Sustainability: A Change in Consumption Practices Can Save the Future

A change in our consumption practices can save the future
The earth’s population is expected to hit 10 billion by mid-century and we have to ensure that future generations enjoy natural resources the way we do. However, our current agricultural and food consumption practices are unsustainable. If we do not change, we are going to leave the earth in a worse state than we found it. Personally, I’m hugely interested in making this world a better place and this cannot be possible with our current food consumption and agricultural practices. It is a sad fact that despite there being about 3 billion malnourished people on the planet, more than a third of food produced in the U.S. goes to waste. Given that we have such a high number of people malnourished with our current agricultural and consumption practices, what would happen at the middle of the century when the earth’s population hits 10 billion? We are the custodians of this planet and we have to protect it for the sake of future generations.
Most of the agricultural practices we use today are damaging to the environment and do take into account the needs of the future generations. A large percentage of our land is used for rearing livestock and growing the animal’s feed. This commercial rearing of livestock detrimental to the natural environment as it necessitates clearing of forests. We are not only limiting the ability of the earth to absorb greenhouse gases, but we also denying future generations the opportunity to interact with animal and plant species. Clearing of forests contributes to the extinction of species, which I bet future generations would fancy interacting with. Clearing of forests is also done for cropland which further exacerbates the problem. With the world’s demand for food escalating as a result population increase, it is without a doubt that these unsustainable practices will continue unless stringent measures are taken.
While close to a billion people go hungry around the ...