Your Thoughts Matter

Food, Agriculture

Human appropriation of global production in the 20th century

Source: JournalistsResource.org
 

“Sustainability” is a term that is frequently thrown around rather loosely, but its use tends to be restricted to specific practices or areas — sustainable urbanism, agriculture or energy, for example. While there has long been concern over rising human population levels and resource consumption, the larger question of where the ultimate limits might be — the Earth is a fixed size, after all — has been subject to as much rhetoric-charged debate as considered research.

Impact of the new USDA school meal standards on food selection, consumption and waste

Source: JournalistsResource.org

School lunches don’t generally get a lot of love. Students often accuse the food of being bland and the portions skimpy, while nutritionists say the levels of fat are too high and real nutrition scarce. School districts don’t have it any easier, as they’re caught between rising costs, federal standards, and the need to keep students happy — a tricky proposition at best, as all parents know.

Long-term perspective on wildfires in the western United States

Source: JournalistsResource.org

As Anglo-American settlers moved across North America, they had a significant impact on the land, clearing trees, expanding agriculture and building towns. As settlement expanded, forest fires — once an integral part of the natural world — were systematically suppressed. This practice had consequences when fires did break out, as they seemed to be increasingly large and severe.