Feeding the World Response

Ron Finley's TED Talk (which can be viewed here) talks about issues we're more than familiar with at this junction: food deserts, food activism, and proposed solutions to issues of hunger on the community level. His tone and style of presentation is very relaxed and casual, speaking to the audience as one would imagine he'd speak to a close friend. He simply tells his story and doesn't censor himself, which is a nice rhetorical choice. It puts him on the same level as a regular individual, rather than putting himself on a pedestal like some presenters tend to do. I really enjoy his approach to getting things accomplished; "Plant some shit." really gets it's message across with no frills. He speaks of Los Angeles' gap of health, which sounds eerily like the topic I tackled in my research essay for class this semester. He proposes change from within the population, rather than through government aid or assistance. He wants his community (and others like it) to take their food into their own hands and quit relying on liquor stores and fast food for their diets. He himself took action by planting a garden in the streets on a part of city-owned land on curbsides. He has since helped build similar gardens throughout South Central Los Angeles, making a big difference.

Two articles we read this week also deal with feeding the world, though on a larger scale. One is by environmental activist and author Frances Moore Lappe about how biotechnology isn't the messiah of hunger, and the other article is written by journalist David Biello about the potential positive/negative results of widespread organic food production. They both are fairly short, interesting reads. An interesting overlap in content comes from them both noting that the world has more than enough food to go around. I really liked the quote Biello used in his article about modern industrial agriculture's sustainability, "anyone who thinks we will be using roundup in eight to ten thousand years is foolish."  He suggests that we need to change the way we produce food entirely, and essentially begin again with aims for long term sustainability. Lappe takes a different approach in answering what will be the key to feeding the world. She says we need a system of true democracy, where governments are responsive to the needs of the people, rather than the whims of soulless corporate entities. I'd be inclined to agree with that sentiment.

I believe it will take a little bit of all these methods. Local community activism, large scale change within the industrial agricultural system, and a change in the way governments make decisions & giving citizens more influence.