Task
“In many countries nowadays, consumers can go to a supermarket and buy food produced all over the world. Do you think this is a positive or negative development?” (Cambridge IELTS Academic Book 19)
Plan
- BP1: Access to food from overseas -> healthier / more diverse diet
- eg fruit + veg: avocado, broccoli
- BP2: Food security: food imports – less reliant domestic food production.
- eg floods / droughts in own country -> poor harvests
- BP3: Only downside: environmental impact shipping
- CO2 emissions
Watch me plan and write this essay. You can read the full essay below.
Essay
In recent decades, it has become increasingly easy to buy food grown overseas in local supermarkets. Overall, I think that this has been a positive change.
Being able to buy food produced in other countries means that people can enjoy a more varied diet, and this can have significant health benefits. For example, fruits and vegetables like avocadoes and broccoli, which are known to help people become more resistant to disease and cancer, can only be grown in warm climates, so consumers in cooler ones would not be able to eat them without food imports.
Secondly, the trend towards consuming food grown overseas means that countries will be less reliant on domestic food production to feed their population, thus providing them with greater food security. If a country suffers from a poor harvest, perhaps caused by floods or drought, then it may not be able to produce sufficient food on its own to supply the domestic market. Imports of food from overseas can help counteract this risk.
However, this development is not all positive. Shipping all this food via long-distance routes has a negative environmental impact due to the CO2 emitted by shipping. Nevertheless, new technologies, such as cleaner fuels, can help limit these harmful emissions.
In conclusion, although there are some negative environmental effects to this development, I do feel that overall, the positives far outweigh any downsides since the benefits of improved diet and domestic food security are quite significant.
