On November 16th, I attended a panel discussion titled “Preserving Food Sources for a Bountiful Future” held at the local hip eatery and bar, Avogadro’s Number. The panel included four diverse perspectives, including Elizabeth Ryan (Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences), Dan Bush (Department of Biology and VP of Faculty Affairs), Christine Walters (USDA National Seed Storage Lab), and Lee Sommers (Agriculture Experiment Station) who all came to discuss the future of food.
The panel took questions from the crowd which meant a host of different topics and ideas were discussed. Some of the main points were the impact of diseases on crops, the ever-increasing population boom we’re expecting in the future, and the issue of ensuring diverse food crops.
Now, some of the panelists hold pretty high-up jobs, which kind of gave me the feeling they had to somewhat “filter” their responses when it came to audience members discussing the impacts of large-scale meat production, or the fact that organic and local movements have begun to “sprout” up in a lot of areas in this country.
In fact, I think some of those questions were glossed over, which really defeated the whole “sustainable food production” idea the panel was named for. Anyway, though no one really stated the damaging effects livestock have on our natural world or spoke up about “food miles,” there were still some great takeaways.
Points to Ponder:
Diversity of not only crops (in contrast to monocrops), but also diversity of seeds themselves can really help fight impacts of widespread crop diseases. Furthermore, a lot of issues food scientists are working on are not black-and-white. It’s easy to say, “Hey man, eat more veggies and less meat and stop growing certain foods that are super energy-intensive, like corn.” But the fact of the matter is that factors like cost of certain ag crops, education and nutrition levels, and, almost more importantly, cultural and social preferences for certain foods play a huge role in who grows what, especially in pre-industrialized societies where their ways of life is super tied up into the food they grow. Unlike most Americans, people in these societies don’t just grow food to eat, but they grow food to build their homes or roofs, use as cooking fuel, etc. I think this panel really showed me, a self-proclaimed vegan hippie environmentalist, how multifaceted the issue is. On the other hand, it’s really inspired me to think of creative ways to deal with the food problems we’ll see arising in the next few decades.
Things You Can Do:
One thing people can start doing now to preserve “The Future of Food”? Think about what you consume. Maybe sub out some animal protein for healthy legumes or lentils a few times a week. Or check out your local farmers market and CSA to cop some great deals on in-season produce, while also reducing your food miles. As one of the panelists said repeatedly during the session, “For this issue, we will need all hands on deck.” And yeah, that includes you, fellow college student!
One thing people can start doing now to preserve “The Future of Food”? Think about what you consume. Maybe sub out some animal protein for healthy legumes or lentils a few times a week. Or check out your local farmers market and CSA to cop some great deals on in-season produce, while also reducing your food miles. As one of the panelists said repeatedly during the session, “For this issue, we will need all hands on deck.” And yeah, that includes you, fellow college student!