How does industrial agriculture integrate with other cultural features of US culture?

Question

How does our reliance on the industrial food affect who we are? How does it affect the rest of the world?

Answer 1

Big question. Industrial food encourages the dissolution of the family meal, reliance on remote and mechanized systems of food production & distribution, corporate servitude of 3rd world farmers who must grow lucrative cash crops instead of diversified food for their families, environmental destruction through use of pesticides and farming practices that erode soil and deplete nutrients.

Bottom line: we will reach "peak soil" before we reach "peak oil". Food yields all over the world, especially the US, are going down each year due to these industrial practices. Soon shipping a tomato 3000 miles will be untenable, and growing 100,000 acres of corn won't be economically viable.

A good starting reading list:

Food Politics by Marion Nestle

Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

The Revolution Will Not be Microwaved by Sandor Katz

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

The problem with the statement is manifold, the worst being that there is no monolithic "US culture."