Sustainable Future

In a world with an ever increasing population ways must be considered to maintain the current population and meet the demands of future population growth. The world population is estimated to hit 7 billion in the very near future. This is a startling contrast to the population of the 1800’s being estimated to be a paltry 1 billion. Increasing technology and over use of natural resources has led to a population boom. Many experts estimate that the world population will double again in 23 years. This increase in population only leads to an increase of disparity between the wealthy of developed countries to the rest of the developing world. The world not does have enough resources to sustain this kind of growth. That is why sustainable solutions must be researched and implemented not only to meet the needs of today but to avoid the catastrophes of tomorrow.

I will explain three ways in which this can be accomplished and how each of them is being implemented today. They range from reducing consumption of meat, buying locally grown food, and finally taking steps at home to reduce waste. First would like to point out what could have the largest positive impact on sustainability as well as increasing the overall health of the environment as well as the general population. That is the eating less food produced from animal sources. A large majority of corn, wheat and other agricultural is grown for the sole purpose of feeding livestock. The substantial amount of land use to rise to feed livestock cattle alone is extremely disheartening. The world produces about a 11 billion calories worth of food to which only 7 billion is needed to feed everyone on the planet. This is extremely inefficient considering that around 1.5 billion people are currently living on the brink of starvation.

Moreover, Getting the meat from the animal to your refrigerator also consumes huge amounts of energy. Consider the steps: growing grain to feed livestock; operating feed mills, farms, and slaughterhouses; transporting feed and animals; hauling the meat to the grocer’s; and finally keeping it refrigerated until it is eaten. All of this results in over 260 gallons of fuel being consumed to provide the yearly average meat consumption of an American family (Fox 2009). The world cannot sustain a lifestyle of high meat consumption given the emerging population crisis. The problem is even made worse by the fact that developing countries are growing a fondness for the western diet of a meat centered meal. The calories consumed by these animals in the form of livestock feed is in orders of magnitude bigger than the calories received from eating the meat.

Yet animals utilize considerably more food calories than they produce in the form of meat. 70 percent of all the wheat, corn, and other grains produced in the U.S. are fed to farmed animals, only a fifth of which is actually converted into meat (WW 1998; Waggoner 1997). The meat industry has a whole can be seen as a extremely wasteful venture due to the materials and manpower needed to produce such comparably small amount of product. The impact of the environment alone makes even the most ardent meat industry supporters take some measurable pause when listening to some of the environmental damage caused by their industry. This can lead directly to my next point of buying locally to reduce carbon emissions.

Buying locally would have tremendous short and long term benefits. First, the benefit of introducing jobs and money into the local economy. In the current increasing globalization of production, and consumption, it is easy for locally generated income to leak out of the local economy. In essence the increased revenue in the local economy has a positive feedback effect of increasing local quality of life of those in the immediate area. The next improvement of buying locally is the decreased wasted associated with transporting products thousands of miles. This overhead generated by transportation costs ultimately has a negative impact on cost. Buying locally will decrease the burden placed by these means of transportation and production.

Food grown locally is as less distance to travel and directly leads to less loss of product due to travel delays or errors. The faster vital products get to the market such as produce means a cheaper product over all due to the consumer and producer not sharing the burden of paying for spoiled goods. The environment also has been greatly taxed in the transportation of these goods. The further a product has to travel to reach a consumer the more carbon emissions are released and the more resources are not efficiently used.

Lastly, a consumer can increase sustainability by reducing waste. If we examine the trash of an average consumer we would find the edible waste found was appalling. People have no desire to preserve or save in a world increasingly looking for instant gratifications Reducing consumer waste would save a enormous amount of resources that can be better utilized elsewhere. I have put together a list of tips to be used by consumers to reduce waste. The first thing that can be done is planning meals in advance. This can reduce waste a cut cost by reducing by preventing over spending and over consumption. A loss of shoppers tend to buy more than need to add a little bit of a safety gap to prevent there not being enough food to be served. The next thin to do is to stick to the planned list. This can be done by not going to the store hungry or buying food while a hurry. Always see throwing away food as the last option unused food has a wide variety of uses that do not seem obvious at first glance. This is from using the leftovers for composting too donating food to charity or the local stray animals! Use up your leftovers. Rotating food in the cupboards can also reduce waste.

Putting newly fought food behind its older counterpart forces the use of these older items over the newly bought ones. The next thing you can do is make the food serving sizes small. This not only prevents overeating but also does prevent waste from food not eaten. Serve small amounts. Buying only what you need is another great tip. Buying for potential imagined events often leads to wasted food. It is best to only buy what you need for unplanned events as the need arises. Freezing food can help preserve some foods for up to a year. This can be done with a wide range of foods ranging from fruits to animal products if done correctly. The last tips worth noting. As we see the average consumer has a huge impact on not only how products are produced but how they are transported. When consumers get together to apply themselves towards enforcing sustainable methods we all benefit.

When all these solutions are applied in a comprehensive solution it may be just enough to solve not only today’s problems but help avoid potential future ones. There is a sense that the effort is last when a single individual practices these solution but this attitude is self-defeating. A group or more is simply at its core made up of individuals. The individual needs to be reminded that any change being made would have the biggest impact where it counts the most in his or her life. In essence change is made at the lowest levels first and it takes time and effort to be seen in the highest levels but everything worth doing takes time and effort.

Rural communities using green technology to encourage growth and sustainable future. One of the best way is using low-carbon technology to reinvigorate towns or entire region. It focused on the wind farm by using the wind turbine for producing the renewable energies. We also concentrated our efforts on the renewable energies source in the developing agriculture with the emphasis on an organic farming for consumption. The wind farming will produce the energies to generate to the local people in area. They use it to feed in the organic farm such as vegetables, fruits, plants and animals. It is the alternative energies that gain more benefit to local people. The first of benefit has created the new jobs and income since they can receive money from sales of wind energies to the government. Next, one of the best ways that people can reduce the carbon footprint from their production is to add more organic products based meals. It could mean one meal, like lunch, then you gradually broaden and increase it. The last of benefit is making of the rural communities become a wing energy plant area. It is very healthy and wealthy for them. The green initiatives and a brighter future is created for all.

All of these could be the eating way for sustainable future. It is surprising to think that so much environmental harm is caused by what we choose to put on our plates every day. So what can be done to counter this? It should explores sustainable eating. Today there’s so much choice at your local supermarket it’s enough to confuse the most iron-willed and efficient shoppers. But our freedom of choice in the foods we eat could be the very thing to save the planet. Moreover, consumers shouldn’t feel like the weight of the world is on their shoulders; governments need to take more responsibility and provide better incentives for the goal of eating sustainably to become a reality. Things like carbon labeling of food items, which has been rolled out in their country, would help push consumers in the right direction and at least make people aware of how diet choices are affecting the sustainable future and environment. So it is necessary for government, industry and consumers to all work together to make the people
survivals.