Free «When and Why Did Organic Food Become a Trend?» Essay Sample

The moment when I started to roll thoughts about the topic of organic food in my mind was connected with a number of associations. Thus, a research process of the theme of organic food and its tendency to develop into a trend included a few steps based on a connection of ideas and situations. Each stage contained different areas of study. The chronological order of a series of actions is shown with accordance to three main directions: present, past, and future. The main idea of the research finds its particularization in a question about organic food becoming a trend. When and why it happened? The further research on the matter of this topic was conducted with a question whether organic food was ever not a trend?

The First Step. The Present Situation

In order to understand a level of activity and determine the subjects related to the topic the phrase “organic food” was searched in the Google. This has brought out an interesting cultural artifact that is a picture demonstrating an amusing approach to the organic food as a trend.

The Second Step. The Background

The illustration suggested looking for the definition of the main notion and describing what people mean with the word “food”. Why they say “organic food” instead of a simple “food”? According to Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language (scholarly source), food is “any substance taken and assimilated by a plant or animal to keep it alive…” (542). If one uses something to survive, it must have a long history of development and evolution. Thus, food has developed and was divided into organic and non-organic groups. Next, the difference between these two types had to be established.

Food with the “organic” label denotes that it is produced with the use of organic agricultural methods. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulates the process of its production as it has to contain 95 percent of organic substances. The difference between organic and non-organic food is that “organic food products are not genetically modified and have not been treated with synthetic pesticides or fertilizers” (Hansen n. pag.).

The Third Step. The Subject in Culture and History

After this, the research was associated with cultural artifacts such as idioms and metaphors. Since food is a means of survival, its importance should be reflected on the basic level of human communication that is language. The latter has a tendency to preserve and reflect every significant concept. Thus, the way people talk about something illustrates what they think about it, and how the notion develops through history. Presently, one uses many idioms and metaphors related to food that have different meanings, and one would probably be able to write a whole paper using them in sentences. This idea is supported with the examples from the Thesaurus of Traditional English Metaphors (scholarly source). When one has something to think about he/she calls it “food for thought” (Wilkins 674). There is also a saying that “God sends every bird its food, but he does not throw it into the nest” (Wilkins 471). In the seventeenth century, people used to say “eaten bread is forgotten” meaning ingratitude for the shown kindness (Wilkins 388). In the sixteenth century, when weak were victimized, it sounded like “it is a hard winter when one wolf eats another” (Wilkins 471). In the present days, one may hear such expressions as “eat your words” (Wilkins 600) or “what would a young cat do but eat mice?” (Wilkins 576). These idioms and metaphors and a hundred more similar to them prove the thesis. Food (organic food) has always been a trend, one way or another.

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The Fourth Step. An Experiment

The next step was field research. A small experiment was conducted with the purpose of finding out what kind of food is more preferable. After a few cans of corn were eaten (one with the label “organic food” and other without it), it felt better to know that the food one may consume everyday must not contain anything other than organic components. Organic food tastes better.

The Fifth Step. The Future of Organic Food

If to compare the present history with the past, then one may say that organic food was not always so much popular as nowadays. A few “flavors of the month” at the end of twenties century inspired people to eat fast food and, after this, there was a wave of genetically modified products. However, if even GMO was not able to defuse organic food, a new and advanced agriculture may be a new trend in the future. It is called nanotechnology, and it is a fast growing area of mass food production. Nanotechnology has great financial resources, and it is successful and popular on the market. According to another scholarly source, “the US Nanoscale materials are already incorporated into more than 580 consumer products, including food…” (Paull & Lyons 1).

Conclusion

Food consumerism is a system that has been evolving since the dawn of humanity. New inventions in agriculture interfere with the organic food popularity that is a trend nowadays. The processes of industrialization transform food in many ways. Homo sapiens seem to have developed a taste to food that does not take time or effort when compared with the past. The basic make-up of food is changing. Some people strongly recommend eating organic food. However, it is hard to say what one will be eating during next fifty years and whether organic food will continue to be a trend. The question is open for further research.