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Impact of technology in the society
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Impact of technology in the society
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In today’s 21st century of technological achievements, society is more in tune with which new cellular devices are able to open the front door of your house with “just the touch of one key”. It is this very co-dependence on technology that has lead to the lost of our connection with the foundation of life: earth and what it produces. With the world’s population at a staggering 6,881,821,283 count and growing reports the 2010 U.S Census Bureau, we as a society today face issues like world starvation, widespread disease and an increase of global warming due to human production. In a society where more than a three quarters of the general population lives in urban areas, leaving one mere quarter in rural locations, the result is a loss of association with the rural upbringings of our societies history. Within the article Urban Agriculture And Sustainable Cities its authors comment:
“Large cities, not villages and towns, are becoming our main habitat. Urban growth is changing the face of the earth and the condition of humanity. In one century, global urban populations have expanded from 15 to 50% of the total, which itself has gone up from 1.5 to nearly 6 billion” (Deelstra/ Girardet).
In a world of cultural scientific knowledge and industrialization, establishing agriculture into the ever-growing urban communities is essential and can nurture social consensus, economic and environmental merits that can be distributed plentifully.
One of the most popular and world recognized urban community; New York City is an ideal urban community with its mass production of practically everything manufactured and population rates. Due to it sweeping population, New York City is faced with many environmental crisis’ like water and air poll...
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...ty Region. Hunter College, New York City. 21 September 2010. Lecture
• McMillan, Tracie. "City Farmers' Crops Go From Vacant Lot to Market.” New York Times [New York City] 7 May 2008. Print
• Oswald, Janet. "Planning for Urban Agriculture." Plan Canada 49.2 (2009): 36-38. Print.
• Saldivar-Tanaka, Laura, and Marianne E. Krasny. "Culturing Community Development, Neighborhood Open Space, and Civic Agriculture: The Case of Latino Community Gardens in New York City." Agriculture and Human Values 21.4 (2004): 399-412. Print.
• Villarejo, Don. "The Health Of U.S. Hired Farm Workers." Annual Review of Public Health 24.1 (2003): 175-93. Print.
• Webb, Nigel L. "Urban Agriculture." Urban Forum 9.1 (1998): 95-107. Print.
• Zande, Robin Vande. "The Advantages of a Rooftop Garden and Other Things." International Journal of Art Design Education 25.2 (2006): 205-16. Print.
Wendell Berry’s “The Art of the Commonplace” is a collection of essays that cover a wide variety of social issues that the author has experienced. Berry focuses his visions of agrarianism into a lot of the arguments discussed in his essays, wishing for a society that recognizes the need for farming, reducing waste, and preserving the environment among other things. Although “The Art of the Commonplace” is divided into five sections, Berry remains consistent in the themes and beliefs he writes about in the essays, even expanding upon them in future essays later in the book.
As small mobile groups of hunter-gatherers adopted a sedentary lifestyle, they mastered both agriculture and animal domestication. These small settled groups quickly evolved into cities and towns that encompassed the entire globe. Today the estimated population of the world is over 6.2 million people.1 As the population has grown, it has had several deleterious effects on the Earth. These include climate changes, the spread of diseases, declining food production, deforestation, and environment pollution (particularly air pollution). As people have become more conscious of these harmful effects, they have begun to devise strategies to combat this problem. Among the suggested responses include a switch to renewable energy, a call for zero population growth, and adopting sustainable agricultural practices.
12,000 years ago, the discovery of agriculture triggered such a change in society and the way in which people lived that we now call this important era in time the “Neolithic Revolution.” Traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles were cast away in favor of more permanent settlements and a reliable food supply. Agriculture helped form cities and civilizations, and because crops and animals could now be farmed to meet growing demand, populations skyrocketed from around five million people 10,000 years ago, to more the more than seven billion people that walk this earth today.1
The documentary film “The Garden,” by Scott Hamilton Kennedy captivates and captures the South Central Los Angeles farmers struggles and conflicts they faced trying to save the South Central Farm. The 14 acre garden grows fresh vegetables and fruits, such as: corn, beans, papayas, and etc. It was one of the largest community garden and became known as the urban garden. Doris Bloch, the founder of the community garden, said in the documentary that the land could be use to build a garden for the community residents to grow their own food. Bloch said “ very low income family that deserves to grow their own food… land, people, food, it's a pretty simple idea. happy days.” The farmers took an advantage to use that land to grow their own vegetables
... as changing zoning and offerring incentives to attract farmers markets and supermarkets to food deserts. Cities can increase access by guaranteeing public transportation routes. And farmers’ markets can accept EBT (electronic benefit transfer), which would make it easier for those on assistant programs to have access to fresh local fruits and vegetables. Seattle area farmers’ markets are already doing this. Community gardens can be an effective way of increasing fruit and vegetable consumption among residents. Cities can encourage this through zoning polices and grants.
Although agriculture is one of the most hazardous jobs in the United States, there is a huge gap in healthcare for those that work in the industry. Due to the large migrant and seasonal worker population, especially those from Mexico, it is a hard population to reach when it comes to healthcare needs. Fear, language barriers and cultural norms are all barriers that need to be addressed for this special population. “(Holmes 2011) Agriculture is one of the most hazardous occupations in the United States. In 2000, there were 780 deaths and 130,000 disabling injuries in agriculture. The only industry that had more deaths was construction, with 1,220.”(Hansen and Donohoe 2003) “Migrant workers face numerous barriers to medical care, including lack of transportation, insurance, and sick leave, the threat or fear of wage or job loss, language barriers between MSFWs and health care providers, and limited clinic hours.”(Hansen and Donohoe 2003) Traumatic injuries, food insecurity, infectious disease, chemical and pesticide related illness, dermatitis, dental, heat stress, respiratory conditions, musculoskeletal disorders, and reproductive health are just some of the issues that migrant farm workers face. (Hansen and Donohoe 2003; Wang, Myers et al. 2011; Weigel and Armijos 2011)
With urban population growth, both ecological and industrial consequences directly affect those in poverty and the urban poor. Slums usually develop in the worst types of terrain, and lead to flooding, landslides, and fires that destroy thousands of people’s homes. Yet population growth and the amounts of waste created by urban civilizations are also pushed on the hidden faces and locations of those on the outskirts of the cities. “If natural hazards are magnified by urban poverty, new and entirely artificial hazards are created by poverty’s interactions with toxic industries, anarchic traffic, and collapsing infrastructures” (Davis 128).
Just as food insecurity and social agricultural movements are no longer limited to the Global South, so to have such movements extended beyond the borders of rural landscapes into urban settings across the globe (Dubbeling, & Merzthal, 2006, pp. 20, 21; De Zeeuw, Van VeenHuizen, & Dubbeling, 2011, pp.
Agriculture is not all work and no play. Many advances can be made in the understanding of agriculture by making available a variety of methods to provide children with a hands-on experience and also educating all individuals about the importance of the practice. The ignorance of urban communities can be overcome with the help of organizations and people within the community. School visits, hands-on experiences, volunteers and organizations are just a few examples of the steps that can be taken to educate Americans about agriculture and close the gap between rural and urban populations.
And, because food now comes at a low cost, it has become cheaper in quality and therefore potentially dangerous to the consumer’s health. These problems surrounding the ethics and the procedures of the instantaneous food system are left unchanged due to the obliviousness of the consumers and the dollar signs in the eyes of the government and big business. The problem begins with the mistreatment and exploitation of farmers. Farmers are essentially the backbone of the entire food system. Large-scale family farms account for 10% of all farms, but 75% of overall food production (CSS statistics).
Food production has many challenges to address: CO2 emissions, which are projected to increase by two-thirds in the next 20 years, as the global food production increases so does the number of people going hungry, with the number of urban hungry soaring. The environmental issues are not the only ones to face; politics and economic globalization take also the big part in the food world. These days agriculture and food politics has been going through many changes but mostly under the influence of its consumers; back in the days people wanted as little as safety, variety and low costs of food. Now consumers demanding way more – greater freshness, nutritional value, less synthetic chemicals, smaller carbon footprint and less harm to animals. And that’s the time when urban agriculture emerged quite rapidly delivering locally grown and healthy food. Within the political arena, there are a few still in charge of defending the conventional food industries and commercial farms to retain the upper level. Against the hopes of nutrition activists, farm animal welfare defenders, and organic food promoters, the food and agriculture sector is moving towards greater consolidation and better sustainability. Although in social and local terms, food-growing activists know their role is under attack. Caught two words in the middle, is it possible to satisfy both?
Newman, Andrew; Contested Ecologies: Environmental Activism and Urban Space in Immigrant Paris , published online, City & Society, Vol. 23, Issue 2, 2011 p. 192–209
First of all, overpopulation drastically affects the land. Possibly the most prominent example of the depreciating health and amount of land is the need for developments. Due to the exploding population in the United States, about 1.2 million acres of land every year is being converted to subdivisions, malls, workplaces, roads, parking lots, resorts, and many other developments (“Overpopulation,” Internet). That is a substantial amount of land being overturned to satisfy human desires. To put it in better perspective, between 1982 and 1997, the land mass lost to development is equal to the size of Maine and New Hampshire combined, which is approximately 25 million acres (“Overpopulation,” Internet). While soil is being ruptured for human preference, the number of cities has remarkably modified. In 1975, Mexico City, Tokyo, and New York City were the only cities considered as megacities (“Special,” Internet). In today’s world, that number is considerably small. Now, there are 21 megacities in the world. A megacity is when the population of that city becomes greater than 10 million people (“Special,” Internet). Therefore, the 21 megacities that are currently in the world holds more than 21...
The Negative Effects of Urbanization on People and their Environment As our world becomes increasingly globalized, numerous people travel to urban areas in search of economic prosperity. As a consequence of this, cities in periphery countries expand at rates of 4 to 7 percent annually. Many cities offer entrepreneurs the potential for resources, labor, and resources. With prosperity, cities also allow the freedom of a diversity of ways of life and manners (Knox & Marston, 2012). However, in the quest to be prosperous, increasing burdens are placed on our health and the condition of our environment.
As previously implied, cities are currently the antithesis of even the barest sense of sustainability. To succinctly define the term “sustainability” would be to say that it represents living within one’s needs. When it comes to the city, with almost zero local sources of food or goods, one’s means is pushed and twisted to include resources originating far beyond the boundaries of the urban landscape. Those within cities paradoxically have both minimal and vast options when it comes to continuing their existence, yet this blurred reality is entirely reliant on the resources that a city can pull in with its constantly active economy.