Shed Organization and Tool Maintenance Research Paper
Just like Michael Pollan states in the article Farmer in Chief, “the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.” Most people don’t realize the issues and complications being caused by our food production.
The inequality of international trade poses a big problem towards the farmers’ community and also has an impact on the environment. Because the green revolution has occurred industrial food production and industrial farming are being used all around the world due to the fast rate of production as well as the huge numbers that can be produced in a minimum amount of time and the prices to produce those foods. These methods of farming pose a serious threat to the population of organic farmers or the people who do all the labor because of the fact that they get a low amount of pay which don’t necessarily meet living standards. It poses other problems to their health because of the conditions when working. Pesticides, chemicals, and harsh working conditions all play a part in the life of whoever is doing the dirty work and they don’t even get paid much for them. In the article The Global Food Crisis by the National Geographic Magazine, it stated that “the high cost of fertilizers and pesticides has plunged many Punjabi farmers into debt” a number of those famers committed suicide due to that reason. The article also mentions how some of the areas in where chemically enhanced farming takes place, the population around that are harmed from the harmful bacteria in the air and water that come from the chemicals and pesticides. How do we ensure the equality of international trade?
The answer is Fair Trade. Fair trade is considered a social movement which aims to provide and help producers in developing countries as well as the approach to implement sustainable alternatives that are safer to the environment. Fair trade helps farmers/producers create more of an economic stability and self sufficiency. According to the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, it was estimated that over 7.5 million producers and their families were benefiting from fair trade funded infrastructure, technical assistance and community development projects and according to UK's Fairtrade Foundation, $4.12 billion was the total amount of money in fair trade sales for 2008. In my opinion if we keep this up both producers and consumers will be satisfied with the sales and products thanks to fair trade organizations.
Some of the goals of Fair Trade Organizations such as TransFair USA and the Fair Trade Federation are for certified organic farmers receive a certain amount of pay for their product, as well as maintaining and enforcing fair labor conditions for the farmers, community development, and most importantly environmental sustainability. TransFair USA strictly prohibit harmful chemicals and GMOs, instead they promote alternative sustainable farming methods.
Sustainable farming methods should be more of the standards of farming due to the fact of energy used to produce industrial foods. The Farmer in Chief article stated that according to one study “ the way we feed ourselves contributes to more greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere than anything else we do, as much as 37%,” we need to find alternative ways of producing our food that won’t burn up fossil fuels as well as find more sustainable ways of using energy to reduce our green house gas emissions when we produce our foods. Michael Pollan is right, our abundance of producing food “depends on cheap energy which we can no longer count on.” We need to face the facts, oil is becoming more expensive and we are depleting our oil and fossil fuel supply in an alarming rate, and we need to do something about it.
There are so many sustainable energies that can be implemented in different methods of farming; there are biofuels, geothermal heat pumps, hydroelectric power, passive solar heating, solar hot water systems, and wind energy. I believe that all these alternative energies can be used to significantly decrease the damage that our greenhouse gasses are doing to our atmosphere and environment. The US Department of Energy states that farms and ranches can use anaerobic digesters in their farms. Anaerobic digesters, also known as biodigesters, recover methane from animal manure to produce electricity and heat, and they reduce methane emissions, which is in fact a green house gas. Another alternative energy that can be used in not only farming but in the use of homes, is solar energy, which in my opinion is the most “sustainable” because we will never run out of solar energy for maybe a couple billion years. According to the US Department of Energy, such examples that solar energy can be used are; solar water heating (being used in dairy farms to clean equipment and stimulate and warm cow udders), and photovoltaic systems are being used for lights and water pumping.
The truth is there are so many alternative ways to farm as well as use in your home. They way we produce, consume, and transfer food consumes so much energy and does a significant amount of greenhouse emissions and can damage the environment. The population needs to be aware of what some say this “food crisis” is causing. “Food is about to demand your attention” said Michael Pollan, Farmer in Chief Article, I think food has always had our attention, we just didn’t know exactly what to do with it. We solve problems with solutions that bring up other problems. The green revolution is a great example of that. So how do we stop history from repeating itself? No one knows for a fact.
But there are still ways that our food crisis can be contained and monitored, fair trade and sustainable farming, may be a solution to this problem.
Sources:
-Bourne Jr., Joel. "The Global Food Crisis." National Geographic June 2009: 13. 11 Oct. 2009 <http://ngm.nationalgeographic
-"Fair trade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 15 Oct. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
-"Welcome to the Fair Trade Federation." Fair Trade Federation. 16 Sep. 2009 <http://www.
-"TransFair USA About Fair Trade." TransFair USA . 16 Sep. 2009 <http://www.transfairusa.org/
-Pollan, Michael . "Farmer In Chief." New York Times 9 Oct. 2008. 11 Oct. 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/
-"What Alternative Energy Options are Available for Farms?." National Agricultural Library. 15 Oct. 2009 <http://www.nal.usda.gov/
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