Download sustainability_relationships_and_connections

Insert Name1
Food and Sustainability
Students Name
Institution Affiliation
Professor’s Name
Due Date
Sustainability Relationships and Connections
Introduction
Sustainable diets as explained by Food and Agricultural Organization should be able to
combine environment, nutrition and dimensions of affordability. The only concern is whether the
dimensions are actually compatible, and there is no guidance on what the official
recommendation is, therefore there is need to find food that shows compatible sustainability
dimensions (Bhatia, Arvind 23). In order to create sustainability, there have been efforts which
have been put in place such as genetically modified food which is intended to increase the level
of agricultural yield over a short period of time.
There are also cases of overfishing has led to denudation of the sea life and the beauty
that is created by the coral reef. The question has been concerned with whether the cases of
genetic modifications are able to create sustainability and whether the case of overfishing has
affected food sustainability that much (Bhatia, Arvind 30) This paper seeks to look at the
sustainability relationships and try to analyze what practice is good for the sustainability of food
supply all over the world and which activity is not proper for sustainability (Bhatia, Arvind
Pg.30)
Insert Name2
Concept of Sustainability
Since the 1980s when the concept was first developed, it has been used more on the sense
of human sustainability on earth. The concept is majorly based on the premise that people and
the communities in which they live are made up of economic, social and environmental systems
that are in interaction and which must be coexisting in harmony or in a form of balance if the
community has to continue operating as a unit (Bhatia, Arvind 40). The fact is that a healthy
balanced society is one that can be able to endure into the future, and provide a decent way of
life for the members. It is a society that is self sustainable. There are several principles of
sustainability that are able to help a community ensure that all the economic, social and
environmental systems are well integrated (Mello, Felix 24)
The first principle is that we should maintain and enhance a people’s quality of life.
Quality of life is livability which differs from one community to the other. Each community has
to provide a basis of quality of life that they intend to live in. The other principle is that a
community must be able to maintain local economic vitality (Mello, Felix 44). This is job
opportunity for future and proper tax base. There should be social and intergenerational equity,
meaning that there should be sustainable community resources as well as opportunities for the
current set of generation and the future generation. The other principle is that we should be able
to maintain and enhance the quality of the environment. It is protecting whatever the
environment has already in place. There is also another principle that requires that we should be
able to use consensus building and participation when making decisions on matters of policy
which can be vital for the community sustainability (Mello, Felix 24).
Insert Name3
Genetically Modified Organisms
It is important to define what genetically modified food is in order to find a bearing on
how to relate it to the question of sustainability (Whitman, Deborah Pg. 3). As years pass by the
definition of GMF has continued to change, but the bottom line remains that it is any food that
has been injected with DNA of another species in unnatural way. In the past, crossbreeding was
done naturally with no human intervention. The genetically modified food is human made
crossbreeding (Mello, Felix 24).
There has been a heated debate on whether genetically modified food does help human
beings. It has been argued that there are a lot of benefits to the genetically modified foods,
something that many may sound strange (Whitman, Deborah 3).
The majority of the benefits
have been found to help the farmer since the food is basically pest resistant, diseases resistant,
sanitary tolerant and drought tolerant (Mello, Felix 34) But do the genetic modified foods adhere
to the principle of sustainable environment? The pests are part of environment which survives on
the plants and other plants survive of the pests. GMF technology is concerned with elimination
of weak genes which are not resistant to the pests and replace them with strong genes that can be
able to resist the pest (Whitman, Deborah 4). This is an avenue that is created to eliminate pests.
In the natural environmental set up pests have been beneficial to the plants and plants have been
beneficial to pests, which environmental mutuality is under threat now with the new technology.
On the other hand, GMO foods are important since they have been used as a means
through which malnutrition can be curbed. The crops grow very fast and certain vitamins can be
injected into them (Whitman, Deborah 5). They grow faster and therefore can be able to help
impoverished people; this has really helped the people in the third world countries. There is a
certain level of admission by scientists that these foods have certain amount of side effects which
Insert Name4
end up creating diseases. This is against the principle that sustainability calls for an environment
that is ideal with not diseases (Mello, Felix 70)
Finding Nemo on Your Plate Concept
There is a reality of overfishing which occurs basically among the Caribbean, the Virgin
Islands and also along the African coastal towns. This type of fishing though provides food and
economic income for the current generation; it is a destruction of the coral reef. One might ask
what is coral reef when people are able to get food and earn a living (Wear, Stephanie Pg. 6).
There are several environmental advantages that are brought about by the coral reefs, which help
the fishes and other aquarium to survive. The grazers also known as the herbivores eat and
maintain the seaweed which grows throughout the coral reef, but the fishing communities are
catching all the herbivores and putting them out for food and diet (Wear, Stephanie Pg. 6). If all
the herbivores are killed and eaten, then the seaweed will overgrow and the coral will disappear
slowly by slowly. The growing weed will cover a large portion of the water therefore making the
living habitat if the fishes to end.
Sustainable growth dictates that we should be able to care for the current generation and
the future. Overfishing will mean that the future generation will be left with nothing to eat.
Through killing the grazers and letting the weed overgrow the corals, we are stating that the
environment should continue to suffer as we continue to enrich ourselves today (Wear, Stephanie
Pg. 6). Everyone is part of the solution, and there is need that as we eat we are able to choose
sustainable seafood rather than consuming that which should be left to stabilize us for the future
(Wear, Stephanie 6).
Conclusion
Insert Name5
There is need to conserve the future even as we seek the present happiness and
fulfillment. Every individual has a role to play in ensuring that the environment in which we live
in is not depleted through selfish economic and social needs. There should be great guides who
can be able to help determination of whether the seafood is toxic or free of metal. Similar
methods can be used to ensure that the food that we eat is not injected with chemicals that can be
very toxic and which will affect our health. There guides that leads one to restaurants that will
ensure that the food that they serve is healthy and not endangered (Wear, Stephanie Pg. 6)..
Before one sits down to eat a piece of fish, they need to ensure that it does not affect the reefs,
people today and in the future will depend on this reef and therefore they need to be maintained.
I believe that GMO food is a great idea scientifically. But it should be a means that only
advances the life of people and not to limit it wholesomely. There should be a rule that people
with authority to implant DNA on our food should be able to do it since there are people who
may use means that have not been approved and therefore may end up killing a great generation
of people through side disease that would have been avoided if people were not exposed to
genetic foods. The beauty of sustainability is that it tries to create an ideal situation, which is
good for the current generation and the future generation. Living today we have a role for the
future.
Insert Name6
Works Cited
Bhatia, Arvind Lal. Sustainable Environment and Impact Assessment. Jaipur: Aavishkar, 2007.
Print.
Mello, J. P. Felix. Food Safety Contaminants and Toxins. Oxon, UK: CABI Pub., 2003. Print.
Wear, Stephanie. Finding Nemo in Your Plate. New York: Routledge, 2010. Print.
Whitman, Deborah. "Genetically Modified Foods: Harmful or Helpful?"" Human Health Journal
3 (2012). Print.