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The modern food system is caught between two forces pulling in opposite directions: consumers who want cheap and convenient food, and producers who want higher profits at lower cost. Wendell Berry saw this tension clearly in The Unsettling of America — and named it for what it is: an exploitation of both the land and the people eating from it.
When convenience becomes the dominant standard, food is designed for mass production and easy access. The complexity of nourishment — the relationship between soil health, crop diversity, and human wellbeing — gets stripped away. What remains is a product optimized for shelf life and price point, not for the people it feeds.
Berry's alternative standard is health: not just of the body, but of the land, the farm, the community, and the food system as a whole. Supporting local and sustainable farming is one of the most direct ways to restore that standard in your own life.
