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‘You are what you eat’ has been an old saying that many of us were brought up on. It was first coined by author Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin back in 1826. Her renown was for her knowledge of food and that was such that she had a seven-volume book on ‘The Physiology of Taste’. Now, at this stage, her knowledge is over a quarter of a millennium and her take on all things food is too old for us to still consider it being respected or even scientifically relevant such has been the developments in the past couple of hundred years. Perhaps, even now with all the knowledge we have we should cast aside old sayings for good and be content that our new age science answers all the questions we have of this world.
Or we can just look at our world and see where we have in the present day. Right now we have 7.53 billion people in the world. Back in the 1800s, we had 990 million people. No doubt, the world population is getting bigger and when we realise that we all inhabit the same planet we begin to wonder how our lives have changed in this time frame and how they will begin to change in the next hundred years or so.
The land is a precious thing. We use it to build houses and to gain an income from it. It facilitates our most basic of needs, that being having a humble abode and earning an income of which to live. But, the land also allows us to energise as well. This can be achieved through the food we produce on it.
At present, there is an alarming rate of food loss happening in the world. By producing food in such vast amounts in attempting to feed the world`s population, the natural resources of the planet are depleted. In turn, greenhouse gas emission rises. Throughout the past couple of decades, international partners have attempted to reduce the amount of food loss and waste to decrease our emission of these gases. It has become evident that the quality of food is also affected, where it is predicted that by 2050 when the world population increases by up to 30% the pressure on the food industry will be at an all-time high. How can we as humans sustain this in the years to come? According to the best international sources, it is simply unsustainable.
Something has to change.
Today, October 16th is World Food Day. It’s a day when we all wonder about food and all of our future. Naturally, these thoughts become quite graphic leading us to wonder if we are hungry or not! As this marking of ‘World Food Day’ rolls around each year, we will wonder the same thing annually until one day we will not have the energy to wonder. Or, maybe it’s all about the taste that Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote and not mere food consumption that creates and dictates energy?! The answer to that one would decide if old sayings were better than current scientific evidence. Who knows, for now though ‘Its food for thought!’
😁NOTE: My friend Ronan Scully is a fantastic guy. I thought of all the work he does and wanted to give him a wee hand today on this particular day. You can donate here to his cause, many thanks for reading on today #worldfoodday