Food is life. Nonetheless, 25% of global food production is traded internationally like any other commodity. This huge movement of food comes with consequences. Trade liberalization can disrupt the economy of a developing country in many ways, but especially by disadvantaging domestic farming by importing cheap food from more developed nations where agriculture is more industrialized. Consider peasant farmers… Read more »
What I found interesting this week was the evolution of food systems, from it’s beginning to it’s present forms. The lifestyles of humans have evolved dramatically. In a hunter gatherer society, food was consumed as it was available, and groups would migrate to find more food resources once theirs become scarce. However, as these evolved into settlements and communities, humans began to deplete… Read more »
Each component of the global food system depends on a healthy planet. What is a healthy planet? It is not just the absence of air pollution, global warming, landfills, deforestation, oil spills, etc. A healthy planet, and therefore a healthy global food ecology (socially, politically, environmentally) also boils down to healthy dirt, nutrient-rich soil and water, microbial symbiosis… all sorts… Read more »
(large scale industrial livestock farm) The environmental impact of industrial livestock raising is huge. It is the second largest contributor to greenhouse gases behind energy production. Without changes in how we produce meat, the amount of greenhouse gas emitted through industrial livestock raising will only increase. The population is rising and becoming more affluent. More affluent populations tend to eat… Read more »
Agriculture is generally recognized as the precursor to the world’s first civilizations. The development of irrigation and other farming methods boosted food production and allowed for population expansion and permanent human settlements. Irrigated land expanded at a steady pace until the last century with the advent of modern farming techniques. Modern farming tripled acreage of irrigated land between 1950 and… Read more »
The complexity of the different systems that are involved in climate change is daunting to think about. Billions of people that live downstream from glaciers that are disappearing are the most threatened by global warming and changes to the climate. The triple-inequality of the people who will be hardest hit by climate change is compounded by the inability of people… Read more »
The American food system has been restructured by trade liberalization, which threatens our food culture and our health. If we are to wait for the market forces to respond to customer purchase power, I fear we will miss our opportunity to change national diets for another generation. The best form of health care is preventative action, and that is what… Read more »
With the effects of climate change becoming a reality, food security has become a growing global concern. And though each country will look for ways to combat the threat to their national security, one movement stands out from the rest. Buried deep in the permafrost mountains on the remote Norwegian island of Svalbard that rests halfway between Norway and the… Read more »
One of the most promising possible solutions to an increasingly at-risk world food system is the concept of urban farming. Already a popular initiative and social movement in many cities, urban farming brings people closer to their food and vice versa. We already have heard compelling arguments from Authors like Pollan, and seen undeniable evidence via ethnographic studies of non-Western… Read more »
“Aquaculture is a rapidly growing, highly valued and extremely important sector of the seafood industry. It is predicted that by 2030 it will account for more than 60% of global seafood production” (Dowle et al.). There are two basic forms of aquaculture, extensive systems and intensive systems. Extensive systems are powered by the sun, have a relatively low environmental… Read more »