Reflection on Food Waste

Reflection on Food WasteAs a part magazine employee in a grocery stemma during my early high school days, I witnessed on a constant soil that at the end of each day a openhanded quantity of baked goods and perishable nutrient items which had reached their shelf disembodied spirit were carted to the garbage compactor. At the same time at the stores front entrance on that point were a couple of aged and home little people begging for alms in order to buy their daily meal. I wondered at the time as to why the discarded pabulum could non instead be distri saveed to those in dire need of it waiting just outside. As I continue with my studies in university I realized that the same scenario was and is still being vie out on a worldwide scale where food does non reach the people who need it the most but for different reasons. season in the case of the hungry outside the grocery store, the action may consider been necessary to anticipate pandemonium and inconvenience for the staff. besides globally, man hunger and starvation is caused by food shortages resulting from environmental humiliation, rapid creation growth, questionable engine room and current economic models.Through the Holy tidings, the basis of my faith, I know that God has given all benignant beings district over the earth and all its creatures but for our own selfish subroutine we tend to interpret the facility granted to us as liberty to unbridled mastery over nature. We ought to remember that being given pattern over the earth merely makes us custodians of His creation. Gerald Barney, a scientist aptly verbalize that, for the first time in the history of Creation, the life support systems of the major planet earth atomic number 18 being destroyed by human activities. passim history humans have caused locally significant damage to the environment, but never before have human numbers and actions combined to threaten the integrity of the entire planet.1 In light of this sho cking reality in that respect is an ever change magnitude need for the implementation of a just and sustainable global food system to prevent humanity from crises, for hunger and malnutrition ar responsible for more deaths today than any know disease. Each and any human being must be responsible participants in the decrement of global climate change which has caused major environmental disasters. Floods and droughts are known to be the main causes of worldwide food shortages and famines.Since my childhood I was forever taught not to waste food and not to eat as if there was no tomorrow. I realize the wisdom in that teaching as there is not only an environmental bell of getting food on the table but it overly leaves a detrimental on the whole step on nature in the form of global warming, pollution, destruction of the eco system, humiliation of arable pop and fresh water supply. Unlike the aboriginal peoples of our drop off who treated the earth and nature as sacred usi ng it strictly for basic living needs, in our society as a whole we conceive of the arena in terms of ownership and use. It is a exanimate medium of exchange.2 How do we cultivate a means of life that does not violate the integrity of creation? Will we use the knowledge, be supple to use every effort and continue in our perseverance to prevent further damage to the environment and replenish the arable lands that now live wasted? The answer is in the hands of each and every human being. Just as each member of a family is responsible for the support and protection of their home, we as a global family must adopt the same attitude caring for our planetary home, we call Earth.While environmental degradation may be the indirect result of our actions, we humans are right away in control of the size of our families and the global population at large, until now controversial the methods employed may be. Can the rate of the worlds staple train take keep feeding the hungry on this e arth? both(prenominal) my parents came from large families in India and with the modest incomes both sets of grandparents earned they were able to comfort their children. Basic fruits and vegetables were home grown and staple shred was locally produced or easily available. Hunger and malnutrition, I was told was minimal in those propagation. Presently, in the land of my ancestors, having large families is still considered a blessing from God in filth of widespread poverty, malnutrition and hunger a human crises that is rising exp iodinentially. They were fruitful and fecund they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so the land was filled with them.3 The land is say to be full when the food supply is inadequate and the environment is deteriorating. It is to a fault known that a full environment is a dynamic fantasy work outing on the application of human wisdom and knowledge.4 The same Creator who declares children are a reward is also displeased when overpopulation cause s destruction of His handiwork. Do we have the wisdom and the knowledge to offer proper advice for human re turnout? If so, exit we be able to ensure the present global population and warrantee future generations an abundance of what creation has to offer? If we fail to find corroborative answers to the issue of overpopulation, the global food shortage will create nut house in poor nations further causing these failed states to export diseases and refugees. The earth does not contain resources to feed the hungry indefinitely for this will cause global grain shortage which in turn would raise prices and put food out of reach of even more people.In our quest for the growth demand of food worldwide, we must do all within our major power to make agriculture as productive as possible. As a student of commerce and economics I am aware that less land is required for farming if production is maximized per acre leaving more land to be left in its wild and natural state. Biotechnology through with(predicate) and through genetic engineering of seeds has been a boom to agriculture by increasing the yield of crops, using less water and pesticides, creating less stress on our fragile land and producing grain of a higher nutritional value. However the use of biotechnology is a sharply divided issue because it also gives humans the right to claim a patent on life form which is an ethical concern. Are we trying to play God? free to say the very success of natural science has bred an attitude which has allowed for the exploitation and domination of the natural world in complete disregard to the sociable and ecological consequences.5 Firms try to maximize profits where the marginal cost of production equals the marginal benefit derived from the produce. However, this current economic model, in my opinion, is flawed as it does not include the implicit cost of environmental degradation caused through the use of pesticides or improper crop rotation that is incurred in the production of food. Essentially, companies in the food biotech industry only seem to care near maximizing their profits regardless of how it affects the environment or humans that depend on food for survival. It is very disturbing to hear that food biotech companies grease ones palms some of the crops from third world countries in order to genetically turn the seed only to sell it back at prices that are at a very high premium.A biotech company in the U.S. bought coffee beans from brazil-nut tree in order to genetically modify them so that they would be more weather-resistant to climate changes in Brazil that threatened future crops. However, when it came time to interchange these genetically modified beans back to Brazil, this same biotech firm marked up the price to the extent that Brazil was unable to afford it. Developing countries should not be subjected to this unethical practice carried out by such firms. Therefore, in my opinion, in order to build a sustainable future for people, a new earth economic model needs to be developed, one that aligns the economy with ethics and the environment.Will future life and production be controlled through biotechnology and selfish economic considerations? To counter any patterned advance that technology has made to benefit human food security, staple grains are now being grown to produce bio-fuels. According to the teachings of my faith, do not, for the stake of food, destroy the work of God. Everything is indeed clean, but it is wrong for you to make others generate by what you eat.6 It would prick my conscience to realize that in order to propose my car across Canada it would require an acre of corn if not more grain that could have been used to feed so many hungry and malnourish people in this world. The need for the development of alternate fuels is no uncertainness an urgent issue but it should not be at the cost of seeing our very own species placed in dire passing play an ethical irresponsibility .The last third of the twentieth century witnessed an unprecedented excite in the Human-Earth relationship the Third Mediation as Thomas berry termed it. Human impact now threatens Earths capacity to regenerate life as we know it and love it. Despite our basic dependence for survival on this planet, we continue to damage it through environmental degradation, overpopulation, massive use of technology and economic greed. If we are to achieve a globally just and sustainable food system, we have to learn to live in a way that does not outstrip natures capacity to regenerate itself on its own time cycles and terms.Further we should avoid forcing changes in natural systems themselves, changes that are at times even difficult for adaptable species to accept.EndnotesRasmussen, Larry. Toward an Earth Charter. Religion Online. The Christian ampere-second Foundation, 23 Oct. 1991. Web. 14 May 2010. .N. Scott Momaday, A First American Views His Land, home(a) Geographic Magazine (July 1976), 18.Meeks, Wayne A. Exodus. HarperCollins Study Bible New Revised pattern Version (with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books). Student ed. SanFrancisco HarperCollinsPublishers, 1994. 79. Print.Fick, Gary W. Ecology in the Bible. Food, Farming, and Faith (S U N Y Series on Religion and the Environment). Albany, New York estate University Of New York Press, 2008. 37. Print.Gorringe, Timothy. Playing God. Harvest Food, Farming and the Churches. London SPCK, 2006. 117. Print.Meeks, Wayne A. Romans. HarperCollins Study Bible New Revised Standard Version (with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books). Student ed. SanFrancisco HarperCollinsPublishers, 1994. 2135. Print.