Food Manifesto
The Freshman Manifesto
The ideal food system is; sustainable, both in practice and in mindset, values necessity over want whenever food is concerned, and is available to all peoples while promoting equality.
Sustainability at its hear is both a practice and a mindset. One cannot be present without the other or else they fail.
The current food system is incredibly unsustainable. The use of an enormous amount of resources for the relatively small amount of energy produced is horrendous. “During the past 50 years, agricultural development policies and practices have successfully emphasized external inputs as the means to increase food production. This has led to growth in global consumption of pesticides, inorganic fertilizer, animal feedstuffs, and tractors and other machinery. These external inputs have. however, tended to substitute for natural processes and resources, rendering them more vulnerable. Pesticides have replaced biological, cultural and mechanical methods for controlling pests, weeds and diseases; inorganic fertilizers have been substituted for livestock manures, composts and nitrogen-fixing crops: information for management decisions comes from input suppliers, researchers rather than from local sources: machines have replaced labor: and fossil fuels have been substituted for local energy sources” (Pretty). The use of resources that we cannot keep using is astronomical. These resources, such as fossil fuels and heavy pesticides, need to be left alone or need to stop being developed. The way we can move away from these products is simple, although tough, method of switching over to natural, organic pesticides and fertilizers. To cut down on the cost and use of fossil fuels, one must cut down on the size of one’s land and employ local people to harvest the crops. “A meat based diet (28% calories from animal products) uses twice as much energy to produce
The ideal food system is; sustainable, both in practice and in mindset, values necessity over want whenever food is concerned, and is available to all peoples while promoting equality.
Sustainability at its hear is both a practice and a mindset. One cannot be present without the other or else they fail.
The current food system is incredibly unsustainable. The use of an enormous amount of resources for the relatively small amount of energy produced is horrendous. “During the past 50 years, agricultural development policies and practices have successfully emphasized external inputs as the means to increase food production. This has led to growth in global consumption of pesticides, inorganic fertilizer, animal feedstuffs, and tractors and other machinery. These external inputs have. however, tended to substitute for natural processes and resources, rendering them more vulnerable. Pesticides have replaced biological, cultural and mechanical methods for controlling pests, weeds and diseases; inorganic fertilizers have been substituted for livestock manures, composts and nitrogen-fixing crops: information for management decisions comes from input suppliers, researchers rather than from local sources: machines have replaced labor: and fossil fuels have been substituted for local energy sources” (Pretty). The use of resources that we cannot keep using is astronomical. These resources, such as fossil fuels and heavy pesticides, need to be left alone or need to stop being developed. The way we can move away from these products is simple, although tough, method of switching over to natural, organic pesticides and fertilizers. To cut down on the cost and use of fossil fuels, one must cut down on the size of one’s land and employ local people to harvest the crops. “A meat based diet (28% calories from animal products) uses twice as much energy to produce