Are you working for a sustainable world? I just put in a fence around one section of my garden to keep out turtles; the rest of the garden is protected by a high fence to keep out deer. Those are the primary pests I have to deal with and I simply don’t grow crops that would need pesticides. I live in an area with good rainfall and excellent soil. I view my garden as one small step for locally grown, low carbon footprint agriculture. But, it’s a good thing I don’t have to live solely from it; I and my family would have starved months ago. We, like much of humanity, rely on large efficient farms and processed foods that feed us over long winter months and, well, most of the rest of the year as well.
Professor Steve Jones, Head of the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London in 2010 said, “Humans are 10,000 times more common than we should be, according to the rules of the animal kingdom, and we have agriculture to thank for that. Without farming, the world population would probably have reached half a million by now – about the size of the population of Glasgow.” (See http://tinyurl.com/3j7hd42.)
We are now seven billion on earth and the U.S. Census Bureau’s International Data Base predicts nine billion people by 2050.
I believe the planet can successfully support that many humans. Efforts include boosting crop yields, including through judicious use of genetically modified crops, more efficient food processing with less waste and maximized resources to individual efforts such as reduced food consumption (we do eat more than we need, or that is even good for us) to, well, little garden plots with turtle fences.
It must be “all hands on deck” if everyone is to be fed and damage to the global environment is to be kept to a minimum. What are you doing…what is your company doing to provide for a sustainable future?
