POLS 196 Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Food Miles, Micronutrient Deficiency, Nutrient Pollution
10 Apr 2020
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Document Summary
Key problems: hunger, micronutrient deficiency, obesity and weight issues, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, rising spread of noncommunicable diseases. Noncommunicable diseases are caused by food we consume and the way we produce food: they are those that are not infectious and our due to prolonging human life. Agricultural production uses 70% of global freshwater consumption. 38% of global land uses for agriculture. 19% of global greenhouse gas emissions come storm food production. Agricultural production accounts for 60% of phosphorus and nitrogen pollution and 30% of. Current agricultural practices are reducing productive capacity of the land through: all toxic pollution: monoculture, over fertilizing, pesticides, overgrazing, overfishing, deforestation. All of the above leads to the expansion of agricultural land being used. Current food system relies on externalizing costs in order to grow cheap food. If the costs were included, food would not be cheap.
