Community: The problem of abstractness

Failing to understand the origin of the food that we eat is more than just a health hazard, it's an economic problem.

As the cost of food rises around the world, consumers are beginning to search for alternatives to the grocery store. The search through farmers markets leads us to an interesting discovery; the land that we live on cannot grow all of the food that we eat.

Believe it or not, the salmon from the grocery store do not swim in the lakes of Missouri, nor does sugar cane grow in Colorado, nor coffee anywhere in North America. In fact, the land directly surrounding most of our cities could not sustain the foods that the cities eat.

This situation not only creates an abstractness to the food that we eat, in that we know very little about our foods quality, but it also leaves us without an alternative source. If we knew 3 dairy farmers, we would have an alternative source to milk. As it stands, we only know the grocery stores, leaving us very few options if the price of milk were to change like the price of petroleum.

I have no reason to believe that this will cause any immediate problems, but the abstractness increases the risk. My thoughts on this are still developing. More to come.