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 »
(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 »
In conducting research for my Food Solutions Essay, A Globalized Western Diet, and the Subtle Brilliance of Japan’s School Lunch Program, I found myself amazed by the uniqueness of the Japanese school lunch program and deeply inspired by its success in affecting diet-related health outcomes. I want to share a brief excerpt from my paper, which outlines the program in… 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 »
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 »
Bananas are found in every grocery store as cheap, affordable produce, but the fruit represents more than just something we eat and enjoy. It is symbolic of the many economic, social, environmental and political problems where the cheap price-per-pound label on the banana comes at the cost of the lives of workers in the banana industry in order to keep… 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 »