Healthy positive happy woman of color holding a paper shopping bag full of fruit and vegetables.

I do have a firm grasp on the obvious – we all eat. Many of our celebrations and special occasions are centered around food. Simply put, food is the focal point of our very existence for both survival and cultural reasons. Do we all think about what we eat? Do we stop to think about how our food arrives at our tables? How about IF the food we like to eat, that we simply go to the store and buy, is always going to be available to us? Have you ever given any “deep thoughts” as to how this COVID 19 pandemic impacted our food supply? Is there going to be a longer lasting impact on our food supply because of the pandemic? Dare I say all of these questions are food for thought? Indeed I just did.

We SHOULD Get Beyond the Grocery Story

In my role as Mrs. Green, I have had the honor, pleasure and sheer delight of interviewing people from around the globe about food, food supplies, food insecurity, farming practices, local food systems and probably a few other food related topics that escape me at this writing. I know that I can’t answer all of the above in a blog because food systems and food security and all things food would require much more writing than our brains can absorb in one sitting. The myriad of food issues that we are facing in a world with increasing populations, with more extreme weather than we have ever had to face and a global pandemic impacting every aspect of life as we have known it, dictates that we all need to think quite a bit beyond the “we get our food from the grocery store” mindset.

Disclaimer: I am going to say “should” a little bit more than I usually like to but it’s because the issues surrounding almost every aspect of food, in the face of climate change, are real and serious and deserve our attention. We all should care about where our food comes from, how it gets to where we live, how it is grown (pesticides, insecticides, herbicides, fair labor practices) and we should all make an effort to educate ourselves more about all of the above because we do, indeed, all eat!

Taking Action Toward Food Consciousness

In my never ending commitment to spread the good, green, healthy word about food, I invite you to consider starting your journey to food consciousness by taking two actions:

  1. Listen to an amazing interview I did with two passionate and knowledgeable women, Dr. Laurel Bellante and Dr. Gigi Owen – Food Systems: Pandemics, Equity and the Future. I promise it will inform and delight!
  2. Take the time to read an impactful report entitled 2020-2021 State of the Tucson Food System which documents how the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have played out in the local food system in Pima County, Arizona. Much of the content is illustrative of the similar realities many communities faced and will continue to face during the most challenging of times throughout the world.

Truth be told, we are all in this together. I know that the degrees of suffering will be vastly different based on a myriad of factors including extreme weather, deforestation and sea level rise. I also know that every human being on this great planet of ours will be impacted given the ever-increasing impact of climate change on our food supply and our food systems. Let’s get educated, let’s get prepared, let’s all do whatever we can to be a part of solutions – because our lives depend on it.

 

Gina Murphy-DarlingFrom about the age of five, Gina has been on the path of being a disruptor for good. A dreamer at heart, Gina is madly and passionately in love with this great planet of ours and is tireless in her efforts to preserve it.