We can not live without food, it's as simple as that..."A traditional list of immediate "basic needs" is food (including water), shelter and clothing. Many modern lists emphasize the minimum level of consumption of 'basic needs' of not just food, water, clothing and shelter, but also sanitation, education, and healthcare. Different agencies use different lists." (source)
Food (including water) is mentioned first...
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recognizes the "right to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food", as well as the "fundamental right to be free from hunger" (source) |
Most people hold the belief that the advantage that Humans have over the rest of the Animal Kingdom is our ability to influence and shape our environment, with 'farming', agriculture, being the most advantageous of this ability.
Anthropologist break human culture into five categories based on how they obtain their food. These five are:
Foragers (or hunter-gatherers),
Horticulturists (those who select which plants they 'allow' to grow in their direct environment) ,
Agriculturists (domestication of plants, use of fields),
Pastoralists (domestication of animals),
Industrial cultures (centralising produce in order to 'add value' and approaching growing crops as a 'process' ) .
I will use this division to look at the different 'options' we have to 'produce' our food
It is generally believed that agricultural practices have been around for about 10.000 to 15.000 years while, although the 'Industrial Revolution' occurred around 1800, the 'Green Revolution' really got on it's way since the 1960's. So is this current system superior in '
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The importance of food is of course nothing new; a bit of medical wisdom from more than 2 millennia ago:
Hippocrates
it is becoming more and more clear that Food is more important than we think. Can we take the risk to make ourself dependent for it on an Increasingly Smaller group of people to supply us? Is it going to provide the best nourishment that is Needed to Sustain the human body?
Here are 2 examples of how it Does go wrong...
John F. Kennedy