Seeds, water supply, and agriculture are all crucial parts of the global food system. As we learned in the last couple weeks, seeds go through a very detailed and intricate process to grow from a seed in the earth to a full plant, vegetable, fruit, etc. Abundant amounts of water are required to keep plants healthy and adequately nourished while… Read more »
I’m beginning to understand more about how land, especially through the practice of “land grabbing”, can be seen from a politically ecological perspective rather than a mere biophysical phenomenon. Asia has an incredibly low arable land per person ratio, the lowest of the major regions. With declining arable land and water resources, it’s no wonder China has been investing towards… Read more »
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 »
In the world that we live in, many science books state that 71 percent of the world is covered with water. The problem here is why is there scarcity? The reality of our water content in the world is that only a small portion of it can be readily accessed by people, and this is the problem that we must… Read more »
Although we learn about the issues of food, energy, and the climate in different lessons, it’s clear they are all connected. The purpose of our study is to understand the political ecology of the global food systems and try to answer the seemingly simple question, how can we feed everyone? This is a problem that humans have struggled with since… Read more »
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 »
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 »