Wednesday 26 September 2012

Sustainable Food Consumption. How can we be part of the Solution?

These are extracts we discussed to explore the concept of hunger and poverty, and their relationship to each other. The article came from the Australian 2010.
It's more expensive to ignore poverty

However, the problem of global poverty and hunger is not just a moral challenge. For the financially minded, the good news is that addressing the problem is far cheaper than ignoring it.
For example, let's take a closer look at Millennium Development Goal One, which aims, among other things, to halve hunger by 2015. According to the UN, to reach this goal, an extra $40 billion in aid is needed each year to support agricultural and food security programs that increase self-sufficiency in food production.
To put that in perspective, a recent ActionAid report found hunger was costing poor nations more than $450 billion annually through reduced worker productivity, poor health and lost education. That means fighting hunger is now 10 times cheaper than ignoring it.

In India, one of the world's emerging global economic successes, one in five of the population is hungry and close to half of all children are malnourished.
It's not all bad news, however. By investing more in local agriculture, governments can feed their people and regenerate rural economies.

Recent research has pointed to the vital role that agriculture played in China's initial take-off.
Agriculture was estimated to have contributed to poverty reduction four times more than growth in the manufacturing or service sectors.
Meanwhile, many other countries have slashed hunger rates by increasing investment in small-scale farmers - in particular women farmers.
Safety nets are also important to help small farmers keep planing and harvesting through tough times.
Archie Law is chief executive of anti-poverty agency Action Aid Australia

So what does that mean? it started us thinking about the link between both.
poverty = is the deprivation of food, shelter, money and clothing that occurs when people cannot satisfy their basic needs. Poverty can be understood simply as a lack of money, or more broadly in terms of barriers to everyday life.
hunger = When relief workers and social scientists talk about people suffering from hunger, they usually refer to those who are unable to eat sufficient food to meet their basic nutritional needs for a sustained period of time.

If communities can learn to be self sufficient, they can become more economically viable and in turn, begin to resolve the issue of hunger. Sound so simple!

The next issue of government assistance should take the form of education, implementation of programs and funding. In many cases, there are very good initiates inplemented.

Then we can ask, how is it that people actually go hungry when the NSW Government shows that the average NSW household throws out $1,036 of food per annum 
 
Did you know 50 % of Food is Wasted Causing Water, Food and Hunger Crisis More than enough food is produced to feed a healthy global population. Distribution and access to food is a problem – many are hungry, while at the same time many over-eat.

Water losses accumulate as food is wasted before and after it reaches the consumer. In poorer countries, a majority of uneaten food is lost before it has a chance to be consumed.

Each NSW household throws away more than $1,000 of food per year. Across the state that totals 800,000 tonnes per year.
What can we do?
1. shop sensibly
2. educate
3. volenteer aid
4. Every one of us has food in our fridge, freezer and cupboard that we can use to make delicious lunches. By taking last night’s leftovers to work or packing them in your kids’lunchboxes, you will be keeping food waste out of landfill, making a difference to our environment and saving lots of money.

All our research uncovered many programs. One that we felt was relevent to our community is the Food Waste Challenge.
The Food Waste Challenge is an exciting, innovative and unique education program, developed by the Nature Conservation Council of NSW in partnership with the Office of Environment and Heritage through the Love Food Hate Waste program, which provides you with the skills to reduce your household's food waste- saving your wallet and helping the environment!

There are many councils and regions taking the Food Waste Challenge right now- have a look at the list below.

If there is a Challenge is your area, don't delay
register today!
 




leftovers at work int


 

Thursday 20 September 2012

What does it take to sustain my community for a day

To sustain a First-World community, cotton farmers are put under immense stress.
The amount of cotton used per day by Sydney is approximately 1,854 bales which is equivalent to 420,585 kilograms and needs 30,000 hectares of land to be grown. Thats four times the area needed for an international soccer field.

It takes an immense amount of resources to feed and clothe Sydney, a city of 4.6 million people.

To clothe model farms, a school of approximately.1100 people including staff. It costs approxiamately $76000 to clothe our community annually. Thanks to the farmers of Australia, we can sustain the cotton heavy community of Model Farms.





Friday 14 September 2012

We needed help from our school community

WE NEEDED HELP
Firstly
We called on students and staff to donate old jeans to use in ceating our cow. The response was slow at first but it wasn't long till we were well equiped to 'denimise' our cow. I Don't think 'denimise' is a word, but thats what we did.
thankyou XXX
Secondly
We conducted a survey, by a show of hands, asking those who did not own a denim piece of clothing. The answer was zero. Everyone owned somthing made of denim.... interesting!!
 

Wednesday 12 September 2012

Agricultural Innovation

Agriculture is an always developing trade. Over the years various technologies have been introduces to increase the amount of food that farmers can produce. In 1950 one farmer could only produce for 20 people. But in 2010, one Australian farmer can produce for 600 people. This means that farmers produce for aproximately 60 percent of the population.

Australia is a major exporter of Cotton. The Australian Cotton indsutry has greatly benifited from the agricultural technology advances of today. The Australian cotton industry is always advancing, finding new ways to improve their practives. With extensive Research and Development, Australias cotton industry is extremely modern and advanced.

For example, we have used modern technology to genitically enhance our cotton, allowing it to become one of Australias top exports, valued at 1.7AUD billion a year with $1.5 billion of it coming from exports



 This High Tech Sprinkler System is a perfect example of the
advancing technologies of the Agricultural trade.


The future key drivers for cotton exports are water efficiency, which is true across the board for most Australian famers. Cotton farmers are already three times as water efficient as the rest of the world but that doesn’t stop cotton farmers and industry experts looking for the very best use of Australia’s precious water resource.
 
 




As growers of a relatively high-value crop, cotton producers can afford to adopt innovative technologies. Crop rotations with cereals are an integral component of the management of pests, weeds and diseases on cotton farms.
Cotton was the first Australian industry to commercialise genetically modified crop varieties.
• Ingard, a genetically modified strain of cotton, has been grown in Australia since 1996 and has contributed significantly to reduced chemical insecticide application.
• Scientific work is underway to produce cotton strains that are drought resistant, need less water and have better fibre properties (such as increased flame resistance, reduced wrinkles in fabrics, and reduced need for dyes in processing).





 

Thursday 6 September 2012

Where did Lady Moo Moo come from??

The theme of cotton got us thinking.

Cotton = clothing = denim
We looked at the resources provided and denim was a recurring image. 
 
We decided that we would take on the concept of denim as a material to work with. 

From this the creative juices were taking over and ideas were gathered.

DENIM


LADY GAGA and her crazy fashion


 
TYPES of JEANS and denim products

clothing our own school community in cotton.

Many sketches, ridiculous ideas and more practical concepts were thrown around. We laughed and laughed, lost track of the task, got back on track, then argued which direction to take.