Transportation

I sat in my car at the edge of the parking lot facing the 880 freeway for a couple minutes, trying to take a good picture of all the trucks driving by. I don't think any of the trucks in this particular picture were delivering food, but I'm sure a good amount of the trucks that passed by every couple seconds were filled with food from all different places. Transportation of food happens all over the place, but I never really thought about that and the whole process of producing and delivering food until now. This reminds me of Bodley's book which says, “…industrial commercial societies reverse the energy input-output relationship of the food system typical of the tribal world, in which 10 or more kilocalories are produced for each kilocalorie expended” (p168). It was baffling to read about the energy costs of the distribution system in Bodley’s book! I never realized before how much work it must have taken for one item to end up on my dinner table, such as a factory potato (described in the book) that required intensive care—-the maintenance of soil conditions, moisture, and nutrients, controlling weeds, diseases, and insect infestations, the use of numerous chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides, and not to mention transporting, packaging, advertising, distributing, refrigerating, and cooking the potato. It is no wonder foods in supermarkets seem overpriced and no wonder why I am compelled to buy only foods that are on sale. Food has become "fully commercialized" (p163) and pricey. The emphasis on food seems to be hardly ever for basic nourishment anymore.