Green food choice may not be so green
& we are what we eat
The fifth and (might be) final article of the day, at least: Green food choice may not be so green
All vegans and vegetarians out there, you might not be doing as much good as you think you are doing. The author stressed that the reduction of greenhouse emissions for the whole of food consumption, if everyone were to become the aforementioned vegans or vegetarians or all of the above, is only a mere 7%, which is very measely, compared to lets say reducing industrial emission.
Just to do a short quote:
"We should be paying more attention to social learning and to the notion of working towards food sustainability and security. In general, sustainable consumption might be possible by introducing services to substitute for material consumption. Although food itself cannot be substituted, a lot can be done at the household level to improve sustainability of food provisioning and reduce food wastage."
Well the author is being very vague here but what I can infer is that we should take a look at the broader image and see how we can benefit the environment at large, instead of just taking into account insignificant individual dietary habits. The idea of food sustainability is a very current one. Even Maslow himself talked about what would happen to the world if the population ran out of food, and we are not talking about the ineffective distribution of food or the inaccessibility and unaffordability, but the sheer fact that there just isn't enough food for everyone. What would happen then? Or rather, is it even possible to reach that stage this tragic? Will humans really find no way else to ensure food sustainability?
One thing is for sure, if lands were to be continued to be deforested so frequently and farmers were to overfarm and spam insecticides and fertilisers, that might become a reality. So the key is really simple, in fact, it applies very readily to all aspects of life as well. The idea is to always maintain a balancing act with all stakeholders involved, and in our 21st century, the three key areas would be the economy, society and environment (which the former two is largely dependent upon). This idea sounds better on paper and it is really difficult to implement or monitor such sustainability concepts, but perhaps this balancing act itself will be a crucial 21st century challenge that we all have to rally to overcome.
The fifth and (might be) final article of the day, at least: Green food choice may not be so green
All vegans and vegetarians out there, you might not be doing as much good as you think you are doing. The author stressed that the reduction of greenhouse emissions for the whole of food consumption, if everyone were to become the aforementioned vegans or vegetarians or all of the above, is only a mere 7%, which is very measely, compared to lets say reducing industrial emission.
Just to do a short quote:
"We should be paying more attention to social learning and to the notion of working towards food sustainability and security. In general, sustainable consumption might be possible by introducing services to substitute for material consumption. Although food itself cannot be substituted, a lot can be done at the household level to improve sustainability of food provisioning and reduce food wastage."
Well the author is being very vague here but what I can infer is that we should take a look at the broader image and see how we can benefit the environment at large, instead of just taking into account insignificant individual dietary habits. The idea of food sustainability is a very current one. Even Maslow himself talked about what would happen to the world if the population ran out of food, and we are not talking about the ineffective distribution of food or the inaccessibility and unaffordability, but the sheer fact that there just isn't enough food for everyone. What would happen then? Or rather, is it even possible to reach that stage this tragic? Will humans really find no way else to ensure food sustainability?
One thing is for sure, if lands were to be continued to be deforested so frequently and farmers were to overfarm and spam insecticides and fertilisers, that might become a reality. So the key is really simple, in fact, it applies very readily to all aspects of life as well. The idea is to always maintain a balancing act with all stakeholders involved, and in our 21st century, the three key areas would be the economy, society and environment (which the former two is largely dependent upon). This idea sounds better on paper and it is really difficult to implement or monitor such sustainability concepts, but perhaps this balancing act itself will be a crucial 21st century challenge that we all have to rally to overcome.
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