Any significant drop or raise in population would dramatically change the state of the economy, and ultimately, the function of the market. If something simple, such as wheat, were to suddenly become scarce, the impact would be dramatic. Since wheat is used in such a great many other products, those products relying on wheat would also become scarce and would… Read more »
While researching the United States food waste system, I came across the United Nations list of countries that record how their food is processed, distributed, and where the waste goes. Many countries trash roughly 30-40% of the food that is produced or purchased. This immense cost of waste is probably the largest inefficiency in the global food system. We have… 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 »
Political Ecology has different levels of definitions depending on the scope of a given perspective. One concept that I find interesting is how we separate the word nature from environment. Essentially nature has a larger scope than that of what is implied by the word environment. Regardless of what word and what scope we have in mind about our surroundings,… 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 »
Throughout the research process of writing my paper, I was overwhelmed with the amount of problems and lack of solutions that the people of Ecuador have in terms of water contamination. Ecuador has been involved in a resource curse, specifically around the mighty oil market. Their natural resources have been exploited by national corporations such as Chevron/Texaco since the 1980’s… Read more »
We are protected, but not by much. Surrounding the earth’s atmosphere is a thin blue layer that protects use from harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun and from the various threats from outer space. The health of our ozone is dependent upon our decisions that we make down on the surface of our planet. We have seen the responses from… Read more »
Few people want to take responsibility for their actions that cause negative consequences and even fewer would want to take responsibility for someone else’s. Hearing that the U.S. alone emits four times the amount of greenhouse gasses compared to other countries is not something new to me and I have recently tried to take responsibility to minimize my impact on… Read more »
Kimmey, Katelin. Seed of a Soul. 2013. Photograph. Flickr.com8.15.2017 Seeds are resilient, when talking about gardening my brother once said, ‘I always just plant seeds and somehow almost every seed comes up and it amazes me every time’. Every year when little plants start to push their way through the dirt I remember his words. However, a seed can do… Read more »