You are what you eat....gross.

Over the years I have limited my diet, not so much based on the ideal of my environmental impact, but mainly due to food preparation. The media has a large role in this, and the way I look at food has never been the same.

When I was in my freshman year of high school, I saw super size me. Seeing how food was processed, where the food came from, learning the countless number of chemicals put into each meal and seeing the overall quality of the food made me quickly change my diet. I have not had a ounce of fast food since. The same ideal went with certain types of chicken. I saw the documentary Food Inc. That movie changed my life. It was horrifying to see how companies like Purdue and Tyson’s treat the animals. Conditions are horrible, pens are overcrowded and unclean, and there are vast amounts of runoff from animal waste that flows into the rivers and streams. Seeing this caused my to immediately stop me from eating chicken nuggets. The worst part, I had just bought some at the grocery store…that was money wasted. Because of this fact, I eat entirely organic, even though it may be expensive. It is important to me that by fruits and vegetables be pesticide free and that my meat is free range, grass fed.

Even though I mainly base what I eat off of the nutritional and health conditions, I do try and buy local whenever possible. While abroad I was introduced to the amazing culture of farmers markets. I loved how fresh everything was, how feasible it was to obtain and how remarkably inexpensive everything was. So, every Wednesday afternoon my roommates and I would walk to the market and get our fruits and vegetables for the week. Not until looking back to I realize how much this lowered my environmental footprint towards food. Food was grown naturally, decreasing the impact on the environment through runoff pollution. Food also did not have to be transported far unlike the millions of products people consume everyday that must be shipped miles and miles for consumption.

I try to instill these values on my roommates, family and friends and have been somewhat successful. Although everyone sees the importance of eating organic or local, not everyone can give up the processed unhealthy foods they love. The worst part is, they know exactly what they are eating, and they know exactly how the food is processed. However, the marketing and the long-term lifestyle of eating things such as chicken nuggets or McDonalds overpowers the ideals of what is really going into your body, or the industry you are contributing to when buying the product.