This weeks post will be about the environmental movement and some key questions that I have for myself and others who are interested. Last week we discussed the environmental movement, this period was a huge era for change. Well known for the radical changes during the 1960′s and 1970′s. Being that my major is geography, I have an interest in Human Geography. The environmental sector of the nonprofit is very large, I think in class there were about 20 categories. I believe to understand something in life, we must think about how it came about. We must analyze the structure of how things function and why it happens. To understand why environmentalism became popular in the 1960′s, we must understand America and how/why it functions.
Our system in America is structured on capitalism, by observing capitalism in our system we can understand some environmental problems. I do not think that we can completely change the system, but we can add some changes to it and help guide it to what we want. My area of focus is in the agriculture sector of the world. There have been some key issues brought up for the future of the world. Some topics are: America changing its laws for which chemicals can be used/how much? Urban communities having agriculture (community gardens). Is globalization hurting the world? or Is it helping the world? (in the agriculture sector)
I will discuss the globalization of agriculture within the Urban community by using telling a story for an example. This last weekend I was in San Francisco for PAC 10′s in Track and Field, while I was there I stayed with my sister who lives in the downtown area (Nob hill). Her apartment is located within walking distance of everything she needs in SF. The Whole Foods grocery store is about 8 blocks and the Saturday market is about 12 blocks from her apartment. Other lower end stores in SF are further away and exceed her range of a good distance. This limits her to just 2 main locations.
By shopping at Whole Foods; she acts with society in supporting globalization. When she shops at the Saturday market; she reduces globalization by shopping local, and supporting the local farm market. If we compare the prices of the two markets, we will notice that they are about equal. There are positive and negative factors about both of these markets, but I would lean to support the Saturday market. Being an orchardist, I support USA grown fruit, and if possible local.
I think that local community gardens and support for local agriculture are awesome; but how do address problems like world hunger without globalization. Can we provide agriculture for foreign countries without globalization?
Another point with globalization is separation of rural and urban. It is impossible for a large urban population to survive on local urban markets. (within the city) The urban population relies heavily on rural support and agriculture from foreign countries, especially in the winter. How would we address this issue?
My reaction to this subject is full of questions. If you have an idea please comment.
Very interesting comments and questions raised. I’ll add one more question for the human geographer – how much of the challenge associated with local food production is a cultural construction? Worded another way, do you think much of barriers to local food production are human desires disguised as human need? Globalization, in one way, has erased our local knowledge of the growing season, so we expect to eat fresh strawberries in February. Great post. (5/5)