I always had the impression that the discussion surrounding food waste revolved around the household; the culprits discarding excess food were the consumers living at home. However, it was interesting to watch Tristram Stuart, in his TED Talk titled “The Global Food Waste Scandal, discuss how the food industry perpetuates the food waste issue behind the scenes. The graph that… Read more »
Phosphate mine in Utah | Source: https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/mineral-resource-month-phosphate-rock While most people might be familiar with nitrogen’s role in crop production, there is another essential nutrient our food system relies on that is in short supply: phosphorus. Phosphorus is vital to all life on the planet because it helps plants and other organisms transfer energy (Carolan). Like nitrogen, it is used in fertilizer… Read more »
While some may think of the poppy flower as a nice addition to a bouquet or just a pretty flower, it is not only that. The poppy is a flower, a crop, a drug, and a socio environmental factor that connects climate change and conflict in Afghanistan. The rise of opium and the associated epidemic is all too familiar in… Read more »
Water is the new oil…meaning that moving forward conflicts over resources will concern water. The finite amount of water, growing world population and continued climate change will force us to make some tough decisions in the near future. One of these tough decisions involves poppy farmers in Afghanistan. It is easy and not necessarily wrong to conclude that growing poppy… Read more »
With all the change the world has seen over the last century it baffles me that we have yet to put in place safe guards to help maintain the land in which we live. There is little hesitation when it comes to production and even less thought put into consumption. This becomes even more apparent when we look into the… Read more »
From what I’ve learned this week about soil, water, and land rights, the concept of land grabbing has stuck out the most to me. I’ve never heard of this term until this course, and I had no idea that this process was occurring. In the article from The Guardian titled “US Universities in Africa ‘land grab’” Vidal and Provost… Read more »
In past lessons, I have had a general idea of the concepts from previous knowledge, but was given a much deeper insight into the issues through this course. This week however, was completely new to me. I really had no idea that petroleum has such a major impact on the world food system, and that this plays a big part… Read more »
Fossil fuels are at the epicenter of the political ecology of the world food system. The direct correlation that fossil fuels have on various feedback loops are a fundamental concept to understand. The economical aspects of utilizing fossil fuels are enormous and were the reason for rapid growth coming into the 21st century. The results of such growth have led… Read more »
The enormous ecological footprint of large scale food production, particularly as a direct result of petroleum energy inputs stands out as the biggest deterrent to a sustainable food system. In order to generate the highest yields, factory farms are intrinsically dependent on oil, from the equipment required to cultivate and harvest, to the necessity for soil amendments that promote the… Read more »
(source: terrapass.com) The reality of fertilizer is that while it supports our food systems in the world, it can contribute even more to the pollution. The byproduct and the production itself of fertilizer contribute much to the carbon foot print of the world. The ecological condition that exists involves the climate impact of food and the overall function of the… Read more »