Food: The New Gold (Single Titles)
Kathlyn Gay
Language: English
Pages: 96
ISBN: 0761346074
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Did you know starvation kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined? Around the world, millions go to bed hungry every night. Farmers produce enough food to feed everyone, but the food does not get to the people who need it most. In some places, food has become a precious commodity almost like gold.
Why is food scarce in some places and abundant in others? In this book, author Kathlyn Gay explores the complicated interaction between food, business, politics, and the environment. She examines the international food aid system; giant factory farms, which grow and slaughter animals using assembly-line techniques; and the genetic engineering of seeds, plants, and animals. These systems promise to get more food to the people who need it but the promises don't always pan out. Worse, many modern agricultural practices are harmful to the environment, to workers, and even to consumers. Food politics will only become more complicated as Earth's climate grows warmer, bringing rising sea levels, shifting growing seasons, and shrinking freshwater supplies.
But despite these dreary predictions for the future of food and agriculture, the news is not all bad. Around the world, people are forging a new food future to provide good food for everyone and to do so in ways that nurture the soil and water, keeping farmland healthy and productive for generations to come.
of the foodstuffs sold in the United States contain some genetically altered ingredients. For example, foods such as tomatoes, cantaloupes, soybeans, and corn commonly include genetically engineered materials. So do processed foods such as potato chips and breakfast cereals. While producers claim these foods are safe for humans to eat, around the world, consumer and environmental groups have raised concerns The nickname Frankenfoods (based on Frankenstein’s monster, pictured above about GE foods.
large profits and therefore don’t need government assistance. Opponents further note that large-scale agriculture has forced many family farms out of business, since small farmers can’t compete with massive farm operations using assembly-line techniques and other economies of scale. They ask: is it fair to hand out money to big businesses when “Around the world [people in] some small businesses struggle to countries spend 60 to 80 percent of survive? Some critics say that farm their income on
deliberately starving his people to stay in power. Tsvangirai ran for president in 2008 but lost the election. Months of violence followed. Eventually, Mugabe and Tsvangirai made a power-sharing agreement, by which Mugabe serves as president and Tsvangirai as prime minister. The two leaders have since allowed more food shipments into Zimbabwe, but critics charge that Mugabe still routinely distributes food supplies to his supporters and withholds them from his opponents. Food politics has taken a
African nations. But in the United States, deep-fried crickets and grasshoppers (below) do not attract a lot of diners. Deep-fried insects are popular in Thailand, China, and other parts of Asia. Sustainable agriculture challenges food growers and producers to balance the long-term environmental effects of their farming or ranching practices with the need to earn a living. With a sustainable agriculture system, farmers would protect groundwater and streams from contamination by livestock waste
Bother,” New York Times Magazine, April 20, 2008, http:// www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/magazine/20wwln-lede-t.html?pagewanted=all (February 7, 2012). 89 SELECTEd BIBLIoGRAPHY Bergquist, Lee. “Taking Care of Cows’ Business.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 1, 2009. http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/40490387.html (April 26, 2011). Bittman, Mark. “Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler.” New York Times, January 27, 2008. http:// www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.htm (May 29, 2011).