andy reagan only the interesting stuff

Know your food, people!

This is a draft of a letter to the editor, as part of our ES final reflection. Still a definite work in progress, I've been adding and cutting from it to keep it under 200 words.

I'm not going to tell you that you should eat vegan, vegetarian, flexatarian, or whatever, to "save the environment." All I'm challenging/proposing is that you take the effort to understandwhere your food comes from, and what your decisions to eat it mean to your health, our local economy or the industrial agriculture system. As long as you can be comfortable with whatever that means, then I can have no problem with you eating a McDonald's cheeseburger for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Here's one real example: When thinking about whether to drive or walk to campus, consider that cheeseburger for breakfast. Looking closely at the way we grow corn today, it operates on genetically modified corn, engineered to grow in close quarters, in vast monocultures, and heavily reliant on tons of fertilizers and pesticides (both fossil fuel based). Then think about the tractors, the combines, the semis transporting it and finally, the cow eating it (as today's Holstien cattle are fed solely grain). It then takes 35 pounds of grain to make one pound of cow.
You'd literally burn more gas walking than driving your car an equivalent distance, with red meat as your fuel of choice.
Then ask yourself if this bothers you at all. If it does, as I think it should, do your homework. I'd suggest reading Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, as the best thing you'll do over break