COnsequences of eating imported food
1. Perishable food will be transported by plane.
- When something is transported by plane, the CO2 and other gasses released by the plane have a greater impact on the environment as they react with the atmosphere and it is estimated that the altitude at which the plane files is 4 times more harmful than the CO2 itself.
- Planes also release air vapor which quickly condense when they are released from the hot engine into the cold atmosphere. These trails of frozen water trap the heat in Earth, not letting it escape. This can result in Global Warming. Global Warming is happening to us today, and will influence the future of the planet. It is the process of the Earth warming up due to the greenhouse effect, caused by increasing levels of CO2 and other dangerous gasses.
- Eating imported foods, especially fruits and vegetables, often have added chemicals added, such as chemicals to prevent the fruits and vegetables from ripening, artificial flavor or color is often added, making the food unhealthy and often having dangerous side effects.
- Some foods will be modified, meaning that the organisms of the crop has been changed slightly to make them more efficient. This technique is fairly recent, therefore, there are many undiscovered health risks that you are taking by eating a GM food. Once a GM food has been produced, there is no way of ensuring that it will never grow again, so we have no way to get rid of them, however, we should avoid eating them as they can not only harm you, but the birds, insects and marine ecosystems around them.
- Local farmers will not be able to compete with the large international market and may stop producing food all together. This would mean that we would have to import even more food, creating a loop of people running out of business and more food being imported.
- Around 25% of Americans don't recycle, When you recycle materials like plastic, it means that the same plastic can be used multiple times, however, if you just throw it away, then it will find it's way into the oceans and other natural habitats. Food and drink packaging fills about 20% of all landfills. It also means that more new packaging has to be produced, instead of using the old one. Producing one plastic bag creates around 6kg of CO2 emissions per 1kg of polyethylene (one of the materials to produce a plastic bag). Depending on the situation, a plastic bag could take between 20- 100 years for the plastic bag to decompose. When plastic bags get into the environment, they can kill animals. Many animals often mistake the plastic bags for food and digest it. This can kill them Each year, around 1 million seabirds die each year from water pollution.
Benefits of eating imported food
1. It means we can use more land to build houses.
- As more people are born, we will need more housing and other facilities such as hospitals. Growing food takes up a lot of space. If we don't need to produce our own food, then we can build more houses. However, we are currently involuntarily losing land to grow our food.
- Imported food is generally mass produced meaning that it can be sold at a cheaper price.
- Supermarkets can choose a wider range of food at reasonable prices, meaning that we get a wider range of food for a cheaper price.