I want to put some thoughts on the table, because Rob’s post about the seed vault got me all riled up.

It’s really upsetting to think that we’re losing so much biodiversity for the sake of things that we pride ourselves in: globalization, efficiency, and modernization.

Sometimes I feel like it would be easy to blame capitalism for the loss, but I don’t see how any other large, modern society could function any better.  The problem (I believe, although I’ve heard some dissenting opinions) is that the most prevalent production methods will be those that are the most cost effective.  Factory farming and monocropping will provide the cheapest and most abundant food sources, until disaster strikes and they are no longer economically (or ecologically) feasible.

I read two Michael Pollan books this summer which were definitely life-altering and highly recommended:  The Botany of Desire and In Defense of Food. The former  touches on the importance of biodiversity, while the latter discusses the absurdity and dangers of a Western diet (did you know that there are now cases of obese children who are ALSO malnourished?!?).

Nothing is more important to a living being than the food it eats (with the possible exception of sex).  This makes your dinner plate a sort of mirror that reflects the nature of your lifestyle.  When you eat highly processed foods and chemically altered food derivatives, you accomplish two things:

First, you affirm that your lifestyle is synthetic.

Second, you voluntairily increase your chances of suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and obesity (also, absurdly, malnourishment).  When this happens, Mother Nature is literally punishing you.  This is part of the “natural selection” process.  Poor diet reflects an inability to sustain one’s self in one’s environment, which results in health complications.  Organisms unfit for their environment can either adapt to the environment, change environments, or die.  The environment here is your “foodscape”, like a landscape composed of all of the foods that you consume.  Remember that individuals do not evolve, populations do — you are stuck with your genes.  Therefore you, the individual, can not adapt to the environment.  You have two more choices.