Today food travels thousands of miles from the farm to the consumers. Why is this? Is it a positive or negative trend?

It is not uncommon these days to have access to a food item that has originated in another continent.

This

is primarily because of the inability of the consuming country to produce it independently.

This

essay will argue why

this

is a negative development as its

availability

becomes a concern in case of any emergency.

Moreover

, when it is not home-grown, the consumer is forced to pay extra for it because of the

cost

involved in its transportation.

To begin

with, a number of countries are not agrarian economies and

hence

, have to import crops. When confronted with unforeseen circumstances, the disruption in the supply chain affects the

availability

of dishes that are prepared from them. To illustrate, during the corona pandemic, the Indian diaspora in Singapore was deprived of Indian cuisine.

This

was attributed mainly to the inability of the country to import crops from India as cargo carriers had come to a halt due to the imposition of lockdown.

Therefore

, the

availability

of a staple meal becomes a major concern in case of an emergency when it has to be bought from another nation. In the same vein, the end-user, consuming a popular cuisine

that is

not local, must pay extra to incur its travel

cost

. The

cost

of logistics gets added to its selling price when an item is brought over from a foreign land.

For instance

, Singapore incurs taxes when it brings in crops like rice and wheat from India.

This

expense is eventually borne by the customers.

Therefore

, catering to a particular diaspora with a certain dish can

cost

a fortune for a nation

that is

not a producer of the raw materials required for its production. To conclude, certain local dishes have a huge global appeal and are consumed outside of their shores.

This

can be attributed to the inability of the consuming country to produce them independently.

This

is a worrying trend as their

availability

can become a concern when confronted with an unprecedented situation.

Furthermore

, the end-user has to pay extra in order to recover the

cost

of its transportation.