10 Cause and Effect Essay Topics on the Food Movement: Its Rise and Fall

When it comes to writing a comprehensive cause and effect essay on the rise and fall of the food movement, you have to back it up with solid facts that are supported by good references.

In this first guide, you’ll be provided with 10 facts on the rise and fall of the food movement so that it becomes easier for you to write a really good essay on the subject.

Our second guide, 20 topics on the rise and fall of the food movement for a cause and effect essay, provides you with 20 topics to choose from, along with a sample essay to get you moving in the right direction. And finally, the third guide, 3 patterns to organize your cause and effect essay on the food movement, explains how to outline your essay to make it flow smoothly.

Without further ado, here are top 10 facts on the rise and fall of the food movement:

When McDonald’s opened its fast food chain in 1986 near Piazza de Spagna in Rome, Carlo Petrini protested against the globalization of fast food, believing that food should be clean and natural, it should taste good and please the senses. He also pointed out that food producers should have a fair compensation for their hard work.
This led to the inception of his organization Arcigola, now known as Slow Food. The main goal was to make people aware of good, clean and healthy food while avoiding foods that are “fast” or highly processed.
By law, U.S. farmers who label their products as organic are required to feed their animals with pure organic food which should be free of any chemicals. Farmers are also required to avoid using any kind of antibiotics or synthetic growth hormones in feeding their animals. The farmers are also encouraged to keep their animals in a clean, safe and cage-free environment.
Did you know since 1900, the diversity of food produced by Europe has decreased by up to 75% and America has lost over 90% of its food product diversity in the same period?
It should also be noted that nearly 30,000 kinds of vegetable species have gone extinct since the last century and more continue to go extinct every six hours. This is why communities like Slow Food Movement are trying to negate the food production diversity.
Food grown locally and naturally is fresher and more nutritious compared to that brought in from long-distance commutes. Non-processed food reduces the risks of chronic digestive diseases and prevents common illnesses like obesity and high blood pressure. Naturally occurring, locally grown food allows us to make better food choices as there’s more nutritional value to be had.Generally speaking, food that’s grown locally naturally is always better in terms of health and nutritional value because you know how it’s grown and where it is coming from.
Carlo Petrini isn’t the only major contributor to the Slow Food Movement; Alice Waters has made extensive contributions to the community; in fact, she is a noted chef who has applied the Slow Food philosophy in her own restaurant in California. She has written several books on the Slow Food Movement, actively promoting it and also formed Edible Schoolyard, where schoolchildren can learn how to grow food naturally and appreciate its importance as well as nutritional value.
Did you know buying food directly from farmers helps them retain a greater portion of their retail costs? These costs are typically taken over by “middlemen” firms, which results in even higher profits for the big fast food corporations.
Buying locally grown produced directly by farmers helps them preserve and better sustain their rural communities as well. In addition, you are getting fresh, nutritious and healthy food at lower costs compared to those sold by fast food companies.
In May 2011, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) introduced its new online Food Desert Locator. Tom Vilsack in an official press release explained that this new tool would help professionals recognize those communities where healthy food is very limited and expensive and private-public interventions would be able to provide fresh, affordable and healthy food to these communities.
According to a calculation made by a Swedish researcher in 1993, the ingredients that he had found in the Scandinavian table: bread, butter, coffee, cheese, apple, orange juice, cream and sugar; traveled a distance of 24,900 miles, which is equivalent to the circumference of our planet. This is the reason you’ll often hear people talking about “food miles” in the US, UK and Western Europe, where the food movement is a common topic of discussion.
In 2014, the International Food Information Council conducted a survey in which subjects were asked what they prefer to see on product labels? Out of 8% of people who responded to the survey, half said they wanted biotechnology specs mentioned on labels while the other half of them wanted to see some processing information or a source of the product. This clearly indicates there isn’t adequate knowledge available to the open public about the food movement and its benefits to people. In simple words, the food movement is not as large as it is considered by many people.
The Ketchum study conducted in 2015 indicated that consumers are becoming more aware of what’s nutritionally best for them and what isn’t. However, organic products only account for 5 percent of the total food market. This is justified by the hard data (what people actually buy), which clearly shows that old habits die hard and it may take some time to really “build a taste for it” and appreciate organic products rather than processed foods.

There you go! These top 10 facts will surely help you to write an amazing essay on the rise and fall of the food movement. Next up, you’ll be supported with the second part of the guide where you’ll find 20 different topics to write a cause and effect essay on the subject. It will also include a sample essay to help you get along. Finally, we’ll introduce you to our third guide 3 patterns to write a stellar cause and effect essay.

References:

Thrupp, L.A. 1997. Linking biodiversity and agriculture: Challenges and opportunities for sustainable food security. World Resources Institute, USA.
Martinez, S., et al. 2010. Local food systems: Concepts,
impacts, and issues. United States Department of Agriculture:
Economic Research Report, No. 97.
Gale, F. 1997. Direct Farm Marketing as a Rural Development
Tool. Rural Development Perspective, 12. pp. 19-25.
Organic Trade Association, Web Accessed March 2015. “How are animals raised organically?”.
Roberts, Alison, July 2009. “Carol Petrini: The slow food tsar.” The Independent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/carlo-petrini-the-slow-food-tsar-427783.html
The WorldWatch Institute, 2011. State of the World, “Innovations that Nourish the Planet”.
Broad, G. (2016). Food Systems, “Food Movements, Food Justice. In More Than Just Food: Food Justice and Community Change” (pp. 33-59) University of California Press.