Synthesis

Introduction Before beginning a discourse on our human experience with the environment, it will be beneficial to first have a basic understanding of what the term ‘environment’ means. According to Webster, environment is defined as: “the conditions that surround someone or something: the conditions and influences that affect the growth, health, progress, etc., of someone or something.” This corresponds with our working definition in that it all aspects of life revolve around and in existing conditions, we would also like to add that we as humans are influenced by these conditions, and in turn manipulate them to fit our desires. But the conundrum is this: although we all theoretically desire the same thing, our beliefs and prerogatives do not add up to equal a sustainable environment. While some people have the conviction to take the steps necessary to protect the environment, others do not believe there is a problem. And while we may agree that there is a problem, we have yet to come to a consensus of what course of action will lead to a sustainable environment. As of now, all we seem to agree on is that our environment is in danger and that we are all pretty confused about it. In our different pieces we take a look at some of these points of contact and confusion between people and the environment. We look at how we are shaped by the environment is directly related to how we then proceed to shape our surroundings.

Animal: Animals are autonomous actors in this word, and can influence the environment just as humans can, though debatably to a lesser extent. Likewise, they are also subject to any changes or disruptions in the environment that humans may cause. Studying these creatures in relation to food systems can therefore give anthropologists, environmentalists, and food scientists insight into how food culture impacts the environment, and vise versa. We will be covering several topics relating to animals: the general environmental impacts of meat consumption; the ability of wild animals to damage human food systems; the usage of animals in mitigating environmental destruction; and finally, examining how our foodways itself can be counterproductive when it comes to animal use in crop production. One post will examine the resource use meat consumption requires when compared to vegetarian or vegan diets. This post will also critique previous research that solely uses environmental statistics to evaluate “harm”, when in fact there are economic and social factors to consider. Next, recent archaeological findings concerning the collapse of Easter Island will be discussed. The fall of this society has usually been attributed to human-caused environmental damage, however, these findings suggest that the spread of rat populations may have over-consumed key food resources on the island. A third post will consider perhaps the most contentious environmental topic of our generation: Global climate change. We will also examine whether grazing animals may be used as potential allies to reduce greenhouse gas levels by transferring carbon from the atmosphere to the biosphere. Finally, the mysterious phenomenon of bee colony collapse will be described, and if the possible root causes may lie in our corn heavy food systems. The irony here is clear, as pollinating honeybees are central to our crop and honey production. You’ll find that there is a common theme running throughout our dialogue on animals: resistance to collapse. Evidence of potentially irreversible destruction to our food and culture are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore, and holistic methods are key to preventing what has happened to countless other civilizations throughout time.

Vegetable: Unlike the animals plants seem to be a passive player in the game of life — their agency unseen due to their relative immobility. Yet plants are key building blocks for all life on our planet. They are important buffers in maintaining planetary homeostasis, retaining (and creating) topsoil and fixing carbon from the air. in our posts we took a few different looks at the place of plants in our world. One of our posts considers how algae has been a very useful ally in the past as a natural form of fertilizer, a practice which unfortunately was largely abandoned for less sustainable chemical fertilizers. Another considered the cultural angle of our choices regarding spice preferences as reflected by the temperature of where it is we live.

Mineral: To many, it is the mineral world around us that shapes the physical reality of the “environment” all around us. Being a fundamental element of chemistry, they are the basis of the food we eat. The growth of plants is subject to all-important micronutrients in the soil, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, and the discovery of this fact was a major driving factor in the Green Revolution and the explosion of the chemical fertilizer industry.
Minerals can be looked at from another perspective too, thinking of the dietary minerals that humans require to stay alive. Interesting political battles are waged, with dietary calcium becoming the darling child of the modern dairy industry. Others, like selenium or copper, appear far less sexy in the public eye. Salt is another mineral, or rather a compound of a number of minerals, that is also rather contentious. While salt is essential for life at the cellular level, we have a number of studies correlating increased salt consumption in the West with diseases like hypertension and obesity. While most minerals have good and bad sides, some are nothing but bad. Our group delved into the impact the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster had on food production in Japan, with radiation levels in parts of the country reaching dangerous levels.
Our group tried to take a broad look at the possible ways the inanimate non-living physical world around us affected people’s health and foodways. Under this umbrella of the inanimate, we’ve explored how these things shape human destiny as we shape them.

Conclusion: Unfortunately looking at these topics tends to not reveal much good news. Our use of the environment has put large and complex strains on all the worlds natural systems, altering their form and makeup in unknowable ways. The case seems to be that we may have caused so many malfunctions in the environment that returning it to a proper balance may not be possible. One notable theme we all encountered was our poor practices of managing of soil and the use of fertilizers. Instead of finding a sustainable solution, we mask the problem and exacerbated the issue. With a loss of fertile soil, the vegetation begins to compete for survival among other species of plants. This causes the animals to suffer from a lack of nutritionally dense foods, or from pollutants from run off and algae blooms. Yet there is a potentially positive side of these issues, that if we can crete such elaborate and complex problems we may be able to fix them as well by learning from our mistakes and not repeating again and again. We need to determine better solutions by observing what our environment is saying, rather than assuming we know best.