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 »
We all know and maybe even use some dirty words.Typically these expletives are used in reaction to pain or frustration, to emphasize a point. Then there is the crowd for which dirty words are such a natural part of the way they speak, they’re hardly aware the words have come out of their mouths. Odd as it may sound,t is… 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 »
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 »
Whenever I heard of someone going vegan, I always thought their reasoning was to combat animal cruelty or to simply be healthier. Naively, I never considered the environmental and ecological impact going vegan could have. While going vegan certainly is a way to ethically respond to the horrendous treatment of livestock and other farm animals used for food, there are… Read more »
One thing has become clear throughout our studies in this course, the status quo is not sustainable. If we as a global society continue on the path we are on, it will only lead to greater hardship in the future. Populations are rising and consumption is increasing throughout the world. At the same time necessary resources are being depleted and… 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 »
The earth is a living system with incredible power to self-correct. Through our collective extraction and consumption of oil, we are accelerating the demise of our culture, at the cost to our survival. The warming of the planet caused by greenhouse gasses are enough that we are beginning to witness the effects now. The earth is responding to the altered… Read more »
As a global issue with complex causality, hunger is a challenge that shapes our collective experience. From hunger we see a ripple of social, political, economic, and environmental implications for the world and our place in it. Systemic global hunger is indicative of broken systems, human and ecological – inequality, political instability, the social cost of international trade, climate change,… 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 »