Month: April 2023

Food seems to be a popular topic in my blog posts now, and I have no problem keeping that tradition alive.  I have always had a special love for food as I interact with it every day.  Today I want to discuss the sustainability of food and the different ways that food is produced in our society.  Farming is a massive industry in the United States, bolstered by our favorable environment for crops.  Agriculture-related industries account for over 1.2 trillion dollars in the United States GDP.

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Of course, when there is an industry this large and this profitable, there are going to be large corporations in control.  In fact, Bill Gates is the single largest owner of farmlands in the United States.  This came as a massive surprise to me but made sense in the grand scheme of things.  The agriculture industry has sacrificed quality to achieve the ability to produce food in great quantity.  Funny enough, this reminds me of what has been done with Apple Products—the sacrifice of quality for more profit.

On the bright side of things, this has not totally been done in vain.  With the introduction of mega-farms, many small, family-owned farms have been run out of business.  This has led to a higher demand on these farms to produce more food to keep up with the large and growing demand of the United States.

Fertilizers are a key part of the agriculture process, allowing for stable and healthy growth of crops.  However, the side effects of fertilizer can be extremely harmful to the surrounding environment.  Just one acre of corn uses between 100 and 200 pounds of fertilizer.  The average farm in the United States is 445 acres, so if my math is correct, that is over 44,500 pounds of fertilizer per growing season.  A significant amount of fertilizer is not used, however.  Much of it is washed away during rainfall into local streams, gutters, rivers, and lakes.  The nitrogen in the fertilizer stimulates the growth of aquatic plants and algae, which is known as algae blooms.  Algae blooms can completely overtake water systems by using up the dissolved oxygen in the water, leaving none for the poor little fish.

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Thankfully, the United States Environmental Protection Agency released guidelines to reduce the overuse of nitrogen and improve the quality of waterways.  Fertilizers must be applied with the proper recommended account during the growing season of the plant and kept away from escaping water sources.

The French appear to be in the midst of the beginning stages of a revolution.  This results from the French President, Emmanuel Macron, moving the retirement age from 62 to 64.  I think that seeing this type of activity in a first-world country is honestly quite scary.  However, from a historical perspective, it is quite neat.

I try to stay updated on current events as much as possible or as much as being a college student allows me.  So while reading about the French protesters starting fires, I had an interesting idea.  I could write a blog post about what impacts fiery protests such as this one could have on the environment.  As it turns out, searching “What effects will the French fires have on the environment” does not give results about French fires.  The Google algorithm prefers to show results for the effects of French fries on the environment.   Thankfully, I was taught never to back down from a challenge.  So I decided that I would pursue my destiny given to me by Google.

I hope those cars are out of gas, or else that fire might become an explosion.

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French fries are one of the most popular side dishes in the United States, as they are versatile enough to be served with nearly any kind of dish.  As a result, enormous amounts of French fries are eaten annually.  Some sources estimate that between four to five billion pounds of French fries are consumed annually in America.   This equates to about two billion kilograms per year.  About six kilograms of CO2 emissions are produced for every kilogram of frozen French fry.  I am sure you all can do simple math, but that equates to a whopping 12 billion kilograms (26.4 billion pounds) of carbon dioxide emissions.  If every American stopped eating French fries immediately, the country would be healthier, both its people and environment.  Of course, this is an unreasonable statement, but it is cool to think about.

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The unfathomably large number above comes as a complete shock.  However, not everything about the production of fried foods, such as French fries, should be frowned upon. Over the past few decades, there has been technology developed to produce diesel from cooking oils, grease, and fat.  This particular type of diesel is called biodiesel.  Biodiesel is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 75% compared to traditional petroleum diesel.  Sadly, a lot of cooking oil and grease still go to waste.  As of now, only restaurants have the luxury of being able to recycle their cooking waste.  This leaves a question for you readers: should America invest in infrastructure that allows the ordinary person to recycle their cooking waste?