The food industry is as essential as it is chaotic. Servers and line cooks contend with demanding customers, hectic schedules, and severe job insecurity. The meat industry is becoming increasingly harmful to the planet due to carbon and methane emissions as a result of beef and other products. It is simply not sustainable. Now more than ever, we need more people entering the feed industry to find ways to improve it. There are many opportunities for you to find work in this field and make a difference.

Restaurants and delivery services are fully dependent on servers and deliverers to get their product to customers. By working in one of these roles, or in another capacity such as a manager, you can help lead the way to better working conditions and treatment of these employees. When you see this work in action and are directly involved, you gain greater empathy for these workers that will translate into how you interact with them in your day-to-day life. You will be more likely to vote for politicians and measures that protect them, like wage increases, unionization, and better benefits. These small but significant changes can help transform companies to have improved principles and practices.

Western society still relies greatly on unhealthy processed foods and a harmful, unethical meat industry. Becoming a chef or farmer will give you greater control over the ingredients and meals that go on people’s plates. As a chef, you can prepare more vegetarian or vegan meals that will have a smaller carbon footprint and do not result in devastating treatment of livestock and other animals. As a farmer, you can prepare healthier fruits, vegetables, and crops without the use of chemicals. Your work as a chef can take you to various restaurants or down the entrepreneurial route, whereas farmers can operate in rural and urban areas.

A complex industry such as this one will require major change to come from high places. Food scientists study nutritional and chemical properties to help ensure safety. Food lawyers battle major corporations and factory farming on a grander scale in order to take on the greed and corruption that is found throughout corporate culture. Lobbyists and activists take this fight to the political realm in order to try and get those in positions of power to make legislative and cultural changes. These are not easy conflicts. But they are necessary ones to ensure an improved food industry in the years to come.

What we eat and how it is prepared are just as important as the basic need for humans to eat. As technology evolves and we gain greater awareness of the challenges we face, we need more and more people taking active roles in the food industry. Each role is critical in its own unique way in helping to ensure a better work environment for servers, healthier food for consumers, and a sustainable world for generations to come. Take a look into the many different options you have to make a difference in this vast industry.

Sources

Doyle, Alison. “10 Cool Jobs in the Food Industry.” The Balance Careers. https://www.thebalancecareers.com/cool-jobs-food-industry-2064051

Knutson, Ariel. “15 Reasons Why Everyone Should Work in a Restaurant at Least Once in Their Lives.” Kitchn. https://www.thekitchn.com/this-is-why-everyone-should-have-to-work-in-a-restaurant-at-least-once-in-their-lives-life-in-the-kitchen-217897