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Food import in the US

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Because of the changing food trends and preferences, people tend to demand higher varieties of food. The domestic land may be not able to deliver all of the required kinds of food with the desired variety, quality and quantity. The only action that countries are taking to solve this problem is by importing food from other countries in which the missed kinds of food are more available there. In this blog I will be talking about the food import issue that the US is currently facing to feed its inhabitants and offer them all kind of food they need, or let me better say,, kinds of food the want . The global food supply continues to grow in volume and complexity. Imports are expected to continue to grow because of cost concerns (need for lower costs and higher productivity), availability (includes seasonality) and consumer demand for diverse food products. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), imports account for nearly two-thirds of the fruits and vegetables ...
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Partnership with Farmers for Sustainable Agriculture

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Partnership with Farmers for Sustainable Agriculture Since achieving sustainable agriculture is very challenging and expensive, it requires a lot of collaboration between several parties. You can think of governments, non-profit organizations,private sectors and most importantly, farmers. Farmers have been working at and for their farms and lands. they have been inheriting them for generations, and they are planning to give them to their children when they get old. they grown up with this mentality and it will not be easy to change it. In order to get this mentality changed or at least persuade farmers to collaborate, a very specialized way of communication has to be followed. The foundation of this new communication approach is trust . Farmers do not trust governments anymore as they feel too vulnerable against governmental decisions that are taken without listening to the farmers themselves. Therefore the new approach should include building trust as well as raising awareness...
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Renewable Energy

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Renewable Energy Definition and examples Agriculture is the sole provider of human food. Most farm machines are driven by fossil fuels, which contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and, in turn, accelerate climate change. Such environmental damage can be mitigated by the promotion of renewable resources which produces the so-called Renewable energy. Renewable energy produced from sources that do not deplete or can be replenished within a human’s life time. The most common examples include wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydropower. This is in contrast to non-renewable sources such as fossil fuels. Most renewable energy is derived directly or indirectly from the heat. The main source of heat on the earth is the sun. Sunlight can be captured directly using solar technologies. The sun's heat drives  winds, whose energy is captured with turbines. Plants also rely on the sun to grow and their stored energy can b...
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Climate-smart Agriculture

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Climate-smart Agriculture The current global situation with regards to climate change and agriculture inefficiency is getting from bad to worse. We will reach great food insecurity if we do not change our current lifestyle and approaches. Therefore, a new approach has been created to help in solving the agricultural issue. It is called Climate-smart agriculture. When looking at its name and the current global issue, my team and I defined it during the class as: An adapting approach that insures sustainable increasing agriculture through the resilience to climate change. Actions In order to achieve the objective of this new and costly approach, various actions need to be done. - Efficient land use; to achieve sustainable increasing production - Innovation to increase productivity; this can be done by using drought-resistant corps. Since drought is the principal constraint of crop production in drylands where the majority of the poor depend on agriculture. - ...
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Food Value Chain

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Food Value Chain Food value chain refers to the different steps that food goes through, starting at the prooduction point and ending at the consumer house. The food we eat, fruits for example, is basically born and initiated in a farm in the form of a plant. Then it moves on the processing phase where crop products get harvested, divided, packaged and labelled. Afterwards, the get transported to distributors such as (super)markets, retailers etc. From that point, consumers can obtain the food for the price set based on the value the product has and (the expense of) the different stages of the supply chain. Cooling systems also play a reasonable role in these costs as well as fuels. 50% of India's milk and vegetables is wasted India is the world's largest producer of milk and the second-largest producer of fruit and vegetables. Asia, about 40% to 50% of India’s total annual production of milk, fruit and vegetables, ends up wasted. Despite its self-sufficiency in ...
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Climate Change

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Climate Change Definition Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time, such as changes in average weather temperature and conditions. In the last 130 years, the world has warmed by approximately 0.85 o C. Each of the last 3 decades has been successively warmer than any preceding decade. Sea levels are rising, glaciers are melting and precipitation patterns are changing. A number of greenhouse gases occur naturally in the Earth's atmospheres, such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. These gases are needed for human survival as without these gases, the Earth's temperature would be -18C, according to scientists estimations. These gases are needed in particular amount and intensity. However, they are getting altered by human activities which causes global warming. Effects of Climate Change Due to the above-normal temperatures, these are some of the effects of...
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Water Footprint

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Water Footprint The Water Footprint of a product is the volume of freshwater appropriated to produce the product, taking into account the volumes of water consumed and polluted in the different steps of the supply chain. Each product produced can be given some "credits" that refer to its water footprint, mainly how much water has been used to produce it. For example, one kilogramme of beef requires around 15 thousand litres of water, and around 98% of the footprint counts for the feed of animals. Whereas one kilogramme of tomato requires 180 litres of water and around 250 liter for one kilogramme of cucumbersand potatoes. Diet & Nutrition As mentioned above, animal products generally have a larger water footprint than crop products. The same is true when we look at the water footprint per calorie. The average water footprint per calorie for beef is twenty times larger than for cereals and starchy roots.  I assume that this difference is...
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