In lesson seven’s contemplative practice, “Climate Complexity”, the idea of triple inequality stuck with me. This is the idea that those who are least responsible for climate change are the ones hit the hardest by its effects, and then of course these people have the hardest time rebuilding afterwards. This gives a lot of insight to the privilege we have… Read more »
The topic of my research paper is how the food industry contributes to climate change. Through writing my paper and doing various research, I’ve challenged my own preconceived notions and gained a better understanding of the concept. Before writing this research paper, the only information I had to go off of regarding this topic were different environmental documentaries I’ve watched,… 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 »
In Peter Menzel’s photographic essay, “Hungry Planet”, the greatest difference in dietary habits was seen between the United States of America, and Chad. These countries differ drastically in their wealth, development, and resources, which is seen through this photographic essay. In the photos from the families living in the United States we see tables overflowing with food, so much so… Read more »
Each contemplative practice in this course so far has been the part of the lesson that I look forward to the most. It’s a way for me to digest the information from the week, and put it into perspective in regards to my own thoughts and feelings. While each contemplative practice has forced me to think critically about each issue,… Read more »
Through watching the first couple videos about the complexities of systems and systems theory, I found myself asking, how can I make the connection from systems to food? Understanding that systems are made up of interworking parts, input and output energy, and have complex reactions with the environment was easy for me to process. But what I found difficult to… Read more »
What really stuck out to me the most in the lectures, was just how big of an impact industrial development and politics have on the distribution of food. Breaking things down and reading through the brief history of the food system really put it into perspective for me, and made me appreciate just how far the world has come in… Read more »