Going through the many keywords presented by my classmates I came across the keyword “Agroecology” and I was intrigued especially by the examples that were given to clarify this concept.

First of all, reading how agroecology refers to “responsible ecological practices in local ecosystems to grow healthy plants” I got a little bit bitter since through industrialization and globalization this practice barely occurs. The main goal of producing food has become to feed the growing population and sustaining a quantity of food rather than the quality of food. Also, since another goal of producing food is actually producing cheap food, the consequences on the environment and our health are almost completely disregarded.  As Belasco explains, with globalization the food industries have distanced us from “nature” and “tradition” by blurring the links between the farm and the dinner table (4). Almost completely unaware of how the food on my table is picked up, and processed I feel ashamed of letting myself become so blinded to the most important element in my life. Even when I pick up some mint from my grandpa’s garden in order to dry and mix it in my food I feel both connected to my food and connected to myself. I feel happy knowing what my mint has gone through before it got in my belly. I know my mint did not hurt anyone or polluted the environment. I feel like I have more control over my actions as a consumer and how it affects the rest of the world.

The keyword blog, Agroecology has given an example of how the industrialization of agriculture brought many environmental and social problems in Brazil. This has made me think of all the illegal logging and forest fires that are being started both in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and forests elsewhere in the world in order to keep/feed the livestock. According to the Netflix documentary: Cowspiracy, livestock covers 45% of the Earth’s total land, and acres of rainforests are cleared every second because there is a lack of land in order to mass-produce livestock for human consumption. Greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and destroying many animal/plant species/habitats are just some of the consequences of producing/consuming mass-produced livestock. However, as Belasco mentions we are completely blinded to see the meat in front of us as an animal because the concept of “forgetfulness” imposed on the society by the meat-packing industry (4). He states how it is easy now to forget that eating meat is an act that is inevitably bound to killing.

Apart from animal agriculture, I sometimes close my eyes when drinking my Turkish tea and imagine the women together collecting the tea leaves in the mountains. I imagine their hands, and the conversations they are having with each other. I imagine how tired they must be feeling at the end of each day and if they are proud of their hard work. Drinking away someone’s hours, handwork, and struggle on a breakfast table in a couple of seconds sometimes makes me feel very unproductive and disconnected. I simply want to know more about myself by knowing more about the food I eat because “we are what we eat” (Belasco 1).