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 »
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 »
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 »
My research paper focused on finding a solution in mitigating the dependency on meat production in the global food production. The problem with animal agriculture is that it uses an enormous amount of our natural resources and creates a high level of greenhouse-gas emissions. Meat production uses a vast amount of water, crops and land. The animals being raised for food create a large amount of… Read more »
The political ecology of today’s world food system is continuously being shaped by countless influential factors. The world food system is in an utter state of imbalance in terms of waste and environmental degradation. The foundation from which these issues arise can be traced back to governmental and social dimensions and or decisions that took place in the recent past…. Read more »
Image from UNICEF Bangladesh, https://www.unicef.org/bangladesh/education.html Woman’s access to education has been proven to drop birth rates “the difference between a woman with no years of schooling and with 12 years of schooling is almost four to five children per woman.” (Winthrop, 2016) This drop has a stabilizing effect by slowing the indefinite amount of people reliant on a limited food system. By looking… Read more »
I’ve gained many valuable insights in the process of researching the problem of food loss/waste and its possible solutions. First, I think the distinction between loss and waste needs to be understood to foster effective solutions. Waste is predominately what happens in wealthy countries while loss results from poor knowledge, practices and infrastructure. I learned the astonishing fact that some… Read more »
I struggle with anxiety and have even had panic attacks before. For me, feeling hungry often induces feelings of anxiety- I start to feel weak and faint, and I worry that I will pass out. I also annoyingly have a fast metabolism in which I get hungry quite often but can only eat rather small amounts of food at a… Read more »
“North Cascades.” Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail, USDA Forest Service. Looking back on the lesson 7 contemplative practice on climate complexity I was at first kind of glad to be living in the Pacific NorthWest. As we saw in one of the slides the pacific north west will have increased agriculture production because of climate change. However, I quickly realized… Read more »
Land and water are fundamental concepts that are deeply rooted in the understanding of the political ecology of the world food system. Essentially every industry is in some way or another based on land. Politically speaking land is the most desirable asset because of the minerals and potential opportunity to generate desirable goods and services. Coupled with humanity’s need for… Read more »