Room for Improvement

by Matt Herron

“Throughout history side effects have proven more dangerous than direct effects. If, for example, global warming makes digital technology’s side effects irrelevant, our concerns will have been obliterated by the side effect of a much older technology: industrialization.” Neville Holmes, Side Effects of Digital Technology

It seems that the more technology we invent the more likely we are to be the cause of our own extinction. Unlike the dinosaurs. They had it easy. Blame it on the asteroid, blame it on the ice age. Where have we to lay the blame? Only on ourselves.

Because if global warming doesn’t kill us first, obesity, laziness, diabetes, and a supreme lack of foresight surely will.

Modern technological innovation is based on the bigger-better-faster-cheaper mindset. Those that have the funding necessary for such innovation are not necessarily concerned with what’s good for our health. Health doesn’t pay. Consumption does.

The food industry is a prime example. As Food, Inc. demonstrates, we “created a food system in which it is cheaper and easier to get unhealthy fast food instead of good produce.” When you consider that, coupled with an increasingly computer-centric sedentary lifestyle, it is no wonder America faces major health issues.

It’s worth repeating two of the more disturbing facts from the documentary :

• “As a result [of our food system], nationally, 60% of us are obese or morbidly obese.”
• “One in three Americans born after 2000 will contract early onset Diabetes.”

Is there a saving grace? Food Inc. concludes with some optimism. Each meal is a choice, they say, and “we vote three times a day.” You can change your life for the better, starting with the next food item with which you stuff your fat face.

But don’t be naive. Don’t forget the reason it was necessary to create the film in the first place. And don’t forget how the film starts: “The way we eat has changed more in the last 50 years than in the previous 10,000.”

Because who’s to say what the next fifty years will bring. Is it too late to reverse the effects, like it may be with global warming?

Can we slow things down? Can we change direction? Can we innovate in ways that improve our quality of life?

There’s only one way to tell: do it yourself. Start by eating healthy, exercising, making a good life for your family. Think outside the happy meal.

(dino image source. Food, Inc. image is the film poster)

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