Check out Tristram Stuart’s TED talk on the global food waste scandal. I felt that it really accentuated a large bounty of the political ecology of the world food system. It also touched upon Peter Quinn’s work in his article Hunger Games: Who Gets to Eat & Who Decides. Essentially, as Stuart described the modern-day realities of the world… Read more »
The Western diet is an extension of our capitalist culture. We are told what to drive, where to live, what to buy, who to vote for and what/how much to eat. We have allowed the Western diet to take root because of our desire for cheap, fast, processed foods that are easy to ingest. Over-consumption is not just encouraged, it is… Read more »
The Anthropocene, encompassing our impact on the world’s ecosystem and climate through human action, stands out to me in a very polarizing way, in that we have clearly monumentally altered the course of earth, and yet there is this vulnerability to the entire process that is screaming for attention. For one thing, as Michael Carolan discusses in The Real Cost… Read more »
The growth of the human population has always been centered on a civilization’s ability to cultivate crops. Regardless of the Malthusian or the Cornucopian perspective, the trend between the agricultural revolution and the growth of the human population directly parallels technological growth. In terms of sustainable systems most of the world is still in developmental stages today, giving us high… Read more »
Stantis, Scott. “Of Course There’s Pork.” Birmingham News. Alabama: Birmingham , 2001. Print. Because I consider myself politically-inclined, I suppose what stands out to me most from this week’s lesson is the immense scale and scope of corporate agribusiness’ power in our society. For all of the benefits it has brought, and there seem to be many, to be sure,… Read more »
In analyzing this week’s materials what stands out the most for me is the concept and practice of reductionist science in nutritionism. While I recognize in myself a belief and/or trust in science and it’s processes, I am concerned about the limited nature of reductionist science, or the breaking down into components a whole system whose purpose is not completely… Read more »
Food is a requirement for survival, we all need it, and so we eat it. There are those who are very health conscious, and those who simply eat what they can afford. At 27 years old, working two jobs and trying to complete my degree, I buy what I can afford. Sometimes, this means how much money I can spend and… Read more »
“Apparently it’s easier, or at least a lot more profitable, to change a disease of a civilization into a lifestyle than it is to change the way that civilization eats.” Michael Pollan – In Defense Of Food More than anything else the connections between bad food, declining health and corporate profits stands out from our survey of the industrialization of… Read more »