For a majority of us, we find it hard to believe that by changing our habits or lifestyle, we are able to make a difference. Somewhere at the back of our mind, there's a voice continually whispering that although we may buy less or waste less, someone else would buy the extra bit we forgo and waste it anyway. Furthermore, what can your little contribution do to affect anything?
I would like to posit that in our current situation, our "teamwork" to waste food is going remarkably well. In fact, we are doing such a fantastic job wasting millions of tonnes of food every year, we literally rob food of the hands of the hungry. I think we would be hard pressed to outdo ourselves at the pace we are currently going.
To my readers, we should realise that teamwork is not an issue here. We know we are good at that. The one million dollar question is, are you on the right team? Are you on board with those who live in profligation with no consideration whatsoever on how their actions effect others (Team Zero), or are you on the other side which at least try to attempt and reduce their negative impact on others (Team Hero)? This perspective is important because it implies that if you're in Team Hero,you do not kowtow to the massive horde of Team Zero. It means that you may be the only member in your town, city, etc, a minority...or singularity...in your society. It also means that you have the potential to show others that by wasting less, we take into consideration not only of others, but for our future generations as well.
So, what can we actually do?
Be Considerate Consumers
Buy what you need! No more, no less. How many times have we gone to the frozen section in the supermarket, saw a 20 piece drumstick pack on discount because its close to the expiry date, bought it because it was perceived as a good deal, and only to waste half of it because it went bad?
I don't know about you, but I rather buy 2-3 pieces at a fraction of the cost, eat it to my belly's content, and knowing that I did not spend my money on food that I will waste anyway. Of course, we are not perfect. Upon writing this, there's a tub of 7 months old margarine, a bag of mushy brown Coles apples, a milk carton filled with a yogurt looking substance and other things I dare not mention in my tortured fridge. How many of us have similar buying habits of spending hard earned money to buy food, only to discard it later?
We also should start considering buying what is perceived to be less than perfect food. It is time we reject the notion that only perfect leaved vegetable, round smooth potatoes, carrots which can substitute rulers and whatnot to be normal. In nature, there is no such thing as a range of plants or animal that looks exactly the same. Just like you and I, there is variety in nature and these products are perfectly fine. Whether its a potato that resemble Quasimodo, a banana that looks like a boomerang, or lettuce filled with holes, they are nutritious, delicious, and perfect for human consumption. Please do not let them go to waste. By doing so, we are telling the producers and retailers that their fear of customers wanting generic, standardised produce is unfounded. We are also encouraging the reduction of importing food destined for the landfill and therefore freeing up food in the global market.
Eating Leftovers
Do we know someone who refuses to eat leftovers? No matter how hard you try to convince them that its perfectly safe, they will insist that its not suitable to eat. Is that someone you? Although we should avoid having leftovers in the first place, sometimes its unavoidable. In the end, after cutting down the trees, contaminating the ground with chemicals, use of resources to sow, grow and harvest the produce, the contamination caused by the burning of fuel while transporting the produce to retailers and customers driving to the retailers to buy the food and going home, the least we can do is to make sure we consume all of the food we buy.
Once again, there is no sense in throwing away good food and then going out to the market to buy somemore food destined for the bin. By properly keeping our leftovers for later consumption, we reduce our impact of wastage, money spent on grocery and travel frequency to retailers, which can potentially save us money which we can use to pay for other commodities such as our water and electricity bills.
Post-Consumption Alternatives
For those with gardens, there is an option to compost your food. Although unconsumed food should ideally be eaten by humans, this option would be much better than sending it to the landfill. By composting food, we are returning back the nutrients in which was used to produce the food.
Uneaten food could also be given away to family and friends. Of course, I'm not talking about the leftovers in your plate, but leftovers from the main plate. By practicing this, we can potentially help each other to reduce our spending on food and at the same time creating good will and strengthening bonds.
We could also reuse the food to create other dishes. Yesterday's vegetable leftovers could be used as salad, whole chicken could be striped to pieces to make chicken sandwiches, bones could be used to make soup, pieces of tofu in miso soup, fish head in curry, the options are literally endless and only limited by your imagination.
Conclusion
To make it short and simple,
Reduce
Eat only what you need. Safe money, maintain your waistline and indirectly feed the hungry.
Reuse
Use uneaten food to make other dishes.
Redistribute
When there is food surplus, give it to those who will eat it instead of throwing it away.
Recycle
If the food cannot be eaten or given away, recycle it by composting the food. In some countries, special bins are available where food waste is sent to an anaerobic digestion facility which harnesses the methane released by rotting food to produce power by combustion.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Part 2: Global Food Issues
There are many issues concerning food. I will be touching upon the Food vs. Fuel debate where edible plants are grown for fuel and hiking up food prices in the process, to food dumping where food surplus from rich countries is sent as food aid to other countries with unethical intentions whereby the donater benefits more than the receiver.
In a bid to reduce carbon emission, many companies are selling the idea of neutral carbon where the input and output of carbon is the same. For example, growing and cutting down tree specifically for fuel is considered carbon neutral because the same amount of carbon absorbed is released while burning. Crude oil and coal is considered "old carbon" where the carbon has been locked underground for millions of years and releasing them into the air could cause adverse effects. Another craze is the so called "sustainable energy" where energy is produced via methods that is considered carbon neutral (i.e. biodiesel) or zero emission (solar,wind, geothermal,etc technology).
In an ideal universe in a perfect world with unlimited resources, biodiesel would be perfect to tackle our addiction to oil. In reality, like addicts, we merely moved on from one drug to another. Unlike the old drug which is limited, the new drug promises endless supply. This promise fueled a massive shift in terms of investments and thus, the competition whether edible plants (such as maize, sugarcane, etc) is used for food or biediesel begun. Fighting not only for consumption, another fierce competing factor would be growing space. Should hectares of growing land be used to feed the people, or as feedstock for biodiesel production? With increasing demands for biodiesel, companies have started diverting edible food to biodiesel production due to a higher profits. The consequence would be a lesser food supply doubled with an ever increasing mouths to feed in the world, resulting in a hike in food prices. This was exactly what happened in the 2008 food crisis which forced millions under the poverty line and into hunger. Another side effect would be the razing of prime rainforests in order to make space for growing biodiesel feedstock, which by the way, beats the whole notion of biodiesel being environmentally friendly. By cutting down old forests, the local habitat is either forced to leave or destroyed.
Now, we may be inclined to blame the government, fuel companies, etc for this predicament but we must remind ourselves that companies are not a charitable organisation. In contrast, they are the product of a dog eat dog world where the bottom line is the profit margin. Always. Also, we tend to not blame ourselves for anything. Have we ever thought who these companies cater to? Yes, us. And what about the government? They, like companies in an ever globalising environment where income comes from trade, they are also susceptible to the awesome customers' buying pressure. Have we considered about the consequences when we bought more than we could chew? By buying surplus food which is going to be wasted anyway, we are essentially robbing the already limited food supply from nations that needs it. How you ask?
I will use rice as an example. When rice is ready to be sold, countries will bid for it. This is why rich countries with high buying power will always outbid countries with limited resources. Rich countries also tend to do worst in terms of food wastage. Now, rich countries will not just buy what is needed for feeding their country, they will also buy for rationing in hard times. Essentially, they ensure that there is always a surplus of food at any given time. The remaining rice would then be sold to lower bids from the poorer countries.
Now consider this. The rice being wasted, whether due to spoilage or just simply not consumed and thrown away, could potentially be eaten by those who needs it in 3rd world countries. By wasting less, while maintaining our lifestyle (presumably by consuming the same amount of rice), we free up more rice for the poor. Wasting less would mean that the requirements to cater for the demand drops, forcing governments to buy less to ensure profitability. Indirectly, we will free up food for the poor. Remember, at our current situation, for every bowl we eat, another bowl is thrown into the bin.
It is ironic that some of the 3rd world or developing countries such as Africa and India is one of the main producers of plant food. For the case of Africa, rich countries buy huge plots of fertile land from the government, grow its own food, and export the food back to its homeland. This deprives the local people their right to sow their own land and eat their own food. These countries is also experiencing problems due to salination where bad farming practices forces salt underground to come up to the surface, killing the plants. Its is a very serious problem because while we have an increasing amount of stomachs to fill, farm lands are rendered useless due to salination.
Food dumping is another issue I would like to discuss. Food dumping means exactly that, dumping surplus food on someone. And while you're at it, you get the benefit of making the receiver dependent on your donation and thus gaining leverage on them when the time arises.
"...sending food to Africa and Asia opened up new markets for American export, and the threat of denial could be used to exert political and economical pressure"
- United States, Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act (1954)
This act of "kindness" is what I call a sugar coated piece of sh*t. Sweet on the outside. Horrid in the inside. Food dumping disguised as food aid is not only deceiving, it takes away the independence of poorer nations. In 2008, Care International called for an end to non-emergency food aid. It may seem careless, even uncaring to deny food to people. But when there is an ulterior motive that takes away the people's long term survival for its own selfish gain, we are just compounding the problem. What would you think happen when, not if, when there is a particular year of bad harvest? Worst, a series of years with bad harvest. The rich nation will undoubtedly reduce or even cease their "food aid", leaving all those dependent on it starve to death. So the next time you see NGOs collecting funds for food aid, make sure that the food aid is for emergency purposes only.
I would like to remind the reader that although we probably can't do much about what our governement does except by voting (I'm assuming my reader comes from a democratic country), we can however make a conscious effort to waste less ourselves and increase the global food availability. In addition, as customers and consumers to a global market, we have the potential to change what is considered to be a perfect banana, potato, carrot, etc and thus minimise waste due to ridiculous aesthetic reasons. We also need to question ourselves whether filling up our car tanks with "environmentally friendly biofuel" is more important than feeding hungry stomachs. Onwards to Part 3 !!!
In a bid to reduce carbon emission, many companies are selling the idea of neutral carbon where the input and output of carbon is the same. For example, growing and cutting down tree specifically for fuel is considered carbon neutral because the same amount of carbon absorbed is released while burning. Crude oil and coal is considered "old carbon" where the carbon has been locked underground for millions of years and releasing them into the air could cause adverse effects. Another craze is the so called "sustainable energy" where energy is produced via methods that is considered carbon neutral (i.e. biodiesel) or zero emission (solar,wind, geothermal,etc technology).
In an ideal universe in a perfect world with unlimited resources, biodiesel would be perfect to tackle our addiction to oil. In reality, like addicts, we merely moved on from one drug to another. Unlike the old drug which is limited, the new drug promises endless supply. This promise fueled a massive shift in terms of investments and thus, the competition whether edible plants (such as maize, sugarcane, etc) is used for food or biediesel begun. Fighting not only for consumption, another fierce competing factor would be growing space. Should hectares of growing land be used to feed the people, or as feedstock for biodiesel production? With increasing demands for biodiesel, companies have started diverting edible food to biodiesel production due to a higher profits. The consequence would be a lesser food supply doubled with an ever increasing mouths to feed in the world, resulting in a hike in food prices. This was exactly what happened in the 2008 food crisis which forced millions under the poverty line and into hunger. Another side effect would be the razing of prime rainforests in order to make space for growing biodiesel feedstock, which by the way, beats the whole notion of biodiesel being environmentally friendly. By cutting down old forests, the local habitat is either forced to leave or destroyed.
Now, we may be inclined to blame the government, fuel companies, etc for this predicament but we must remind ourselves that companies are not a charitable organisation. In contrast, they are the product of a dog eat dog world where the bottom line is the profit margin. Always. Also, we tend to not blame ourselves for anything. Have we ever thought who these companies cater to? Yes, us. And what about the government? They, like companies in an ever globalising environment where income comes from trade, they are also susceptible to the awesome customers' buying pressure. Have we considered about the consequences when we bought more than we could chew? By buying surplus food which is going to be wasted anyway, we are essentially robbing the already limited food supply from nations that needs it. How you ask?
I will use rice as an example. When rice is ready to be sold, countries will bid for it. This is why rich countries with high buying power will always outbid countries with limited resources. Rich countries also tend to do worst in terms of food wastage. Now, rich countries will not just buy what is needed for feeding their country, they will also buy for rationing in hard times. Essentially, they ensure that there is always a surplus of food at any given time. The remaining rice would then be sold to lower bids from the poorer countries.
Now consider this. The rice being wasted, whether due to spoilage or just simply not consumed and thrown away, could potentially be eaten by those who needs it in 3rd world countries. By wasting less, while maintaining our lifestyle (presumably by consuming the same amount of rice), we free up more rice for the poor. Wasting less would mean that the requirements to cater for the demand drops, forcing governments to buy less to ensure profitability. Indirectly, we will free up food for the poor. Remember, at our current situation, for every bowl we eat, another bowl is thrown into the bin.
It is ironic that some of the 3rd world or developing countries such as Africa and India is one of the main producers of plant food. For the case of Africa, rich countries buy huge plots of fertile land from the government, grow its own food, and export the food back to its homeland. This deprives the local people their right to sow their own land and eat their own food. These countries is also experiencing problems due to salination where bad farming practices forces salt underground to come up to the surface, killing the plants. Its is a very serious problem because while we have an increasing amount of stomachs to fill, farm lands are rendered useless due to salination.
Food dumping is another issue I would like to discuss. Food dumping means exactly that, dumping surplus food on someone. And while you're at it, you get the benefit of making the receiver dependent on your donation and thus gaining leverage on them when the time arises.
"...sending food to Africa and Asia opened up new markets for American export, and the threat of denial could be used to exert political and economical pressure"
- United States, Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act (1954)
This act of "kindness" is what I call a sugar coated piece of sh*t. Sweet on the outside. Horrid in the inside. Food dumping disguised as food aid is not only deceiving, it takes away the independence of poorer nations. In 2008, Care International called for an end to non-emergency food aid. It may seem careless, even uncaring to deny food to people. But when there is an ulterior motive that takes away the people's long term survival for its own selfish gain, we are just compounding the problem. What would you think happen when, not if, when there is a particular year of bad harvest? Worst, a series of years with bad harvest. The rich nation will undoubtedly reduce or even cease their "food aid", leaving all those dependent on it starve to death. So the next time you see NGOs collecting funds for food aid, make sure that the food aid is for emergency purposes only.
I would like to remind the reader that although we probably can't do much about what our governement does except by voting (I'm assuming my reader comes from a democratic country), we can however make a conscious effort to waste less ourselves and increase the global food availability. In addition, as customers and consumers to a global market, we have the potential to change what is considered to be a perfect banana, potato, carrot, etc and thus minimise waste due to ridiculous aesthetic reasons. We also need to question ourselves whether filling up our car tanks with "environmentally friendly biofuel" is more important than feeding hungry stomachs. Onwards to Part 3 !!!
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Part 1: The Life Cycle Assessment of Food
Agricultural produce comes to use in all shapes and sizes. From our staple supply of rice or potatoes, to our occcasional juicy steak, besides water, food is what makes our world go round. The problem arises when we start to forget how and where our food comes from.
There's a story going around that some children nowaday assume that chicken comes from the Poultry Section and and cow milk comes from the milk man. Correct to a certain extent, it does not describe its true origin entirely. Whether this story is true or false, it certainly hold some truth in that a majority of us have lost our connection with how food is produced, or more importantly, how much is being wasted before the survivors ends up in our grocery bag.
Staple Food
It does not matter whether we are from Africa or Europe or Asia, unless we live in the traditional Inuit lifestyle, our main source of energy comes from the many forms of starchy plants (i.e. wheat, potatoes, rice, etc). These plants are sown, gathered, packaged and delivered to the store worldwide. Right? Like the story of the children where milk comes from the milkman, its only half of the story.
Firstly, resources such as fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides are used to grow the food. The food is then harvested and goes through a process of selection whereby totally good nutritious food is rated on how aesthetic they are. For example, carrots that are harvested are processed through a machine where it detects whether the carrot has bumps or having kinks along its body. If the carrots is not within the "acceptable" parameters demanded by the supermarket/retailer, the carrot is discarded and it becomes feedstock for the animals or just left to rot. Other criterias would be if its too big, too small, having two roots, etc.
These aesthetic requirement are also applied to other food such as potatoes and bananas. If the potato does not look like a billard ball, or its the size of a watermelon (I'm exaggerating), its discarded. If the banana is too bent or too straight, too big or small, its discarded. What I'm trying to show here is that totally good food which are edible are discarded from the human food chain just because it does not meet our "eye pleasing" standards. The disgusting part is that resources has already been spent to grow the food and only to waste it later.
The remaining food is then sent to be process, packaged and transported to supermarkets or the retailers. Here, there is further wastage when the food reaches close to its expire dates. In some countries, there is a legal requirement where food can only be displayed until a certain date relative to its expire date. Hence, after this date, the edible food is discarded into bins ready for the landfill or other purposes besides fillling up stomachs.
Next, we customers buy the food and contribute to the wastage as well. In the drive to increase profitability and cost reduction, supermarkets tend to sell in bulk. We on the other hand, try to get the biggest bang from our buck and buy more than we can eat, only to waste it later because of the food going bad. In addition, there is a misunderstanding on the term Expiry Date and Use By date. Some of us (including me), equate those two terms as equals. On the contrary, Expiry Date would be the date it is unsafe to eat the food whereas Use By date is the date where its past its best. For example, if one opens up a box of biscuit passed its Use By date, it may not be as crunchy as a new one, but its certainly still safe to be eaten and enjoyed.
All in all, it is estimated that almost 50% of food is wasted from the start of sowing to it being discarded from dinner plates. That means, for every plate you're eating, another plate is being discarded. Now thats a sin. To add insult to injury, consumers have to ultimately cover the cost of these wasted food. How else could companies make a profit if they have to pay for these unsold goods?
Meat
It is noted time and time again that when a nation increases in affluence, the demand for meat also increases. The production of meat is extremely intensive in terms of resource requirements. It is estimated that if all wheat,rice,corns,etc which is grown for livestock is freed up for human consumption, the total production can feed approximately 9 billion people a year. Can you imagine if none were wasted? With the current population reaching 7 billion, there would be enough for everybody.
However, as always, we have to meet reality (pun intended, although a bad one). Meat is an important part of our diet, as well as culinary diversity. Although there are groups out there that supports anti-meat diets, I personally do not see the billions of people in the world stop eating meat completely. I will deal with this topic in Part 3 on "What can we do on Food Wastage?"
Unfortunately, although it is a reality that food is an important aspect in any nation, there is also an increase of obesity globally. While cleaning up your tenth plate would indeed be accordance to "Finish up your food! Think of the people in Africa!", there is a question of whether our body need so much food. This is not a LCA for food, but its certainly a food for thought.
There's a story going around that some children nowaday assume that chicken comes from the Poultry Section and and cow milk comes from the milk man. Correct to a certain extent, it does not describe its true origin entirely. Whether this story is true or false, it certainly hold some truth in that a majority of us have lost our connection with how food is produced, or more importantly, how much is being wasted before the survivors ends up in our grocery bag.
Staple Food
It does not matter whether we are from Africa or Europe or Asia, unless we live in the traditional Inuit lifestyle, our main source of energy comes from the many forms of starchy plants (i.e. wheat, potatoes, rice, etc). These plants are sown, gathered, packaged and delivered to the store worldwide. Right? Like the story of the children where milk comes from the milkman, its only half of the story.
Firstly, resources such as fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides are used to grow the food. The food is then harvested and goes through a process of selection whereby totally good nutritious food is rated on how aesthetic they are. For example, carrots that are harvested are processed through a machine where it detects whether the carrot has bumps or having kinks along its body. If the carrots is not within the "acceptable" parameters demanded by the supermarket/retailer, the carrot is discarded and it becomes feedstock for the animals or just left to rot. Other criterias would be if its too big, too small, having two roots, etc.
These aesthetic requirement are also applied to other food such as potatoes and bananas. If the potato does not look like a billard ball, or its the size of a watermelon (I'm exaggerating), its discarded. If the banana is too bent or too straight, too big or small, its discarded. What I'm trying to show here is that totally good food which are edible are discarded from the human food chain just because it does not meet our "eye pleasing" standards. The disgusting part is that resources has already been spent to grow the food and only to waste it later.
The remaining food is then sent to be process, packaged and transported to supermarkets or the retailers. Here, there is further wastage when the food reaches close to its expire dates. In some countries, there is a legal requirement where food can only be displayed until a certain date relative to its expire date. Hence, after this date, the edible food is discarded into bins ready for the landfill or other purposes besides fillling up stomachs.
Next, we customers buy the food and contribute to the wastage as well. In the drive to increase profitability and cost reduction, supermarkets tend to sell in bulk. We on the other hand, try to get the biggest bang from our buck and buy more than we can eat, only to waste it later because of the food going bad. In addition, there is a misunderstanding on the term Expiry Date and Use By date. Some of us (including me), equate those two terms as equals. On the contrary, Expiry Date would be the date it is unsafe to eat the food whereas Use By date is the date where its past its best. For example, if one opens up a box of biscuit passed its Use By date, it may not be as crunchy as a new one, but its certainly still safe to be eaten and enjoyed.
All in all, it is estimated that almost 50% of food is wasted from the start of sowing to it being discarded from dinner plates. That means, for every plate you're eating, another plate is being discarded. Now thats a sin. To add insult to injury, consumers have to ultimately cover the cost of these wasted food. How else could companies make a profit if they have to pay for these unsold goods?
Meat
It is noted time and time again that when a nation increases in affluence, the demand for meat also increases. The production of meat is extremely intensive in terms of resource requirements. It is estimated that if all wheat,rice,corns,etc which is grown for livestock is freed up for human consumption, the total production can feed approximately 9 billion people a year. Can you imagine if none were wasted? With the current population reaching 7 billion, there would be enough for everybody.
However, as always, we have to meet reality (pun intended, although a bad one). Meat is an important part of our diet, as well as culinary diversity. Although there are groups out there that supports anti-meat diets, I personally do not see the billions of people in the world stop eating meat completely. I will deal with this topic in Part 3 on "What can we do on Food Wastage?"
Unfortunately, although it is a reality that food is an important aspect in any nation, there is also an increase of obesity globally. While cleaning up your tenth plate would indeed be accordance to "Finish up your food! Think of the people in Africa!", there is a question of whether our body need so much food. This is not a LCA for food, but its certainly a food for thought.
Food Wastage and its Effects
“Eat up all your food! Think of all the people in Africa!!!”
“Don’t waste food! Do you want to grow up to be big and strong?”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How many times have we heard these words being said by our parents/guardians while we were growing up? Time and time again, we are told not to waste food because food is precious, and rightly so.
From my understanding, humanity has always had and will always have an intimate relationship with their food and its production. Humanity is what it is today thanks to our ingenious ways to domesticate our food. From the humble wheat to the grazing cattle, we have continually increased their “growability” and productivity in a matter of centuries. Only recently have there been advances in increased production through genetic modification (GM). Some success has also been achieved through hybridisation which incorporates the desired traits of both parents.
Food is viewed different depending on where you are geographically and culturally. In most developed nations, food is look at as an expendable good. In the developing country, with its increasing wealth and prosperity, food can be seen as sign of affluence. In poorer/undeveloped countries, food is viewed as a previous commodity that shouldn’t be wasted.
In developed countries, such as the United States of America and Europe, food is thought of as something that is abundant everywhere and easy to come by no matter where you are. If you’re hungry, just walk (or drive) down the street to your nearest grocery or McDonald’s. Supermarkets pile food up high into the sky to give the illusion to its customers that they have an infinite choice of variety and that lacking food should be the last worry in their mind.
In developing countries, food can be used to portray prosperity. In China for example, the wastage of food is considered to be socially advantageous. When a guest is invited for dinner or function, food of such extravagance would to served to ensure that the guest cannot finish his/her meal. If s(he) does, that would imply that the host does not have the financial means to do so. In other words, they “lose face”. In Chinese culture, losing face would probably be the 2nd worst thing that could happen next to certain death.
And finally in the undeveloped countries, food equates to their continuous survival. Unlike us who are fortunate enough to be born in a relatively easy life, sitting in front of our computer reading this article knowing there’s food a few steps away in the refrigerator, a vast majority of people in undeveloped countries suffers from malnutrition would lead to all kinds of related diseases and social consequences.
Food is indeed a broad topic to cover and so I thought it best to separate it into different parts. This would give you the choice of reading what interests you although I would encourage you to read all of them.
Part 1: The Life Cycle Assessment of Food
Part 2: Global Food Issues
Part 3: What Can We Do About Food Wastage?
From here, we will see how by not wasting what is on our dinner plates, we free our valuable food resources to those who truly needs it.
If there is an opinion that you would like to comment/suggest, please feel free to email me at cosdusocialjustice@gmail.com
Thursday, September 17, 2009
SJ Session : The Environment and Us
These are the slides that I used for my presentation I have put up the videos as well. Any comments and questions can be forwarded to cosdusocialjustice@gmail.com and I will try my best to answer them. If not, I encourage YOU to take the initiative to find out for yourself.
If you're interested, you can request my personal notes to these slides to gain a better understanding of each slide and note just "flipping" through it.
http://docs.google.com/present/embed?id=dgrtq6kj_47c4bb5kdq
If you're interested, you can request my personal notes to these slides to gain a better understanding of each slide and note just "flipping" through it.
http://docs.google.com/
[The slides will be up soon. Having soon technical problems]
50 Things You Can Do To Green Your Life
This informational pamplet is by Morgan stanley which is a global financial services procider. I'm thinking that this ebook is done as part of it's community service. Whatever the intentions, this ebook give some accellent ideas to reduce your impact on the environment and in the process save some money =) Go have a look.
Link: The Green Ebook
Link: The Green Ebook
Cosdu Social Justice Introduction
It is fair to say that for most people, social justice brings to mind the sufferings and injustices done to our fellow men/women. In many parts of the globe, human rights are actively being violated not only by a certain group of people, but also by governments, whether voted into the system by democracy or by other means. For most of us, we try to help these people by giving aid such as water, food, medical supplies and other commodities to try and lessen their burden. This act in itself is highly commendable and indeed, encouraged. Part of being a Christian is being called to perform our philanthropic duties.
However, my goal as Social Justice officer is to make aware to the community that giving aid alone is not enough. Sending goods to people in need is only a short term solution to the problem. So, what does this mean? A good example would be this. Suppose we witness a man who is beating a child viciously. We've got 2 options. We can either provide the child medical attention or we can stop the act of beating. In our current world, alot of people have already been "beaten" up and there is tremendous support in this area. Unfortunately, the source of the problem, the "beater", is not sufficiently dealt with. In my writings and sessions, I will be dealing with large corporations and governments that commits grievous crimes against humanity. Most importantly, we will learn how, we, the so called "innocent bystanders", play a major role in this. Let's start from the beginning.
Although extremely complex and having multidirectional factors, the environments plays a major role in determining the health and livelihood of a community. The environment is then influenced by the people or the government. Governments inturn decide on policies that are perceived to benefit them in terms of socio-economy or purely just for financial gain. The problem starts when the well being of the people and their rights is trumped by the economic/monetary gains. These economic pressures is therefore decided by global consumers. In other words, our spendings habits has an indirect impact on how our less fortunate brothers and sisters are treated on the other side of the world. One simple example is as below:
When we go to the vegetable section in the supermarket and perhaps buy imported veges, we tend to look for the "prettiest" one, with the biggest and perfect leafs. Unknown to us, not only it may be poisoned with herbicides and pesticides, chances are, the ground in which it grew on is also poisoned by it. This would lead to the contamination of ground water which if consumed, may cause adverse health effects. This is true especially in a developing country where farmers are not informed by their governments of the proper methods to ensure that this does not happen. In fact, the government may even encourage extensive use of these herbicides and pesticides to increase production and therefore profits. More directly, our ignorance of the effects our buying habits can do has lead to the sufferings of others. Of course, this is overly simplified but the issues are there and they are real. Real enough to those dying of poisoning or other related diseases.
This is just a small section which I will be touching upon. So do check the blog regularly. I will be updating you on a fortweekly basis. If there is one thing I would like to impart to you if all things fail, I would like the members to think twice before we buy our products and what we can do to help in our own individual way. Remember, many individuals makes up a community. Many communities makes up a country. Many countries makes up the world. Every individual counts. You are an individual. Make a difference in the world.
Jian Sheng
Social Justice Coordinator
However, my goal as Social Justice officer is to make aware to the community that giving aid alone is not enough. Sending goods to people in need is only a short term solution to the problem. So, what does this mean? A good example would be this. Suppose we witness a man who is beating a child viciously. We've got 2 options. We can either provide the child medical attention or we can stop the act of beating. In our current world, alot of people have already been "beaten" up and there is tremendous support in this area. Unfortunately, the source of the problem, the "beater", is not sufficiently dealt with. In my writings and sessions, I will be dealing with large corporations and governments that commits grievous crimes against humanity. Most importantly, we will learn how, we, the so called "innocent bystanders", play a major role in this. Let's start from the beginning.
Although extremely complex and having multidirectional factors, the environments plays a major role in determining the health and livelihood of a community. The environment is then influenced by the people or the government. Governments inturn decide on policies that are perceived to benefit them in terms of socio-economy or purely just for financial gain. The problem starts when the well being of the people and their rights is trumped by the economic/monetary gains. These economic pressures is therefore decided by global consumers. In other words, our spendings habits has an indirect impact on how our less fortunate brothers and sisters are treated on the other side of the world. One simple example is as below:
When we go to the vegetable section in the supermarket and perhaps buy imported veges, we tend to look for the "prettiest" one, with the biggest and perfect leafs. Unknown to us, not only it may be poisoned with herbicides and pesticides, chances are, the ground in which it grew on is also poisoned by it. This would lead to the contamination of ground water which if consumed, may cause adverse health effects. This is true especially in a developing country where farmers are not informed by their governments of the proper methods to ensure that this does not happen. In fact, the government may even encourage extensive use of these herbicides and pesticides to increase production and therefore profits. More directly, our ignorance of the effects our buying habits can do has lead to the sufferings of others. Of course, this is overly simplified but the issues are there and they are real. Real enough to those dying of poisoning or other related diseases.
This is just a small section which I will be touching upon. So do check the blog regularly. I will be updating you on a fortweekly basis. If there is one thing I would like to impart to you if all things fail, I would like the members to think twice before we buy our products and what we can do to help in our own individual way. Remember, many individuals makes up a community. Many communities makes up a country. Many countries makes up the world. Every individual counts. You are an individual. Make a difference in the world.
Jian Sheng
Social Justice Coordinator
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