El alimento como base de la salud individual y ambiental: reflexiones para la formación de consumidores conscientes basadas en una experiencia local con el plátano agroecológico

This article aims to outline some considerations that might help as idea-generation for proposals in order to provide information to consumers so that they can make responsible decisions regarding on their diets. Buying food is a simple act that can either supports an industrial, intensive, toxic, unsustainable and no-environmentally friendly production system (i.e., generator of climate change); or instead, conversely, a sustainable, non-toxic, and low-impact production system. The main proposal is to develop another type of food labeling to expand in a simplified way the traditional information provided. The label would allow the consumer to know the main characteristics of the prepackaged food, in terms of individual health and environmental impact. Consequently, first of all, a reflection about the formulation of a label that goes beyond the nutritional aspect of the food, adds information on the environmental footprint of how the product is made. The desirable result would be to move towards encoding the message so that it can be understood by the largest number of consumers. Secondly, the article describes a Venezuelan local experience of commercialization of an unpacked food, the FHIA 20 plantain, harvested under an agro-ecological production system. In this experience, consumers were made aware of the origin and characteristics of the production system of the bananas they consumed. Thus, consumers were able to learn about and value the environmental and human health benefits of the food they were purchasing.