Food Security > Learn

I thought I had already posted a response to this. Anyway...

I live in a fairly affluent community that has no major issue with food. However, the island as a wh*** does have some problems, and the food crisis, given the overall overpopulation of the island (5 million people living in a 100 miles x 35 miles island) will likely have massive effects on the population if left unchecked. The socio-economic and historical considerations of the farmers in the island, whom, because of the way our history has taken place,have taken to mostly farming "cash crops", have turned the island's farming areas into an extension of the theoretical (and factual) "Banana Republics" - not the clothing stores, but the large colonies where single cash crops are planted.

A common saying among the people is that "the island cannot produce enough for everyone who lives in it".

This is true. Everyone knows that such a small place would never produce enough food for so many people unless special farming techniques are used.

And how are farmers or the government dealing with the problem? They're not. Instead, a large farming company, "Monsanto", a large farming goods manufacturer, randomly releases their chemically modified seeds into the air near the farm fields of smaller farmers. These seeds magically "fall" into the property of these farmers and grow, and Monsanto proceeds to sue the small farmers for "illegally growing their seeds". Since the Monsanto board of directors is well connected in politics and in the judicial system, the small farmers get fined with 1 - 20 million dollars. That is what corporations are government are doing to prepare for the food crisis: stal money off those who are trying to prepare for the food crisis.

However, there is some hope. Metropolitan University (UMET) has one of the best Environmental Sciences programs in the island (and it is competent on a world stage) and they are training science teachers from the Department of Education on recycling methods, green energy, and sustainability so that they can teach it forward to their students. Furthermore, many individuals (my mother, for example) have taken to making their own "little farmlets" in the backyard where they plant some fruits and vegetables and have a frog for a pet.

Once I move into a house with a yard I will follow my mother's example (on the mini farm, not on the pet frogs).