Food

Overpopulation has led to the development of a human food supply chain which depends increasingly on chemistry and mechanical technology to compensate for limited resources of land, water and farming labor. The result is a deterioration in the quality of readily available food generally. A heavy reliance on corn, a particularly nutrition-weak grain, is an example. Corn is easy to grow and harvest. It has been easily modified genetically for pest control. However, it rapes the soil of nutrients.

Corn has become one of the pillars of the American and world food supply. Along with soy, another easily grown higher-protein crop, corn has brought huge profits to the cheap-and-fast food industry. Of course, this has also enabled even greater world population growth.

In the industrialized world, academics flare their nostrils at childhood obesity, while their stock portfolios are bolstered by gains from the corporations which are causing the obesity. They scurry to seek fix-its for obesity by adding on more drugs and by surgical interventions. While the engine of obesity, bad food, steams on down the track to more profits and more human misery.

You cannot have good health without eating good food wisely. As long as poor-quality food is the norm, poor health will be the norm in a society. An unhealthy society does not progress in essential ways for the greater good. As a practical humanist, I believe healthy diet is an essential part of my personal practice. What lasting good can I do for health in society if I cannot first attend to my own health?