I thought I would post some of the (at times shocking) facts that I learnt in Nepal from my amazing Canadian friend and nutrition teacher Wendy Akune. I will conclude with a post on how you can minimize your impact and monitor the affect your own nutrition on your moods, health and general well-being. Enjoy.
- In 1961 produce began to be shipped which signaled the end of predominantly local produce.- In the US the average kilogram of produce travels more than 2400km from farm to plate.
-In the UK food travels 50% farther than 20 years ago.
- In Norway food travels 100% further than 10 years ago.
- On the average supermarket shelves there are roughly 30,000 products. Half of these are produced by 10 multi-national companies.140 people form the boards of directors of these ten companies.
That means 140 people controlling half the food in a large supermarket!!!
- 6 companies now control 98% of the world’s seed sales.
-Through consolidation-i.e mergers, takeovers and alliances, multi-national farms are now controlling the food system from gene to supermarket shelf.This Includes:
-Seeds
-Pesticides
-Grain Collection
-Grain processing
-Livestock production
-Livestock slaughtering; and
-Processed Food
