Blog Action Day - FOOD

Today is Blog Action Day and the topic is food. I wasn't sure how to talk about this subject. I love food! I love to cook, I like supporting my local farmers, I like that my son started making the CSA movement in our community more visible, and I've read many books about food. I'd like to share a memory that I recently told M. about. When I started being involved in a food coop, I only thought about getting good food at lower prices. One of the members would talk about Food as a political issue. I was clueless. I listened, I learned. He suggested I read the book Food for People Not for Profit and my mind was opened. Here's some information that I read recently.

The world can feed itself without ruining the planet, study says

Author Jon Foley says feeding a growing world presents a huge challenge. But employing many strategies simultaneously can meet the problem.

...... a new study in the journal Nature argues that we can feed the world’s growing population without destroying the planet… if we make major adjustments now in agricultural and consumption practices and patterns. (Hey, if it were easy, we’d already be there, right?)
Based on new data about the Earth’s agricultural lands and crop yields, the study offers some core strategies to meet future food production needs and environmental challenges. Those strategies include:

• Stop farming in places like tropical rainforests, which have high ecological value and low food output;
• Improve crop yields in regions of Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, where farmland isn’t meeting its potential;
• Change farming practices to better manage water, nutrients, and chemicals;
• Shift diets away from meat; and
• Stop wasting food (up to 1/3 of all food grown is wasted either in production, transport, or after purchase).

Taken together, these strategies could lead to 100-180 percent more food available for consumption and sustain the lakes, rivers, forests, and soil that food production depends on.
We found that there is no silver bullet – we need to incorporate the best of what we know now into solving the world’s food problems and protecting our natural resources.
Can we do it? We have to – it’s absolutely necessary. It’s up to us to decide what’s politically feasible. We can change how we govern, tax, ship, produce, etc. What we can’t change are the laws of physics.
READ the complete article here.