Showing posts with label Urban Agriculture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Urban Agriculture. Show all posts

Thursday, April 15, 2010

FRESH the Movie - Go See It!!



We saw FRESH the Movie last night - thanks Allison!


It was along the vein of Food, Inc. Joel Saletin was also in it. It highlighted smaller farming enterprises, organic farmers and urban farmers. Here's a clip from their site.

I liked that sustainability was the main focus. The factory farming process this country relies on for the majority of its food is not sustainable. We use dead soil, treat it with chemicals and stronger and stronger pesticides due to the resistance of pests. The animals are treated in horrific ways that spread disease to both the animal and human population. Not to mention the run-off from animal farms contaminate nearby produce farms and wells.

The farm subsidy in this country needs to start getting away from corn and soy for animal production. Let the consumer pay the real price for the cows, pigs, chickens and processed foods they are eating, I bet you would see a lot less meat and junk food being eaten, it would also bring the costs of health care down. What I don't understand is how people don't realize that cheap food is not cheap in the long-run. Heart disease, cancer and diabetes are at the top of killers in this country. What percentage of those deaths do you think are preventable?? The most unfortunate aspect is that developing countries are beginning to follow this model. With that will come more obesity and livestock diseases.

Know where your food comes from, grow what you can. You can't do everything but you can do something.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Urban Agriculture

Today and yesterday I attended:

THE HIGH-LEVEL CONFERENCE ON WATER AND GLOBAL HEALTH AT THE UNITED NATIONS
(Source: http://www.theworldwater.org/)

It was a forum on issues of water and public health. For instance, according to the UN of all of the water in the world: 97% is salt, 2% is ice/glacial and only 1% is accessible for human consumption. Another tidbit - 45% of diarrhoeal diseases can be prevented by washing hands with soap and water. Fascinating and so effective!

One of the speakers was Dick Despommier, I love his This Week in Parasitism podcast. I was looking forward to hearing him speak about parasites and water because I knew he could make it really interesting. Well, I was even more excited because he spoke about agriculture. More specifically, he spoke about Vertical Farming. Kismet for me since I am currently working on a paper about urban agriculture and the impacts it has (can have) on environment (organic) and health (plant-based diet). While his ideas are a bit high tech for the developing world the models he showed were fantastic. Think of a parking deck inside of a greenhouse that creates its own energy with extra to sell (or give away).

I can't wait to see what the future will bring.