In many countries, people like to eat a wider variety of food than can be grown in their local area. As a result, much of the food people eat today has to come from other regions. Do you think the advantages of this development outweigh...

These days, there is an increasing tendency among citizens to eat food from various areas all over the world, rather than their local produce. While I agree that this trend can be advantageous to individuals, I believe that the disadvantages are more profound.

On the one hand, eating food with a long shelve life from different countries can be attractive for some reasons. Obviously, in terms of individuals, due to the development of freight services, people in any country can enjoy the delight of trying a variety of flavors. For example, food are carried in the refrigerated containers, trucks, board ships to reach food retailers in perfect conditions. Therefore, citizens in some remote areas could have the chance to try special Japanese or Korean cuisine. On the level of societies, improving global food trade can boost the economy in some developing countries. A typical example would be African countries, which heavily rely on exporting food to European countries.

On the other hand, it seems to me that this trend does more harm than good because it faces the social and environmental arguments. First, in order to fight against the global warm, the need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuel need to be taken into consideration. However, when people only ate local food, little non-renewable energy will be expended to transporting, compared to the food miles, now necessary to bring rice from Thailand to India. Moreover, in some developing countries, corporations and authorities are more likely to focus on growing cash crops to export more produces, leading to the poverty and famine for a number of residents. Another negative consequence is that when exotic food is too favored by customers, local food would lose the battle in their own market. As a result, farmers would face many troubles such as not having enough resources to continue their work and make living.

In conclusion, I believe that the trend of eating exporting food could cause drawbacks than benefits.