The Pros Of Conscientious Diets

Changes in our environment are causing people to shift production and consumption habits of many facets of everyday life. There is great study being put into more sustainable energy sources, a push towards recycling living materials (ex. plastic and aluminum cans being used to build new structures), and other similar movements. One area where changes are being made, but not always largely talked about is adopting an environmentally friendly diet. In 1945 a strange push towards an economically friendly diet, by G. Stigler in “The Cost of Subsistence”, made waves in agricultural and economic studies.” Now we see a push towards economic and environmental conscientious diets. Food scientists are examining questions of what common diet is best for a majority to adopt to aid the earth; however, there is also a struggle to understand if there is a common diet to best serve the population. Other notions to consider are, economic stress people may face to adopt an environmentally appropriate diet, and the ways to fit both needs. A third opinion to consider is the true need to adopt an environmentally

Food and environmental sciences contain many sources with opinions to aid in this exploration, and consumers should be looking towards these sources to gain better insight to our current environmental, economic, and nutritional crisis’. Before we can understand the current direction nutrition is working towards, we need background on the beginnings of diet shifting for societal gain. In 1945 when George Stigler was working, he strove to find an economical, but still nutrition rich diet, for the American population. His findings pointed to an average cost of about 40 dollars per year per individual (G.Dantzig 1990 “ Stigler finally settled on a model...a diet that cost only 39.93 per year (by 1939 prices)”). Other researches have reexamined, tested, and attempted to fit Stigler’s findings into the more contemporary scene ( G.Dantzig 1990,