Reading Notes on Part 7: Getting Personal

- estimated 842 million people worldwide are hungry, even more malnourished
- world’s hungry is projected to reach 1.2 billion by 2025
- Food Sovereignty
• food for people: everyone has a right to sufficient, healthy and culturally appropriate food
• food providers
• localized food systems
• local decisions
• knowledge and skill-building
• working with nature
- Genetically Modified Organisms
• ultimate example of industrial agriculture’s disregard for human health and nature
• 80% of processed foods either through crops (corn, soy, sugar beets) or through food additives like
high fructose corn syrup, xantham gum, cottonseed oil and hydrolyzed vegetable protein
• designed to be pesticide-resistant and withstand drought
• more than 60 countries have banned GMOs
- Organic Farming
• farming without synthetic chemicals
- maintain soil fertility indefinitely
- utilize, as far as possible, only renewable resources
- do not grossly pollute the environment
- foster biological activity within soil and throughout the cycles of all the involved food chains
- Permaculture: set of principles and practices for mimicking the wisdom of nature’s systems and turning
our homes, landscapes, and communities into productive, resilient ecosystems
• composting, plant grafting, collecting rain, using grey water
• earth care, people care, setting limits to consumption to ensure fairness