Austin Stahl | as506610@ohiou.edu |@AustinStahl24
Today we will look at our food and farming system, changing ocean salinity that is causing extreme weather, and the difficulties of communicating sustainability.
1. "Study Points to Roles for Industry and Organics in Agriculture"
There is a pretty heated debate between conventional and organic as the best system of farming, one in which ideology and rhetoric often gets in the way of science. Currently, we are facing the strain of feeding a growing population while dealing with the necessity of reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture. As noted in the article, to become truly sustainable while realistically producing enough food, the best answer is probably some mix of both.
I think it is important to consider the issue of food waste when thinking about feeding a growing population. We currently produce enough food to feed 8 million people. Unfortunately, much of that is lost as waste somewhere along the supply chain. Americans are especially guilty here, as the EPA's data shows we wasted over 34 million pounds of food in 2010. Somehow finding a more efficient system of distributing resources and reducing waste would go a long way towards solving the world's hunger problems. Clean your plate and eat your leftovers!
2. "Big Changes in Ocean Salinity Intensifying Water Cycle"
A paper in the journal Science showed that an intensifying water cycle, a byproduct of global warming, will cause dry areas to become drier and wet areas to become more wet. As the authors note, finding access to fresh water could be the biggest challenge we face in the future.
3. "Sustainability: lost in translation?"
Sustainability is a very vague term and can be difficult to communicate. It is often a buzzword in the business world that may not mean much to stakeholders. Read what this business professional has to say abut communicating sustainability, and check out my previous posts on sustainability here and here.
