Food Security/Insecurity

What is food security/insecurity? These terms simply refer to whether or not one is able to access adequate amounts of food due to financial reasons, lack of resources or other reasons like locations of supermarkets, etc.

The main thing that really interests me about this topic is the correlation between food insecurity and obesity. There are many articles out there describing the relationship between these. I found a really good article by the Food Research and Action Center. In the article, they explain why food insecure people are vulnerable to obesity. The main reasons that they provide include:

-lack of grocery stores and farmers markets

-healthy food is often more expensive

-low income neighborhoods have a greater availability to fast food restaurants

-fewer opportunities for physical activities

-people struggling for food may overeat when food becomes available

-high levels of stress

           

            At first, I thought it was a little crazy that these two things could be related. But after doing some research, it really does make sense that food insecure people are much more susceptible to obesity. In food deserts, or low income neighborhoods, it may just be cheaper and easier to buy fast food or highly processed foods.

            I also did some research on the other consequences of food insecurity aside from obesity. Some things that I found were, mental health and child development. On feedingamerica.org, they explain that food insecurity in adults has proved to have a relationship with the number of mental health issues and behavior problems. These people may experience higher levels of anxiety and aggression as well. They also state that children who grow up in food insecure families are vulnerable to poor health and stunted development.

            All of these things are big problems that could be prevented by adequate food. Researching these topics really opens my eyes and makes me aware of the real problem of hunger in the USA.

(http://food-fight.info/food-insecurity/)

http://frac.org/initiatives/hunger-and-obesity/why-are-low-income-and-food-insecure-people-vulnerable-to-obesity/

http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/impact-of-hunger.aspx

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090625113857.htm

http://tfbn.org/food-insecurity/

More on Subaru

In a study called RE:THINKING CONSUMPTION by Raphael Bemporad, Amy Hebard and Daniel Bressler, they write about how brands can overcome common barriers to purchasing more sustainable products. They list these barriers, some of the ones they include are: “It didn’t cost more”, “You got rewarded in some way” and “You had a better idea of what makes products environmentally and socially responsible.”

Last week, I wrote about Subaru and their green initiatives. I thought that the barrier that applied most to them would be the one relating to sustainability, “You had a better idea of what makes products environmentally and socially responsible.” So, essentially someone would say they chose one product over another because they had a better idea of what makes it environmentally responsible.

(www.subaru.com)

If I were help Subaru to position a product in a different way in their advertisements in order to eliminate potential purchasing barriers, I would make sure it was very clear that they are making huge efforts as far as sustainability. We will take the Impreza 2012 for example. Subaru has so many positives that they can use to their advantage like, the fact that they have set up a vehicle recycling project team to design future vehicles that are easier to recycle, and that all Subaru vehicles meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s standards which measure the environmental impact of each vehicle individually. Plus they were the first plant to achieve zero landfill status. And on top of that, the Impreza 2012 is a PZEV vehicle which stands for partial zero emissions vehicle. So basically, it produces much less emissions than other vehicles. If I were Subaru, I would focus my advertisements on the PZEV feature. This is something huge as far as being eco-friendly. If they make their sustainability efforts known, and make sure everyone understands PZEV this would be a huge selling point. They could sell a lot more cars and eliminate many barriers if they were just more thoroughly informed about the product and company. This video explains the companies story with sustainability, and this one explains PZEV. Subaru could use these points when trying to advertise the Impreza 2012 to customers. They would eliminate the barrier of, “You had a better idea of what makes products environmentally and socially responsible.” And then they would potentially sell a lot more vehicles.

Sources:

http://www.subaruofkeene.com/subaru-environment.htm

http://www.subaru.com/vehicles/impreza/index.html

http://alternativefuels.about.com/od/glossary/g/PZEV.htm

http://drive2.subaru.com/Fall04_SubaruAndTheEarth.htm

http://www.greenstudentu.com/eco_lifestyle/the_subaru_eco-friendly_assembly_plant.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSONpjtK6f8#t=43

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa-DA_UMl6E

Subaru

Subaru is currently imparting change in the way that cars are produced. They are aiming to use up less natural resources and help theenvironment. In the recent years they have put in a lot of effort into becoming zero land fill and more sustainable in general.

The Subaru headquarters is located in Cherry Hill, New Jersey.  I found a great video on youtube about how they have become a zero landfill plant. They have been working towards a healthier environment with a more sustainable company. They have been changing the way they produce their cars to find a way to use less resources. For example, they have stopped getting in car parts that require extra pieces to be trimmed off, thus reducing their amount of waste. They are also making sure to recycle all of their scrap metal rather than throwing it away.

Some say that Subaru is just doing this as a marketing plea. However, I was unable to find any reliable sources to prove that they weren’t. 

In my opinion, they are just trying to better our environment and that just happens to make more people want to buy their cars. Many people like seeing that companies are environmentally friendly and will begin to support them more once they find that out. I do not think that Subaru is advertising the fact that they are trying to be sustainable only so that they can get more business. I believe that Subaru really has good intentions and wants to become more green.

Sources:
http://www.subaru.com/csr/environment-sustainability.html
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/environment/2008-02-18-green-factories_N.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOGI5WnPLZk

FREEGANS

Have you ever heard of a freegan? The word freegan was made from combining the words “free” and “vegan”. Freeganism is a consumer culture that can be defined as “a total boycott of an economic system where the profit motive had eclipsed ethical considerations and where massively complex systems of productions ensure that all the products we buy will have detrimental impacts most of which me may never even consider.” (cite: freegan.info) Many of these people believe that consumerism has made us very wasteful. These freegans use alternative strategies of living that use up minimal resources. Freegans practice many different methods of this such as, waste reclamation, waste minimization, eco-friendly transportation and rent-free housing. Waste reclamation is essentially dumpster diving or, searching though trash to find food. Waste minimization consists of free markets where people share and trade goods, and other methods like the Craigslist free section. Eco-friendly transportation involves community bike programs and other ways of sharing and minimizing transportation pollution and cost. And finally, rent-free housing mostly involves squatting, or restoring abandoned buildings and living in them forfree.

I found this consumer culture to be very interesting because it is a completely different culture and lifestyle than what I am familiar with. It is such an extreme form of green culture; I find it very fascinating and I think that it is something I want to learn even more about. After reading several articles about freegans, I was curious about several things in particular: how much useable food is actually in the trash, and how do free markets work?

I found an article explaining more about how much useable food is thrown away. The article claims that 50% of US food goes to waste. This means that there are large amounts of perfectly good foods that get thrown away. So, if these freegans can get to this food waste in time before it goes bad, then it is good to eat.

I also did some research to help me find out more about freegans and free markets. There is a free market in New York called the Really Really Free Market that doesn’t use trading, but uses sharing instead. Their company description states, “The Really Really Free Market is a bazaar & celebration, where capitalist notions of interaction are discarded, and we have fun trying new models of exchange. Expect and share gently used clothing, books, household items, small working electronics, toys, CD’s and DVD’s, crafts, tools, food, skills and more.“  Free markets generally happen once a month and people bring things that can be used again by other people. These markets mostly focus on the idea of giving.

After doing some research and learning about freegan culture, I think it has changed my perspective on green consumption a bit. I realize that I could never live in  such an extreme lifestyle, but it does make me think about some not so dramatic ways that I could improve my consumption. I have a lot of respect for people who can go freegan and live their lives like that. But I can tell you that personally, I could not do it. The best I can do is to make changes in the way I live my life to use less resources and be a bit more green.

Sources:

http://freegan.info/

http://www.allthingsfrugal.com/dumpster.htm

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/zip/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/magazine/06Squatters-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/07/29/freegans-dumpster-diving/

http://www.oprah.com/world/How-Far-Would-You-Go/

http://inthesetimes.com/article/3287/a_freegan_world

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Really-Really-Free-Market-NYC/288012211374?id=288012211374&sk=info

e-waste and electronic consumption

While reading some articles about electronic consumption, one thing that really stuck out to me was the topic of e-waste. This is something that I have never known too much about in the past. What really intrigued me was the fact that rich countries just dump all of their e-waste into landfills in developing countries, and how many chemicals are in these electronics.

Richer countries are able to drop this waste into these less developed countries because there are no laws against it there. However, this e-waste that is being loaded into these countries contain many toxic chemicals. Electronics contain beryllium, fluorspar, cobalt, tungsten and other materials. 

Two questions came to my mind while pondering this topic:

What are the longterm effects of these chemicals?

What are some other/better ways that this e-waste can be disposed?

I found some articles to clear up my questions:

Hazards of Ewaste 

http://www.iowadnr.gov/Environment/LandStewardship/WasteManagement/Recycling/Ewaste/HazardsofEwaste.aspx

Proper ways of disposing Ewaste

http://www.nrdc.org/enterprise/greeningadvisor/wm-disposal.asp

By reading these articles, I learned that many rich countries are dumping their electronic waste into less developed countries to save themselves time and money. This e-waste dropped into developing countries contains many chemicals that can cause long term health effects to those who are living nearby. And overall, I feel that this is very unethical and wrong for us to do. 

But I also read about some other ways that we can dispose of our electronic waste. There are many trusted recycling programs out there that will properly dispose of your electronics for you. And you could always try and buy products that can easily be repaired or that have a longer life cycle. However in the world of products that are designed to de quickly disposed of this can be very difficult, so the best we can do is to make sure our electronics get disposed of properly!