Lessons Learnt

Firstly, I would like to thank all of you who read and engaged in interesting discussions with me on the course of this blog, I really appreciate it! I never knew there was a blogger inside me, but I throughly enjoyed writing this blog and I have a feeling I will be back here soon. It was interesting and liberating, in a way, to be able to incorporate different kinds of resources and engage in a wider discussion than I would be able to with 'traditional' piece of coursework. I hope I provided a good overview of the issues concerning our hungry planet and provided you an opportunity to draw your own conclusions.

Main topics and key words to take away from my blog.

I started my journey with a few questions (mostly to myself): how does our food system affect the global climate today? How can we make food production and farming more sustainable and healthier for the planet? How do consumers choices enter the picture and how can we be part of the solution? I hope that my previous post on climate-friendly diet already gave you an idea how consumer choice makes a difference in today's food industry If you are still wondering about the answers to the rest, here is a summary of where this blog has taken me.

In the past months I have talked about many aspets of today's foor production, which harm the environment and if you asked me now 'what is wrong with our food system?', I think my first answer would be 'everything!'. But how does our food system really affect the global climate change today? Without even taking a look at my previous posts I would have to say the biggest polluters in our food system today are meat production, food waste, food trade and the improper use of agro-chemicals. Other environmental issues relating to food production are food processing and the (over)use of palm oil and its unsustainable management. In terms of sustainable farming solutions, moving away from monocultures and meat factories is the first step that would bring significant improvements to environmental health. I talked about a few agroecological practices in one of my previous posts and turns out, these changes do not require us to sacrifice production yields or need significant investment of resources. 

But how do we promote sustainable farming and change the public opinion about food production? To be honest, I had no idea about how harmful today's food industry actually is to the environment and how big of a role meat consumption plays. In my opinion, the biggest players with power to change the perception of food are international organisations, media and the global community (public and scientific). And doesn't it also start with information outlets exactly like this blog here? It is important that there is a global discussion out there surrounding these issues and that the wider public starts to think more critically about what goes on their plate. There is obviously the issue of largely higher prices for 'environmentally friendly' food products but with advancements in technology and science, I see these costs shrinking in the future and sustainable farming becoming a norm. 

(Source: http://ensia.com)

I would like to end on a hopeful note and let you know that United Nations have named year 2014 the International Year of Family Farming! Along with food security and poverty issues, environmental impacts are on the list of problems to tackle. Here is final piece of reading by Danielle Nierrenberg published a few weeks ago on Ensia magazine website (one of my favorite spaces to follow since starting my blog): 2014 The Year of Family Farming- A United Nations designation provides the perfect opportunity to invest in small- and medium-sized farms. To a hopeful future!

Thank you for reading!

Laura