Watch as a Mandalorian cosplayer gets a hand from Apple
24 minutes ago
Monday, January 24, 2011
Thursday, June 25, 2009
The price we pay for cheap food.
If supermarket prices included the environmental, health and social issues associated with industrial food then the make up of our supermarket trolleys may look drastically different. Our relentless demand for cheap food has created a powerful industry that has been steadily providing us with ever-cheaper calories at the cost of our personal health and environmental wellbeing.
Although the New Zealand farming industry is better than most and nowhere near as messed up as America’s we still have our problems lurking in the system. Even Michael Pollan, author of the omnivores dilemma and in defense of food, a crusader for food didn’t realize New Zealand’s farming industry relied on chemical fertilizer. Our grass farming mean we don’t have feedlot effluent to deal with but the damage from runoff has destroyed most of our lowland waterways. Some reports state 95% are too polluted for swimming or fishing.
Swine flu is arguably a direct result of humanities quest for cheap meat. Continual price pressure from large supermarket chains force farmers to find more ways to reduce costs resulting the concentration of 65m pigs in 65,000 facilities when 50 years ago there were around 50m on more than 1m farms in the US. A transition from the old-fashioned pig pens to intensive methods and structures, containing tens of thousands of animals with weakened immune systems ‘living’ in appalling conditions that enable the exchanging of pathogens with incredible velocity among their fellow prisoners.
Intensive pig farming is being phased out in New Zealand but environmental problems caused by the dairy industry’s boom are being accepted as the cost of our standard of living. We have a reputation not only for our clean green image but as one of the most productive farming nations and we are squandering it with short-term policies leading to dependence on high input farming. We may be greenwashing spending more on advertising our greenness to the world than on green policy.
Factory farming extends past the well-known battery chickens plight, to be put off meat for life watch meet your meat a disturbing documentary on farming practices in America -http://www.meat.org/.
Apart from all turning vegetarian we the consumer can demand more local sustainable produced food slowly changing and challenging the system by using factors other than price to determine our purchases.
The consumer has begun to demand more information when looking at product on a supermarket shelf. The boom of organics and fair trade proved consumers can still influence industry with their demand. The return to popularity of farmers markets and the local food movement has begun this potential transition.
Local food is more about increased information than reducing fossil fuel dependency.
Food is not a product where cost should be the most important purchase influencer because the cost of cheap food is far too great.
Go watch Food Inc http://www.foodincmovie.com/
Although the New Zealand farming industry is better than most and nowhere near as messed up as America’s we still have our problems lurking in the system. Even Michael Pollan, author of the omnivores dilemma and in defense of food, a crusader for food didn’t realize New Zealand’s farming industry relied on chemical fertilizer. Our grass farming mean we don’t have feedlot effluent to deal with but the damage from runoff has destroyed most of our lowland waterways. Some reports state 95% are too polluted for swimming or fishing.
Swine flu is arguably a direct result of humanities quest for cheap meat. Continual price pressure from large supermarket chains force farmers to find more ways to reduce costs resulting the concentration of 65m pigs in 65,000 facilities when 50 years ago there were around 50m on more than 1m farms in the US. A transition from the old-fashioned pig pens to intensive methods and structures, containing tens of thousands of animals with weakened immune systems ‘living’ in appalling conditions that enable the exchanging of pathogens with incredible velocity among their fellow prisoners.
Intensive pig farming is being phased out in New Zealand but environmental problems caused by the dairy industry’s boom are being accepted as the cost of our standard of living. We have a reputation not only for our clean green image but as one of the most productive farming nations and we are squandering it with short-term policies leading to dependence on high input farming. We may be greenwashing spending more on advertising our greenness to the world than on green policy.
Factory farming extends past the well-known battery chickens plight, to be put off meat for life watch meet your meat a disturbing documentary on farming practices in America -http://www.meat.org/.
Apart from all turning vegetarian we the consumer can demand more local sustainable produced food slowly changing and challenging the system by using factors other than price to determine our purchases.
The consumer has begun to demand more information when looking at product on a supermarket shelf. The boom of organics and fair trade proved consumers can still influence industry with their demand. The return to popularity of farmers markets and the local food movement has begun this potential transition.
Local food is more about increased information than reducing fossil fuel dependency.
Food is not a product where cost should be the most important purchase influencer because the cost of cheap food is far too great.
Go watch Food Inc http://www.foodincmovie.com/
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
urban gardening over
So been a longtime since i posted, left nyc and enjoying tropical whether in cancun. Decided time to get back to ranting about waste and food. More of the stuff i set out to do when i started this blog.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
why
It was going so good then this sudden spindly sprouting???? To much water? it did rain a lot recently. Not enough sun? Early morning until early afternoon. No i think it must be the crazy spring wheather. It was beautiful and hot for a week then cold for two. Anyone know how to salvage my arugala. Thinking i should remove all spindly sprouts
Friday, April 17, 2009
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
