Paper 2, Draft 1
Consuming food has changed drastically over the years. The amount of home cooked meals has decreased and the amount of people consuming food has increased. The articles “Can Planet Earth Feed 10 Billion People?” by Charles C. Mann and “Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch” by Michael Pollan talk about two different aspects of food. Mann talks about two sides, the Wizards and the Prophets and how they have different opinions on what should be done to be able to feed everyone as the population increases. The Wizards believe that technology and GMO food may be the best way of producing enough food, but the Prophets believed that if we grow too much food then we will run out of money and that it will be unfixable if the population grows larger than what the Earth can handle. Pollan talks more about how much cooking has changed since the 1900’s. He touches upon the fact that eating out or grabbing food on the go has become more popular than taking the time to make a home cooked meal because people have no time in their day devoted to taking a break and making a meal. If we begin to increase the amount of farming then food production and home cooked meals may increase.
Over the years cooking at home has decreased. In the 1900’s, women used to stay home and cook meals for their families everyday, whereas today many meals are spent outside of our homes. This could be caused by so many things and it could contribute to the fact that there might not be enough food produced to support the Earth when the population eventually reaches 10 billion. Back in the 1900’s there were many more families raising animals and living on farms which made it much easier for meals and having meat available. The amount of farming has decreased immensely and the farms that are left have gotten bigger to try to make up for the amount of them. This could also contribute to the amount of food being produced. If there were more farms then we could plant more crops to support the population. As the Wizards had suggested, planting genetically modified food could help production go up. If we plant crops that grow quicker and bigger then there may be more available. No one knows if it would continue to work but it may give us a headstart in food production.
Money is another huge thing holding many options back. If we find a way to produce more food or crops the amount of money being put in to do it may cost more than what we are getting out of it. The C4 rice could be a new alternative to growing regular rice but the cost of genetically modifying all of the genes in the rice and then to not have it work would be a complete waste of money. Although it may be a good option, is it worth the risk of it not working?
