“Sustainable Development: At its heart, sustainable development is the simple idea of ensuring a good quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. It is about living within the carrying capacity of the environment so that how we live, work and enjoy leisure activities, which do not harm or put undue pressures on the environment. It is about ensuring everyone has the opportunity to have a decent education, a quality environment that they take pride in, good health and a decent job (n.p, 2014)”
Our lifestyles and eating habits have had an adverse effect on the environment. The troubles societies face today are brought on by our own personal choices in the way we live. The ability to create an action plan that would provide enough “sustainability food for the Future” give off a very powerful message; that we must change the way we perceive the world around us. To start viewing the earth as an “island” that the natural resources the earth provides are slowly deteriorating right before our eyes. The population growth has exceeded the earth capacity to sustain the growing demand for food. There have been warnings that seemed like “whispers” but now the earth, our island is speaking “loudly” and now is showing the damage of what our carelessness behavior has caused.
The Political of Sustainable Consumption and production (PSC) have become more involved in the growing issues surrounding food consumption and production; “because of its impact on the environment, individual and public health, social cohesion, and the economy (Reisch L., 2014)
Some of the serious environmental tribulations related to food production and consumption consist of “climate change, water pollution, water scarcity, soil degradation, eutrophic...
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...s that seemed like “whispers” but now the earth, our island is speaking “loudly” and now is showing the damage of what our carelessness behavior has caused.
Works Cited
APHA. (2014, February 28). American Public Health Association:Toward a Healthy, Sustainable Food System. Retrieved from APHA: http://www.apha.org/advocacy/policy/policysearch/default.htm?id=1361
n.p. (2014, February 28). "Quotes Corner". Retrieved from http://www.philharding.net/quotes-corner/quotes-coner-1sd.htm#future
Reisch, L., Eberle U., & Lorek, S. (2013). Sustainable food consumption: an overview of
Contemporary issues and policies. Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy 9(2):7-25.
http://www.google.com/archives/vol9iss2/1207-033.reisch.html
Withgott, J., & Laposata, M. (2014). Environment: the science behind the stories (5th Ed.). New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.
Steindom, Joel. “My Food Manifesto, Part One: The Bad News.” Steidom.com. Ed. Joel Steindom, Heather Steindom. 2007. 24 July 2008. .
The necessity of food has created one of the most powerful diseases in the health of today’s nation. According to the resent documentary (Silverbush 2012) it shows how obesity and hunger are closely related to one another. Obesity today has over taken what we know of most of the United States population. This phenomenon of unhealthy eating starts in children even before they start going to school. A large amount of today’s population is found living in the middle to lower class, creating complications when trying to support family’s with insufficient funds. When it becomes comes time to buy healthy foods for their family it becomes overlooked due to the high prices of fruits and vegetables. Times of scarcity lead the average American to buy cheap, unhealthy, quick and easy food products due to government subsidies. With food being an essential aspect to living it makes eating a necessity one cannot live without. Americans with low budgets are forced to buy products that are mass-produced. The high demand for food has caused a process in which food production has become degrading to the environment, the animals, the quality product itself, and the consumers. Large livestock farms create large amounts of animal waste that in turn producing noxious air emissions, water pollution, and potentially spreads risk of infections to humans. Billions of tons of polluting pesticides and fertilizers have destroyed waterways, are responsible for causing cancer, food-born illnesses and obesity, and are one of the many causes of global warming (Kallen, 2006). Many Americans are forced to go against the functional aspect of sociology and conform to eating products that are in turn dangerous for them resulting in multiple health issues. Due to t...
As Dennis Weaver once said, “We don’t have to sacrifice a strong economy for a healthy environment.” One of the biggest problems of modern society is its ignorance for the crumbling environment. Everyday people all around the world pollute the environment whether it’s with cars or overuse of electricity. The popular novel, The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss talks about the environmental problems society faces today. The Lorax warns of the effects cutting down trees can have on an environment; coincidentally, Easter Island’s history warns society of the same matter. The Lorax and Easter Island’s story have many similarities and differences, but both show environmental issues society has been facing for centuries. Although scientists cannot agree on the
The article introduces the trends in western culture where they perceive eating sustainably is the greater option regarding obesity, climate change and world hunger issues, “sustainable” — in other words, organic, local, and slow. Appealing as that might sound, it is the wrong recipe for helping those who need it the most.” (Everything’s an Argument, “Attention Whole Food Shoppers” by Robert Paarlberg (p. 610)). Robert also
When in the course of human meal times, it becomes integral for people to live healthy lives, and in order to do so, they must devour nutritious sustenance. However, the growth of chain and commercialized “food” has halted the mass consumption of natural leafy-greens, therefore creating this declaration becomes necessary to represent and salvage a once healthy nation.
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“Environmental Studies” were the most interesting and abstract words I had ever seen preceding “High School”. For this reason and the fact that it was near Central Park, I decided to apply and then attend. Because of the central theme of my classes I have been exposed in the shape of special speakers and class discussions to others who share my fear but not my growing sense of hopelessness. Quite recently, it has become more and more important to me that I am a part of the solution for the problems facing the environment. It is fear that I feel when I allow myself to dwell on the ignored warnings and the very complicated mess of problems and impossibilities that plague this planet. I don’t understand why there is even the possibility that one of the last natural, pristine ecosystem, in North America, namely that of Alaska, is in danger of being ruptured by the ever-powerful oil companies. I don’t understand why the heads of state who are infinitely more knowledgeable than me on the dangers of continued abuse of our gracious home don’t drastically and immediately cause change. I don’t understand why people haven’t listened. I guess it’s because they are not fifteen and scared.
Paarlberg, Robert L. Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York, NY: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
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Humans have become a threat to our own way of life by consuming more resources than needed, blind to the consequences that we may face in the future. As of 2016 the world population is at 7.4 billion and it is estimated to be at 11.2 billion by the year 2100. However 10 billion is the maximum population that can be sustained in terms of food security, only one of the many factors to global sustainability. Due to the fact that human consumption exceeds the amount of resources available, the United Nations “recognizes that eradicating poverty is the greatest global challenge” in A/RES/70/1. Sustainable development is not only required to fulfill the necessities of the present but to guarantee the capability for future generations to satisfy theirs.
Reisch, Lucia. 2003. Sustainable food consumption: an overview of contemporary issues and policies. Web. 3 April 2015.
Sustainability is a concept with a diverse array of meanings and definitions – a widely used glamorous, ambiguous, ambivalent and vague concept that is used by different stakeholder groups in various ways. Presumably to avoid noodling over a terminology or to avoid the confrontation with a definition, most widely the concept is broken down a planning process (c.f. e.g. Döring & Muraca, 2010). That is why most common sustainability is understood as sustainable development.1
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Withgott, J., & Brennan, S. (2011). Environment: the science behind the stories (4th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pearson Benjamin Cummings.