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Challenges of a sustainable future
Sustainability for future generations
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“Sustainable Development: At its heart, sustainable development is the simple idea of ensuring a good quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. It is about living within the carrying capacity of the environment so that how we live, work and enjoy leisure activities, which do not harm or put undue pressures on the environment. It is about ensuring everyone has the opportunity to have a decent education, a quality environment that they take pride in, good health and a decent job (n.p, 2014)”
Our lifestyles and eating habits have had an adverse effect on the environment. The troubles societies face today are brought on by our own personal choices in the way we live. The ability to create an action plan that would provide enough “sustainability food for the Future” give off a very powerful message; that we must change the way we perceive the world around us. To start viewing the earth as an “island” that the natural resources the earth provides are slowly deteriorating right before our eyes. The population growth has exceeded the earth capacity to sustain the growing demand for food. There have been warnings that seemed like “whispers” but now the earth, our island is speaking “loudly” and now is showing the damage of what our carelessness behavior has caused.
The Political of Sustainable Consumption and production (PSC) have become more involved in the growing issues surrounding food consumption and production; “because of its impact on the environment, individual and public health, social cohesion, and the economy (Reisch L., 2014)
Some of the serious environmental tribulations related to food production and consumption consist of “climate change, water pollution, water scarcity, soil degradation, eutrophic...
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...s that seemed like “whispers” but now the earth, our island is speaking “loudly” and now is showing the damage of what our carelessness behavior has caused.
Works Cited
APHA. (2014, February 28). American Public Health Association:Toward a Healthy, Sustainable Food System. Retrieved from APHA: http://www.apha.org/advocacy/policy/policysearch/default.htm?id=1361
n.p. (2014, February 28). "Quotes Corner". Retrieved from http://www.philharding.net/quotes-corner/quotes-coner-1sd.htm#future
Reisch, L., Eberle U., & Lorek, S. (2013). Sustainable food consumption: an overview of
Contemporary issues and policies. Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy 9(2):7-25.
http://www.google.com/archives/vol9iss2/1207-033.reisch.html
Withgott, J., & Laposata, M. (2014). Environment: the science behind the stories (5th Ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
In “Called Home”, the first chapter of the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year in Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver presents her concerns about America's lack of food knowledge, sustainable practices, and food culture. Kingsolver introduces her argument for the benefits of adopting a local food culture by using statistics, witty anecdotal evidence, and logic to appeal to a wide casual reading audience. Her friendly tone and trenchant criticism of America's current food practices combine to deliver a convincing argument that a food culture would improve conditions concerning health and sustainability. I agree with Kingsolver that knowing the origin of food is an important and healthy benefit of developing a true food culture, but it is impractical to maintain that everyone is able to buy more expensive food. Kingsolver presents a compelling argument for developing a food culture, however this lifestyle change may not be practical or even possible for a poverty-level citizen. The following essay will summarize and respond to Kingsolver’s argument to demonstrate how “Called Home” is a model for novice social scientists.
In order to bring about change in this misuse of food, Americans need to be conscious of the problem and their practices, the environmental effects, and ways they can reduce waste. In the first place, Americans need to be conscious of the problem and their practices. In her article, Eliana Dockterman states that the National Resources Defense Council has estimated that 40% of the food
Humans are damaging the planet to live comfortably, we must change the way food is distributed worldwide, support local farmers and switch to a healthier diet in order to stop global warming. The current global has been getting better for us humans over the years, from eating bread and eggs 3 times a day in the XV century, now we can eat better than the kings of those times, however the much of the food in not healthy and the global food system still fails in getting food to every individual in the planet and in addition it contributes to the destruction of our world. Ms. Anna Lappe explains how the food system contributes to around 1/3 of the global warming issue in her essay “The Climate Crisis at the End of Our Fork”, while a group of Plos one explains the issues about the export and import of food growth over the last 50 years in the
The book The No-Nonsense Guide to World Food, by Wayne Roberts introduces us to the concept of “food system”, which has been neglected by many people in today’s fast-changing and fast-developing global food scene. Roberts points out that rather than food system, more people tend to recognize food as a problem or an opportunity. And he believes that instead of considering food as a “problem”, we should think first and foremost about food as an “opportunity”.
The 2009 movie Food Inc. describes the major role that food production plays within many lives. This movie revealed that there is a very small variety of companies that consumers purchase their food from. These few companies actually control what is out on the shelves and what we put into our bodies. These companies have changed food production into a food production business. Many of these companies experiment with ways to create large quantities of food at low production costs to result in an enormous amount of profit for themselves. Some of the production cost cuts also result in less healthy food for the population. Instead of worrying about the health of the population, the companies are worried about what will make them the most money.
Shifting back to a more locally sourced food economy is often touted as a fairly straightforward way to cut externalities, restore some measure of equity between producers and consumers, and put the food economy on a more sustainable footing.” (source E). The long-distance transportation of food uses a profligate amount of fuel and exploits cheap labor in the process. It can greatly assist the environment to buy from local sources by making the carbon footprint of food production lesser and saving natural resources such as oil.
As Dennis Weaver once said, “We don’t have to sacrifice a strong economy for a healthy environment.” One of the biggest problems of modern society is its ignorance for the crumbling environment. Everyday people all around the world pollute the environment whether it’s with cars or overuse of electricity. The popular novel, The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss talks about the environmental problems society faces today. The Lorax warns of the effects cutting down trees can have on an environment; coincidentally, Easter Island’s history warns society of the same matter. The Lorax and Easter Island’s story have many similarities and differences, but both show environmental issues society has been facing for centuries. Although scientists cannot agree on the
When in the course of human meal times, it becomes integral for people to live healthy lives, and in order to do so, they must devour nutritious sustenance. However, the growth of chain and commercialized “food” has halted the mass consumption of natural leafy-greens, therefore creating this declaration becomes necessary to represent and salvage a once healthy nation.
Meadows, H, Donella.. "Our food, our future." Organic Gardening. 01 Sep. 2000: 53. eLibrary. Web. 25 Feb. 2014.
"U.S. Food System Facts Sheet." Center for Sustainable Systems . The University of Michigan , 2010. Web. 29 Nov. 2011. .
Food production has many challenges to address: CO2 emissions, which are projected to increase by two-thirds in the next 20 years, as the global food production increases so does the number of people going hungry, with the number of urban hungry soaring. The environmental issues are not the only ones to face; politics and economic globalization take also the big part in the food world. These days agriculture and food politics has been going through many changes but mostly under the influence of its consumers; back in the days people wanted as little as safety, variety and low costs of food. Now consumers demanding way more – greater freshness, nutritional value, less synthetic chemicals, smaller carbon footprint and less harm to animals. And that’s the time when urban agriculture emerged quite rapidly delivering locally grown and healthy food. Within the political arena, there are a few still in charge of defending the conventional food industries and commercial farms to retain the upper level. Against the hopes of nutrition activists, farm animal welfare defenders, and organic food promoters, the food and agriculture sector is moving towards greater consolidation and better sustainability. Although in social and local terms, food-growing activists know their role is under attack. Caught two words in the middle, is it possible to satisfy both?
In order for us to maintain our lives, we need to consume food to supply nutrient-needs for our bodies. As the global population increased, the demand for food also increased. Increased population led to mass production of foods. However, even with this mass production, in under-developed countries, people are still undernourished. On other hand, in developed and developing countries, people are overfed and suffering from obesity. In addition, the current methods of industrial farming destroy the environment. These problems raised a question to our global food system. Will it be able to sustain our increasing global population and the earth? With this question in my mind, I decided to investigate the sustainability of our current global food system.
Synthesis: The readings this week focus on the faults of our current food system and aim to suggest how people can improve this system through different methods of social action. Each article suggests a slightly different method for change, though a couple common themes are the need for political action and a divergence away from the cheap food system in transforming food systems. Isenhour (2011) calls for polycentric approaches and strongly advocates for policy change instead of consumer choice. Schlosser (2012) also suggests policy changes as a solution to fight the large agribusiness firms, though his policies are more focused on changing the meatpacking industry than the whole food system. Clapp (2012) argues that we have to be aware of
Fast food can be just as addictive as drugs and alcohol. Fast food is mass-produced; and provides a convenient food source, but what about nutrients? Many more would agree that the health benefits of a vegetarian diet might substantially reduce health risks. When considering other food related health options, “The Slow Food Movement” encompasses several different aspects regarding the fast food industry and sustainability of food production that applies a cohort mentality. This group of food advocates agrees that, “the Slow Food Movement rejects the notion of compromising nourishment for economic and health related outcomes.” (McCarthy 206) The groups form cohorts of growers, farmers, consumers, and educators to discuss viable options for food production, for sale and for consumption on an international level. McWilliams suggests another way to influence ethical eating: “Unitarian Universalists developed a system of ethically sound practices for production and consumption,” (405) Ethical eating involves the greenhouse effect and leaves behind an ecological footprint. An insightful look at marketing, production, and economy are all related to the ethical standards of eating, which impacts human beings from a global
Withgott, J., & Brennan, S. (2011). Environment: the science behind the stories (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pearson Benjamin Cummings.