes good.

This was not always such a big deal. According to author and food expert Mark Bittman, the population of the United States has doubled in 50 years, but our consumption of meat and meat products has increased five-fold. We crave meat more than ever, and this causes a demand for meat to be produced fast and on a huge scale. This brought rise to the necessity of factory farms, which make meating the insanely large demand possible (yeah, that was an intentional pun).

I wondered what the average Ohio State student knew, or cared, about factory farms and the food that they ate. So I compiled a quick set of questions and asked 10 different people to answer them.

QUESTION	MOST COMMON ANSWER
Do you frequently question where the food on your plate came from?	No.
Are you concerned about whether or not you’re eating “organically”?	No.
Do you think that foods labeled “organic” are better for your health and the environment than those that are not?	Yes.
Do you know the difference between grass-fed and grain-fed cattle?	No.
Are you a vegetarian, pescatarian, locavore, vegan, or none of the above?	None of the above.
Does it concern you that half of the antibiotics used in the US are fed to animals in factory farms?	Yes.
Do you think that our food system needs reform?	Yes, but unsure of how.

I got all the responses that I thought I would get. The people I asked did not even know the difference between grass-fed and grain-fed cattle (they could benefit from watching "King Corn" or "Food Inc.") and were not aware that factory farm animals were fed antibiotics at all. Something that I found funny was that every single person I asked thought that foods labeled "organic" were better for their health and the health of the environment, which is not necessarily true at all. But when I asked why they didn't seek organic foods when they ate, the common response was that "organic food is too expensive and I don't want to spend more for something that tastes the same." However, they did think that our food system needs reform after learning these things, but were not sure how reform could ever happen.

In a shell, what I gathered from this questionnaire was that the average OSU student is nauseatingly unaware of what they are eating and do not care to investigate what is on their plate, even when the university makes an effort to show them. When I ate at Sloopy's yesterday, there were advertisements at every table for their weekly special. This week was a pork spare rib dinner from animals raised and processed by the OSU Dept. of Animal Science. By advertising that the meat is local, it shows a consciousness and awareness of the University's Dining Services. But, do the students even realize how awesome this is?  I doubt it. But I really wish that we would all be more educated about food and where it comes from so that we can appreciate and applaud these efforts.

Photo by Marnie Hawes

Becoming aware of what we eat play a role in helping stop the need for factory farms and agribusiness of all types. Here are some steps that each of us can take in order to make ourselves more conscious consumers and eaters:

1. Strive to eat locally, rather than "organically". Organic foods are not well-regulated by the government at all and can be just as bad for the environment and your body as industrially farmed products. Eating locally promotes the ethical, small-scale, family-run farms that raise livestock and harvest crops more naturally. 
2. Reduce the frequency in which you eat meat. Maybe only allow yourself to consume meat for one meal each day. It will not make such a drastic influence on your personal diet, but it reduces the amount of meat you consume by about 1/3, assuming you eat meat with every meal. Another way to reduce your meat consumption is to reduce the number of days a week in which you can eat it. Either way, it is a great step in reducing your personal demand for factory farm products. 
3. Support the campus dining service efforts in providing locally raised food. When Kennedy has Steak Night on Wednesday, where the steak is from locally raised and grass-fed cattle, take advantage of the opportunity. Or go to Sloopy's and get those spare ribs advertised in the picture. Because this is such a large university, we can have a huge positive impact on central Ohio's locally grown products. 
4. Shop at farmer's markets instead of grocery stores when given the opportunity. 

If we all take small steps towards local food and away from factory farmed food, we can make ourselves more conscious eaters and we can change the way that the world eats.