The future of Food
The future of Food
By Nakada “Carter” Brown
Living in America can give you a false perception of how the rest of the world sees food. What’s even more unfortunate is that we import food from Latin America and China has more than doubled since 1998. The insatiable American appetite will stop at nothing to fill the gap. Mexico and Central America grows a lot of the fruits and vegetables Americans buy at their local grocery store. Is the anesthesia too strong for us to challenge stupidity?
Many who are totally oblivious to the cries of the earth haven’t been given the opportunity to learn why the Earth is crying. I used to laugh at people I considered to be over the top with their concerns for trees and animals. That was all because I was then not educated about the present and looming environmental degradation. I’ve branched out from a stage in my development where I aggressively make the point of the health benefits of a plant-based diet. Now its a matter of my own longevity on earth and the realistic expectations of what that world will look like for my unborn children and their children. People are not having rich realistic visions of a future filled with abundance and love. We feel the doom and gloom and we now see it. Even worse, some can’t even see past the extension of their arms. There’s nothing to smile about except hope. All things seem to be in place for the current super wealthy few to control 90% of Earth’s resources where the majority suffers and literally go into extinction.
So how can I help the average person bridge the gap between living and consuming to living and preserving?
I thought that some how if I painted a realistic picture- kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia- and showed us so called advanced 1st world citizens that these things happen because of our capitalistic, supply and demand, unlimited wants lifestyle. The real truth is that if we weren’t able to take from these nations so easily, most of “our” advancements would be impossible. Africa, in all of her beauty and abundance, provides technology makers with the mineral metals needed to make almost every electronic computer device on the market. Africa also provides food in abundance to Europe and as of lately Asia. Africa has the oil we fight for, the diamonds we marry with, the gold we trade for and so much more that is so common in our lives. The only thing uncommon about this is that most consumers don’t see Africa in their consumer goods. The label says made in China, but China doesn’t have the mineral resources to produce any of the technology they assemble. Africa has a lot to do with the future of the “1st world” because if we were ever compassionate enough to say we don’t need an ipad that contains blood minerals from the Congo such as coltan, then we can really begin to desire what is needed to live a sustainable life on earth and not what is being sold to us. The future may still include computers and flat panel TV, but to whose detriment? America, the top consumers of all natural resources, doesn’t place disclaimers that (civil) wars had to be devised and millions died to get the metals and minerals for our cars, TV’s and mobile phones. If there were such a disclaimer, what would be your response?
I’m saying that there has to be a sustainable future and I’m sure not going to count on the profiteers of natural resource exploitation to stop what they’ve been doing for so long and say they’re wrong for orchestrating a killing of the Earth through consumerism. They’ll say Americans have the right to buy whatever they want at any cost. There needs to be a reminder to everyone that the history books show very powerful civilizations fall with one reoccurring issue- the inability to feed themselves as a nation. In this new world the 1st world destroys natural resources in third world nations for decades and then coms behind after the destruction to privatize what’s left- which is primarily water. The destructive quest for natural resources threatens the future of food. But there’s no future in destruction. There’s no future in the privatization of water and there’s no future in denuded soils that don’t produce food. As the western cultural machine spreads to other nations doing what it does so efficiently, it will leave behind nothing but destruction and pain while preserving the good for the rich while the newly impoverished are left to live off what has now been destroyed. The real catch here is- we’re unknowingly supporting this behavior while we are also doing it to ourselves.
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