GT Writing Task 2 / Essay Sample # 159
You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Write about the following topic:
Today much of the food people eat gets transported from farms that are thousands of miles away. Some people believe that it would be much better for the environment and the economy if people only consumed food produced by local farmers.
Would the advantages of this outweigh the disadvantages?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.
Model Answer: [View – advantages would outweigh the disadvantages]
Nowadays, an increasing amount of food products from across the world is found on supermarket shelves. Many people contend that this imported food has an adverse effect on the environment and economy, and therefore urging people to eat only locally grown food is far better. In my opinion, the benefits of consuming local food surpass its drawbacks.
There are a few downsides of eating exclusively locally grown food. One major disadvantage is that we will be deprived of a unique taste and some nutritional values of food. Consumers, thus, will not be able to indulge their taste buds and get rare food values if an embargo on food import is imposed. On top of that, it will also lead to an increase in expenditure. To illustrate, in many developing countries labour is ridiculously cheap and the production cost of fruits and vegetables is low as well. In India, for instance, employees earn 2 to 3 dollar a day working in vegetable and fruit fields, which is far less than around $110 per day earned by workers doing similar jobs in the U.S. So, an American family’s average expenditure on food will go up if they are to consume local food only.
Exercising the option to buy locally grown food, on the other hand, has many advantages. For a start, an obvious benefit is that local food is more nutritious than its counterparts. For example, while locally grown fruit is consumed immediately after harvest, imported fruit is grown in distant regions and then shipped across the globe, causing nutrients to deteriorate. Another decisive advantage of eating local food is that it supports the local economy. That is to say that the money spent on local food remains in the home country and is ploughed back with services and business in our community. Apart from that, purchasing locally grown food is eco-friendly. In other words, its food-miles are shorter than imported food, and thereby consumes less fuel and other resources.
To conclude, it seems reasonable to assume that drawbacks of consuming only locally grown food are eclipsed by its benefits. So it is expected that countries will emphasise on growing food locally and rely less on importing food.