Sustainability

To sustain is defined as "to endure without giving way or yielding" (Dictionary.com). But really no one ever goes around quoting dictionaries. Sustainability to me is the ability of our environment and the ecosytems that we are a part of to keep going and support us. But we also have a part in sustainability, we need to realize the connections between us and the environment and do all we can to lessen our carbon footprint and give back to the environment that we take so much from.

One of our biggest problems worldwide is that our world population is so large we must produce large quantities of food to support it. Chemicals such as pestisides are aiding in the production of these foods. Up until recently, the use of pesticides was widely acknowledged as an easy way to produce more food crops. This was common practice until reseachers found that pesticides used in farming can accumulate in groundwater and contaminate freshwater supplies used for drinking, cooking, and bathing. This is not such a problem in the United States where there are many sources of drinking water and we have access to new technology in agriculture that allow us to not rely on the use of pesticides to produce food. But on other continents such as Africa and Asia where most of the population lives in rural communities with only small sources of freshwater, pesticides are still used because there is a lack of technology and funds to change agriculutural techniques. These pesticides wreak havoc on what little water is available to the people. (Hyperlink A)

With the adoption of a more green outlook on agriculture in the United States and other countries, there has been a bigger push to eliminate the use of pesticides worldwide. In Africa, there has been a green revolution by many rural women's networks in Africa to move away from industrialization and move towards family farming. This would eliminate the big push for producing mass amounts of food by many big name companies. This revolution also involves gathering African farming knowledge and technologies that can be used to educate people on ways of farming without the use of pesticides and other harmful chemicals. This green revolution in Africa can be used as an example that a worldwide policy against pesticides can be achieved. An elimination of pesticides would lead us closer to understanding our connections with the environment and thus sustainability. (Hyperlink B)

Hyperlink A: http://www.ota.com/organic/health/environment/pesticides/environment.html

Hyperlink B: http://www.theecologist.org/investigations/food_and_farming/908604/africas_green_revolution_20_rejecting_agribusiness_pesticides_and_gm_greenwash.html