Add in potato, barley, palm oil, soy and sugar, then as humans the entire world can get to October before eating anything else.
Dan Saladino wrote “Eating to Extinction: The World's Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them” to tell us why this is a problem. There's 2 big reasons.
PC: Tom Fisk
First, food power is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.
PC: William Lucord
Second, agriculture has become monoculture because of this power concentration. When we rely on fewer and fewer plant varieties to squeeze higher and higher yields, we build a global food supply with low genetic diversity, disease resistance, and drought tolerance.
An unsustainable cycle then started when climate change hit us: soil degradation, water scarcity, chemical pollution, deforestation, desertification, food insecurity, economic hardship, regional conflicts, climate migrations, refugee crises.
What's the solution?
Well some things need to change at the global level, like repurposing more than USD 1 Billion we give every day in agricultural subsidies that allow this system to persist, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.
At the country level, Brazil has set an example by requiring that 30 percent of the ingredients for school meals in its National School Feeding Program be sourced from local, family farms.
PC: Tahoe Food Hub
At the personal level we can add variety to the fruits and vegetables we already eat, and choose less processed food. We can also support local farms like:
Got any favorites? Suggest them to us here.
“Have you heard?” is our way of sharing another point of view on commonly held beliefs. Through this we hope to encourage curiosity, dialogue, and tolerance of diverse ideas.
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