Modernizing Our Food System
There have been a lot of calls over recent years to “fix our broken food system.”
But from the point of view of a company that has devoted ample time and mental energy working to understand the massively complex global food system, it has become apparent to us that there is nothing to “fix.” Our system isn’t broken. It’s operating exactly as it was designed. The problem we now face is battling the unintended consequences of an overly efficient system. What we need for the future isn’t to “repair” a system that doesn’t work. We need to update it, decentralize it and make it more transparent.
Food used to be local and limited because there was no other choice. People ate what they had access to. If it wasn’t available or in season, they didn’t eat it. There were no means for food to make it halfway across the globe in good enough shape to be edible. Over time, however, that changed.
The Cold Supply Chain
The industrial global food supply chain we know today began with the creation of national roads, highways, trains and other infrastructure. This gave rise to the “cold supply chain,” the logistics that made storing and transporting food at a specific temperature a reality. Food could move across time zones and hemispheres and remain edible when it got to the consumer, changing the nature of food and business entirely.
The food industry naturally took advantage of this new system and optimized how it supplied consumers everywhere with produce. The name of the game in most industries is centralized production to increase volume and reduce costs by specializing in one step of the process. The industrial food system is no different, and with these advancements, food became much more centralized.
This new process gave people an unprecedented amount of access to food all year round, but it also caused new problems. As centralization made the food business more industrial and economical, people also lost touch with how food was produced, what was going into growing it and who was making it. As “big ag” developed, it required a lot more to grow — including fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and massive amounts of water. Focusing on a few select crops (“mono-cropping”), which depletes soil, reduces biodiversity and requires an ever higher amount of fertilizer and herbicide, has made food production unsustainable.
Furthermore, food was increasingly bred, grown and processed to travel far distances. This extended shelf life on the whole, but it brought with it many negative side effects. By the time food gets to our plates it has either been processed and tweaked to survive long transport, or it comes unrecognizable in the form of processed foods. These modern food substitutions have diminished transparency in the food system, and they have reduced our connection with and understanding of the food we consume every day.
Consumers Prefer Local
So food isn’t broken. It’s working exactly as it was designed to. However, centralized food has brought up serious health, environmental and other issues — and consumers have taken notice. The American public has increasingly indicated that it’s ready for a change in food. Just look at falling sales from fast food giants like McDonald’s and the rise of “healthy fast food.”
But this consumer awareness hasn’t yet directly translated to widespread changes.
Food Today is Insecure and Becoming Unpredictable
Putting consumer interest in their food aside, the fact remains that our food system is insecure. Centralizing food means localized incidents (major storms, outbreaks or disease) can have a national impact on food supply.
Extreme weather is only increasing, causing droughts, massive, record-breaking storms and a variety of other factors that can lead to poor harvests, food shortages and price fluctuations. So many news stories warn of the challenges we will face in feeding the expected 9 billion people on the planet by 2050, and making sure to tackle this problem sustainably is critical.
It’s Time To Modernize Our Food System
Modernizing our food system is now imperative.
Decentralizing food, first and foremost, allows communities to better control their own food, making that community more resilient and less susceptible to the increasing factors outside of its control. This will open doors to new and existing small farmers, activating and empowering a community of people who want to get more involved but feel powerless to start.
Furthermore, our food system needs to be updated. Leveraging technology will allow for more traceability and transparency, increased efficiency and yields that will reduce strains on the environment, and help us find new methods and locations for food production.
At Freight Farms, this issue is particularly dear to us, and we are planning to post additional pieces covering what we believe will help turn this need into a reality. Stay tuned. Our co-founders Jon Friedman and Brad McNamara will be publishing follow-up posts in the coming weeks.
