Thursday 26 April 2012
Monday 23 April 2012
Achieving Food Security in the Face of Climate Change
The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change has reviewed the scientific evidence to identify a pathway to achieving food security in the context of climate change. Food systems must shift to better meet human needs and, in the long term, balance with planetary resources. This will demand major interventions, at local to global scales, to transform current patterns of food production, distribution and consumption. Investment, innovation, and deliberate effort to empower the world's most vulnerable populations will be required to construct a global food system that adapts to climate change and ensures food security while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and sustaining our natural resource base.
Investment In Agriculture Is Imperative
Producing more food with the same or fewer resources has been one of humankind's most remarkable accomplishments. From 1950 to 1990, yield improvements in global food production enabled farmers to feed a population that doubled to 5.3 billion people, with food prices declining by one per cent per year during that time. But since 1990, the rate of yield improvements has slowed in most countries, including Canada. This pervasive slowdown is reflected in record high food prices and elevated concerns about food security...
Monday 16 April 2012
Friday 13 April 2012
Thursday 12 April 2012
Food For Thought
...The lecture in itself is about industrialized meat production and factory farming: the way animals are being raised for food today which has changed in the last 50 to 60 years. Whereas there were normally smaller family-run farms, production has now shifted to huge concentrated barns with animals crammed together in close confinement according to Messier.
“They’re being fed growth promoters and antibiotics. People are not really aware of the damaging effects to the environment on all these animals. I think a lot of people sort of know it in the back of their minds but they really don’t. I’ve done a lot of research on this in the last two years and there is talk about it, there are more books about it and movies like Food Inc., documentaries of that nature and more books being written about it but I think certainly at the local level we don’t really talk about where our food comes from. There’s a bit of a disconnect,” she said.
The lecture will cover the various methods of confinement for various animal species, how they’re raised, the food that they’re given, the drugs that they’re given, how they are transported to slaughter. Messier will touch a little bit on the slaughter process and how food gets into the supermarket, a little bit about how that meat is labelled, some of it being really misguiding according to her.
....Anyone who is interested in eating healthy, is interested in the environment and believe that animals should be have some respect and high standards of welfare will enjoy the information that is going to be presented or at least find it interesting,” she concluded.
Sunday 8 April 2012
Key Terms
Famine: A situation in which a country or region does not have enough food to feed its population ex. Ethiopia 1984
Starvation: An extreme form of hunger in which people suffer from serious, or total lack of energy and essential vitamins and minerals.
Malnutrition: A condition in which health is damaged by an unbalanced diet that includes either too much or too little of one or more essential nutrients over a period of time.
Selective Breeding: The process of breeding plants and animals to have particular genetic traits. Ex. Increase pest resistance, healthy animals
Cash-Crop Farmers: Farmers who specialize in producing only a few products.
Cash Crop: Crop that is grown by a farmer to be sold.
Mechanization: The use of machinery to replace human or animal labour, especially in agriculture and industry. It has increased size of farms and decreased number of farms.
Irrigation: Irrigation is the process by which water is brought to land through any of a variety of artificial means. The land that is being irrigated usually contains crops, grass or vegetation that would not usually receive enough water from rainfall or other natural sources. Ex. Trickle (underground): pipes, Surface (above ground): Sprinklers, Furrows (lanes)
Mixed Farming: Single farm used for multiple purposes Ex. Crop and livestock
Intensive Farming: is an agricultural production method, which uses a large amount of labour, or technology including pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
Extensive Farming: is an agricultural production method, which uses small amounts of labour, machinery, and fertilizers. Canada is known for this type of production.
Dairy Farming: A farm for producing milk and milk products generally using cows.
Ranch Farming: An extensive farm, which large herds of cattle, sheep, or horses are raised.
Subsistence Farming: Farmers who grow crops and raise livestock to meet the needs of their own family.
Starvation: An extreme form of hunger in which people suffer from serious, or total lack of energy and essential vitamins and minerals.
Malnutrition: A condition in which health is damaged by an unbalanced diet that includes either too much or too little of one or more essential nutrients over a period of time.
Selective Breeding: The process of breeding plants and animals to have particular genetic traits. Ex. Increase pest resistance, healthy animals
Cash-Crop Farmers: Farmers who specialize in producing only a few products.
Cash Crop: Crop that is grown by a farmer to be sold.
Mechanization: The use of machinery to replace human or animal labour, especially in agriculture and industry. It has increased size of farms and decreased number of farms.
Irrigation: Irrigation is the process by which water is brought to land through any of a variety of artificial means. The land that is being irrigated usually contains crops, grass or vegetation that would not usually receive enough water from rainfall or other natural sources. Ex. Trickle (underground): pipes, Surface (above ground): Sprinklers, Furrows (lanes)
Mixed Farming: Single farm used for multiple purposes Ex. Crop and livestock
Intensive Farming: is an agricultural production method, which uses a large amount of labour, or technology including pesticides and chemical fertilizers.
Extensive Farming: is an agricultural production method, which uses small amounts of labour, machinery, and fertilizers. Canada is known for this type of production.
Dairy Farming: A farm for producing milk and milk products generally using cows.
Ranch Farming: An extensive farm, which large herds of cattle, sheep, or horses are raised.
Subsistence Farming: Farmers who grow crops and raise livestock to meet the needs of their own family.
Thursday 5 April 2012
World Food Prices Rise Further
Global food prices rose in March for a third straight month with more hikes to come, the UN's food agency said on Thursday, adding to fears of hunger and a new wave of social unrest in poor countries. Record high prices for staple foods last year were one of the main factors that contributed to the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as bread riots in other parts of the world.... "The food price index has an extremely high correlation to oil prices and with oil prices up it's going to be difficult for food prices not to follow suit," said Nick Higgins, commodity analyst at Rabobank International.
Wednesday 4 April 2012
China Becomes World’s Biggest Grocery Market
The onward march of the Chinese consumer continues, with China overtaking the U.S. as the biggest grocery market in the world in 2011, according to new research out of the United Kingdom. The Chinese grocery sector was worth $970 billion (607 billion pounds) at the end of 2011, while the U.S. market came in at $913.5 billion (572 billion pounds), research by food industry analysts IGD showed. The figures come at a time of widespread food price inflation as well as rapid economic growth in China, which is now the world’s second-largest economy as well as the most populous country. The analysts believe the gap between spending by Chinese and American consumers on groceries will widen over the next few years, with the market for groceries in China reaching 918 billion pounds by 2015.
Monday 2 April 2012
Sunday 1 April 2012
Crude Impact
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