Food Miles

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APA Style Sheet Discussion Board Question The food item that I have chosen for this discussion board question is a naturally occurring fruit namely Mangifera Indica which is its scientific name or simply the Mango. It is not produced majorly in the continental U.S., but in parts of Mexico and Brazil, as the weather conditions are not favorable for its growth. It requires high temperate climatic conditions for its

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growth, and such temperatures are found in countries which are located near the equator line, and India is a country that is located closer to the equator and offers the best climatic conditions for the growth of mangoes. As a nation India produces the highest amount of mangoes in the world, with production reaching 16,337,400 Metric Tonnes in 2010 (UNCTAD). It is estimated that the distance which is actually covered during the shipment of Mangoes from India to the United States is around 7486 Miles. The shipments are usually sent by sea, and sometimes by air too, the low cost method is preferred mostly. The total mango imports of United States from India alone were around 408,233 Metric Tonnes in 2010 (2012). The question that is raised by many about this vast movement of food from one nation to the other is that, which country benefits more in the end, or which country or nation is at the losing end, at the very end of the deal? So let’s briefly discuss the pros and cons of both the sides to this story. United States is a developed nation, and India on the other hand is a developing one. The transference of food at such a large scale is surely meant to have a number of effects. From the Indian point of view, they are good at agriculture overall, so they try to make the most out of it. We know that they are paid for what they produce, and all the revenues that are generated by the fruit exports are used for development within the country. All this has been brought by the Globalization of the world. From the United States point of view, they are good at doing business, they are a developed nation, good at producing industry oriented products and

APA Style Sheet

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providing services overall, they try to make the most out of it as well. The imports allow them to make up for the natural deficiency which they have in terms of the fruit production; it also provides them with the required time in the long run to develop self sufficiency in the required areas of agriculture. So both the countries are able to get, what they actually needed through trade. Now days we see that there is a lot of campaigning done to encourage people to buy locally grown foods, and to invest in the business of growing food items locally, it is a very good initiative and I believe in self sufficiency. It is believed by some to be Better Than Organic (2007) foods There are a lot of benefits in consuming local foods, many of those benefits include freshness guaranteed, lower prices, less pollution overall and food self sufficiency. Apart from these benefits there are also some limitations to this approach, like some crops and food items cannot be produced in a certain climate, sometime the methods are so difficult that they cannot be imitated. So as to how much this “eat local” thing appears to be the right thing, it has limitations. And some of the drawbacks that come with only buying locally grown foods include lesser variety overall, exploitation by the producer in the long run and lack of competition in the market. Personally I would prefer to consume locally grown foods. I believe that they are better not just for me but for the overall community as well. I believe that things look much better where they belong, and one should try to maintain and keep the balance that nature has created itself. I can surely live without those foods that are imported to my country. There are alternatives available to the imported food items. I know that it is a huge business, nearly every nation is involved in trading food items, but I believe it should not exceed limits. Transference of food should be kept low, and should be need specific most of the time.

APA Style Sheet References

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Cloud, J. (2007, March Friday). Eating Better Than Organic. Time Magazine.

Economic and Social Development Department At FAO. (2012). Medium-term prospects for agricultural commodities... Retrieved from FAO Composite Corporate Depository: http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/y5143e/y5143e1a.htm

UNCTAD. (2010, April 26 ). Mango. Retrieved from UNCTAD Uniteed Nations Conference on Trade and Development: http://www.unctad.info/en/Infocomm/AACPProducts/COMMODITY-PROFILE---Mango/

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