Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Food Preservation is Good

The world currently has an estimated 6,775,235,741 population, up from an estimated 3,031,720,298 population in 1960. A large measure of being able to feed this large population is food preservation.Think of how much additional food volume we would need if not for food preservation. Think of how many times you go to the grocery store to purchase bread. If the bread went moldy after a day or two instead of a week or more, how much moldy bread would you be throwing away?

As for food preservatives with fancy names that often get bashed. Think of how much energy it saves the world. Bacon can cost anywhere from $3.00 to $12 or more per pound. The $3/lb. bacon most likely uses preservatives that are not natural while the more expensive bacon probably uses a more traditional method during manufacture. The $3/lb bacon consumes less energy based on how long it takes to make compared to the more expensive bacon. If everyone was only allowed to consume the more expensive bacon, think of how many more bacon factories there would be needed. Each factory would consume energy and resources that could be saved with the continued use of chemical process and preservatives.

Food preservation isn’t just a question of should we or shouldn’t we be eating it. It’s more of a question of how do we feed over 6 billion people without it. I’m guessing the people trashing food preservation haven’t thought of it much in those terms.

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