rant.
i've been reading some creepy things about food.
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/news/2009news/10081_nifa_launch.html
While I appreciate the need for scientific research into productive food systems, there needs to be a lot more done on the issue:
--productive does not equal nutritious. when a plant produces more 'fruits' each fruit bears less nutrition
--substantial SOCIAL research needs to be done to change the way people approach food. a teacher told me today that switching from the typical american meat consuming diet to a vegetarian one is the equivalent (in terms of environmental/climate impact) as switching from driving an SUV to a prius. i stopped eating meat a couple years ago and since then i have begun to reincorporate it into my diet occasionally. but I just think it is so weird that pretty much all grain production in the US is to feed animals.
--large scale research on alternatives to the industrial scale model of agriculture needs to be done. I KNOW that the population is growing and we will only need more and more food, so the point tends to be made that we can't employ less industrial, more sustianable methods for food production because it wont produce enough. but what about 75 years down the line when the pesticides and fertilizer runnoff from industrial agriculture has altered marine ecosystems so much that we can no longer consume fish? or when the soils are so saline that they can't even produce animal feed? or when the topsoil has no organic soil left to it??? we need to find a way to sustainably produce food now so that we can have food in the future, not just increase yield now with no regards to the future environment. people need to know that there WILL be food shortages----maybe that will help them limit the number of kids they pop out??
--what the fuck is the pupose of biofuel? i love the idea of engineering 'plastics' from biomatter, but there are so many problems with it. A. it takes a ton of non-renewable energy to manufacture B. how are the crops being grown? with the use of pesticides. how are pesticides created? petroleum. instead of making more plastics to fuel a consumption-oriented, wasteful society, we should try to hammer home the idea of resusable containers made out of less destructive materials. i dont know what that will be, but i think it would be a lot more functional than dumping more chemicals into the earth.
http://www.csrees.usda.gov/newsroom/news/2009news/10081_nifa_launch.html
While I appreciate the need for scientific research into productive food systems, there needs to be a lot more done on the issue:
--productive does not equal nutritious. when a plant produces more 'fruits' each fruit bears less nutrition
--substantial SOCIAL research needs to be done to change the way people approach food. a teacher told me today that switching from the typical american meat consuming diet to a vegetarian one is the equivalent (in terms of environmental/climate impact) as switching from driving an SUV to a prius. i stopped eating meat a couple years ago and since then i have begun to reincorporate it into my diet occasionally. but I just think it is so weird that pretty much all grain production in the US is to feed animals.
--large scale research on alternatives to the industrial scale model of agriculture needs to be done. I KNOW that the population is growing and we will only need more and more food, so the point tends to be made that we can't employ less industrial, more sustianable methods for food production because it wont produce enough. but what about 75 years down the line when the pesticides and fertilizer runnoff from industrial agriculture has altered marine ecosystems so much that we can no longer consume fish? or when the soils are so saline that they can't even produce animal feed? or when the topsoil has no organic soil left to it??? we need to find a way to sustainably produce food now so that we can have food in the future, not just increase yield now with no regards to the future environment. people need to know that there WILL be food shortages----maybe that will help them limit the number of kids they pop out??
--what the fuck is the pupose of biofuel? i love the idea of engineering 'plastics' from biomatter, but there are so many problems with it. A. it takes a ton of non-renewable energy to manufacture B. how are the crops being grown? with the use of pesticides. how are pesticides created? petroleum. instead of making more plastics to fuel a consumption-oriented, wasteful society, we should try to hammer home the idea of resusable containers made out of less destructive materials. i dont know what that will be, but i think it would be a lot more functional than dumping more chemicals into the earth.