Last week in class was intense and not just because of the time spent in lecture, reading, researching, writing, studying; but the material and the topics at hand provided significant strain for us. The reasons I think for this are the new found interpretations and the honest concerns we have for it all.
Oh, and not to mention the constant rain for about a week now, but that's beside the point.
The topic of our class was Food, Environment, and Sustainability. Our professor is one who is very well-versed and experienced in the connections of the environment and food, and he has many publications on the subject. His articles are very informational and truly impassioned. This rang true for his lectures as well, but there was this air of frustration for us in that we feel our global food system has so much reshaping to accomplish. The discontent for me came from just not knowing where to start, but also if what I start will really achieve the transformation I hope for.
Professor Sage truly pushed us to think through the environmental dimension of the food system as it is today. He pushed us to analyze the pros and cons of the rise of the global food system and to address the challenges our food system faces at various scales. We talked about the social-ecological-political-and environmental problems we are facing today. See why there was such unease? Over the weekend we were asked to do a project and paper with two others on what we see as the prospects/challenges in building a more sustainable food system.
I have now grasped our need for greater localization of production, and the crucial but obvious reshaping of consumption. I feel it is now our duty as grad students to take the vital role of communicating and promoting the shift to more sustainable diets. This is not only just for us, it is for the land and all that surrounds us. What I love is the unselfishness in it all--the fact that we need to join as a community of people and support each other while looking after all living beings: all the plants, animals, creatures, fauna, flora, fishes (you catch my drift?).
And remember that this ties directly in with nutrition, my first-found passion. If we shift back to local sourcing of our food we can cut down on the need for preservatives usually needed for "durable" produce after transport/sitting on the shelf. We will reconnect again with the idea of eating and health. If we start eating seasonally, we will benefit from the best of the best--both in taste and in nutrition. We will get to shake the hand of the farmer or producer we are buying from. Most importantly, however, we will put an end to the one billion people in the world who are experiencing hunger and malnutrition because of their lack of entitlements and financial power AND the over one and a half billion in the world who are overweight or obese and susceptible to a range of diet-related diseases.
It is not only our health and well-being that is suffering from our current system. We need to realize that what we pay for in food has these named hidden costs, which causes our ecological services to suffer, depletes our resources, impairs the earth system processes, and costs the health and well-being of humanity.
What we need is a change of attitude from demanding convenience and time to becoming empowered by what we put on our tables, knowing we are supporting all of life from start to finish. We need to ask ourselves and others if our global system is really effective in delivering sound nutrition while sustaining our natural resources and environmental services. If not, let's do something about it. What should we do?
1. Question our patterns of settlement, our lifestyles, our systems of production. Increase our knowledge on production, consumption, natural resources, and public policy.
2. Shift our efforts to building more localized and self-reliant production and distribution networks. It truly might be the only way we can reconnect food security with nutritional well-being and environment sustainability within the resource capabilities of the earth.
3. Form food policy councils to help government think about food more comprehensively.
4. Cut down on the use of packaging, thus less reliance on the petro-chemical industry.
5. Fight for equity--because our food system is currently failing the inner-city poor. This could start by encouraging convenience stores to carry fresh foods, bringing farmers markets to inner cities, or helping entrepreneurs sell fresh produce in these areas. It could go as far as lobbying for state funds to develop healthy food outlets in underserved neighborhoods.
6. Expose children to nutritious alternatives to their food choices, and teach them to garden! Become active in school lunch and other institutional reform efforts.
7. Consider more implementation of public transportation and encouraging exercise (biking) as a means for commuting, thus less use of fossil fuels for transportation.
8. Get back to the idea of using draft animals for production, thus cutting down on the need for diesel-powered machinery and use of synthetic fertilizers.
9. Find our priority values: What we are eating? Where does it come from? What does it do to the environment? Are we informed enough? How are the animals taken care of? Are the Regulations effective enough? All of the above?
10. Do as much as you can, start small: turn off the lights when you leave a room, walk instead of drive, grow your own herbs, go explore and learn from the land! Most of all, just start by talking about it!
This might sound all well and good, but we also need to be the devil's advocate sometimes and ask ourselves these questions as well:
1. Can America and other nations possibly produce enough food from smaller, environmentally sustainable resources to feed the world's growing population?
2. How can we possibly reduce environmental degradation and the cruelty imposed on billions of animals when we need to feed the hungry?
3. We need compromise between increasing food production while minimizing the negative impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem services and society, but what is the right development for farming in the food chain?
4. Isn't global sourcing enhancing the camaraderie in our world? The short answer: Yes, but it depends on their way of production and the possible hidden costs involved.
After all of this, I bet you are as confused and exhausted as I have been all week! However, we truly need to make this a priority, for it is our livelihood at stake. The first step: just talk, question, become informed.
"We cannot hope to create a fairer food system without some kind of rough blueprint that takes on these and other related questions." -Nancy F. Koehn, New York Times
ps, if you'd like any book recommendations, just ask! Ciao!
