The concept of growing food in a 30 story high building, which takes up few square acres, to enable people the potential to grow produce is absolutely fascinating. This concept can be related to that of spatial scale as mentioned in a previous lecture. It is able to reduce the amount of land needed to farm, yet still feed thousands of people. Not only that but it reduces scale in terms of imports. In Canada, we do not have the outdoor climate year round to produce fresh produce, therefore in the winter months we rely on imports from other countries to meet our demand. With vertical farming technology it will be able to reduce the spatial distance of food production and food consumption through promoting a more local way of getting groceries. …show more content…
It is able to provide these communities with better, healthier food that is produced within their cities. This is very important, not only for social reasons, but for economic and environmental reasons as well. In this case there is no need to invest in global imports which can be expensive especially when the produce would then also have to be distributed from core regions to remote First Nations communities. The vertical farms would also allow for a reduction in GHG’s since they would not have to be transported far distances. What also allows these farms to be more of a greener footprint is the fact that these vertical farms, because they are indoors do not need to worry about common pests and therefore using pesticides or other harmful, costly products. Vertical farms provide the opportunity, not only to First Nations communities but urban centers as well, to local and potentially organic produce all year. This can have a very positive effect on the social aspects of a community, since they are working together, putting money back into their local economy, and becoming more
Nobody denies that the need for more food grows with the global population. Factory farms seem to be a solution to this problem since they produce mass quantities of food for cheap compared to their organic counterparts, which are forty-seven percent more expensive (Consumer Reports). The factory farming business, however, is not the best way to feed more people since it pollutes the environment. The factory
To conclude, our current way of agricultural life is not sustainable. The article “What’s for supper” has made me realize that if I hope for a better future for generations to come I should support a locally sourced lifestyle. This article is an eye opener to me and proved to me the importance of supporting locally grown produce. Locally grown produce supports the environment as well as jobs for people in the community. The current system takes a toll on every species on the planet. Humans are overproducing on a massive scale and are wasting close to half of our supplies and
With the world’s population growing exponentially, farmers are looking for new ways to steadily feed the world. Utilizing technology to further food production only makes sense, however, it is necessary to take a step back and seriously consider the negative implications of industrial farming before moving forth. After reading McKibben and Hurst’s articles in the book Food Matters, both authors present arguments on “industrial farming”, and although Hurst provides a realistic sense on farming, McKibben’s suggestions must be taken into consideration.
Thesis: Michael Pollan overlooks the many benefits of the current system of food production, which allows us to produce more food on less land than pre-industrial agriculture. His proposal that the nation switch to a local produce model is not economically feasible for the United States.
Losses to Employer The farmer loses the stress of the process to have a successful business. He does not have to jump through as many hoops and provides so many provisions. If the agricultural business is not a large establishment they may have trouble offering a work health plan whereas large scaled farms may be able to help guest worker who need health benefits.
Mayan civilization underwent massive developments in agriculture and within their society. According to historian Sylvanus Griswold Morley, Maya Maize agricultural practices have remained the same as they were over three thousand years ago. (Morley 128) A uncomplicated process of felling the forest, burning dried trees and bushes, planting, and switching up the spots of the cornfields every few years. This system is known as the milpa agriculture, pulled from the Aztec word for cornfield. Agricultural tools were fire-hardened, the Maya xul, a pointed planting stick, the baat, a stone axe, chim, a fiber bag for carrying the seed corn. At first, they used sticks to punch holes into the ground, but progressively obtained more advanced farming techniques. Their main crops they grew were maize (corn), beans, squash, avocados, chili peppers, pineapples, papayas, and cocoa, which was used for
A discourse community follows Swales’ six characteristics: members share common goals, has a form of communication, a form of feedback, genres, a specific lexis, and has a level of expertise all within the group (Swales 25). I believe the Future Farmers of America is a great candidate for this topic for that it falls in to the categories listed by Swales. The start of Future Farmers of America came in 1900s in the state of Virginia. Adolescent to teenage males were not interested in farming and did not want to take over the family farms. This led to a homegrown farmer becoming the supervisor of Agriculture Education and set out to fix this problem, Walter Newman. With the help of Edmund C, Magill, Harry W. Sanders and the most influential Henry
The Local Sustainable Food Chain creates a healthier environment because the farmers work with the land and animals in more natural ways and help the environment thrive. As shown by Polyface Farms, a prime example of Local Sustainable farming, regular farming practices had created soil that “was either no longer fertile or had washed away. (Pollan 161)” As Joel salatin, the owner of Polyface, switched types of farming, he
Throughout time, humans have pushed forward in every aspect in life in order to improve their living standards, wealth and most importantly the agricultural sector which is the base of every human race. Food is the basic requirement for any individual to stay alive and healthy. In an article by Tamsin McMahon, she states that over the past 60 years, the world population has grown from 2.5 billion to 7 billion while world hunger dropped from 40% down to 15% (McMahon T., July 2012). This shows that our agricultural advances through technology have helped control world hunger and decrease it by more than half, but this is a short-term solution if we want to consider the future generations that depend on our current actions toward the three main pillars of agriculture which are: Health and nutrition, Economy and sustainability all while considering the local small farms and corporate farms.
The Future Farms of America or the FFA is the extracurricular activity that has affected me the most in my high school years and my life thus far. Many people may think that the FFA is only an organization of farms that go around judging cows and grow plants but we are much more than that. Through FFA, I have been able to come out of my comfort zone, take a leadership position, and learn to give back to the community. Meeting new people through all the competition the FFA does and working with members in my chapter caused me to make new friends who slowly help me out of my comfort zone. I even gave a speech in front of my whole about how FFA can cause anyone to step out of their comfort zones leaping out of the zone myself in that moment. As
Pollan writes , " The way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world. Daily, our eating turns nature into culture, transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds.” (Pollan,386 ). In the book “ Farm city “, Carpenter, who started an urban farm deep in an Oakland ghetto. She showed what is important about food, and what is lacking in our food culture. She pointed out the issues of local food by demonstrating that it could be done on anywhere, even if your community is full of gangsters. She started raising her own food and learned about animal husbandry, her neighbors, and herself. Furthermore, eating less corn-fed meat, or shifting corn toward more efficient dairy, poultry, pork and grass-fed beef systems, would allow American to get more food from each bushel of corn. The US government should encourage American farmers explore other methods for growing corn, including better conventional, organic, biotech and conservation farming methods that can dramatically reduce chemical inputs, water use, soil losses and impacts on
In the search of better alternatives, consumers have created a $20 billions market for industrial organic (Pollan 16.) Therefore the importance of knowing what is the local sustainable food system and three of its most outstanding advantages.
Astyk and Newton, in their essay: The Rich Get Richer, the Poor Go Hungry, explains that “around the world, industrial agriculture has consolidated land ownership into the hands of smaller and smaller populations” destroying local self-sufficiency (518). Individuals are no longer able to grow own fresh, healthy foods to feed their family. They now depend on industrially grown crops and processed foods loaded with chemicals for food. Additionally, because of the farm policy, farmers that continue to cultivate healthy produce like fruits and vegetables get little or no government support, thus the higher prices of fresh produce seen today at our grocery stores.
Organic farming is a method of farming that does not use pesticides, fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, or antibiotics and growth hormones. It builds up organic soil matter better than conventional no-till farming, and it helps combat serious soil and land issues, such as erosion. If Islands were to start an organic farm, larger than the garden we already have, and plant crops like carrots, peas, broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes, cabbage etc. , than we could use most of those vegetables in our lunches. Organic vegetables are a lot more healthy and beneficial to your body than regular vegetables you buy from grocery stores, and even some farms. An organic farm farm would be a perfect way to get students in Basic Agriculture, such as myself, more involved in small farms, and could be a great way to teach them more about organic farming.
Agriculture in the United States has changed dramatically over the centuries. Since the 1960’s large commercial farms have been leading in sales. As a direct result of their success we, as a society, have access to affordable food. However, the success of large farms has lead to many negative impacts such as increased usage of resources and decreased diversity in crop fields. This begs the question, what can be done to reduce the negative impacts of large farms. One solution growing in popularity is sustainable agriculture. The idea of sustainable agriculture is to create farms that need little to no outside help from irrigation, pesticides, or fertilizers. Sustainability can be achieved in many way through