It is incredible to think that your food could travel more than 3,000 miles to get to your home, and still be fresh. The amount of energy used to move food from one part of the world to another is becoming an issue in the 21st century. There have been movements, like in America where buying local is being encourage.

Currently the world is dependent on petroleum for transportation. With how interlinked the world is today with other countries in gathering oil, a small conflict in the middle east, or an oil refinery fire can make world oil prices rise to a substantial amount. A report from December 30, 2013 reported that world oil prices went up 10%, which is enough to make food prices for the consumer go up by .0907%, considering how much an average person can spend a week on food, say about $7 a meal, three meals a day, that would be about $150 a week. With a .0907% increase, that means an extra $13 a week in food, or $676 extra spent on food each year, just from a 10% increase in oil prices!

With rising costs in transportation, smaller countries will begin finding it much harder to export their product. Costa Rica for example makes about 791 million dollars exporting pineapples. However, they have an issue in bringing product from the trees to ports, increasing shipping costs, up to eight times, and more time to make sure the fruit is clean. This is just a case example, as numerous other countries in Central America face the same issue. Buying exotic fruit in say Europe is going to end up costing much more than it should, but local fruits would be much cheaper transportation wise, however mass production could still bring prices of foreign fruit cheaper to that of local fruit.

Local food thankfully is becoming cheaper due to genetic modification of food. There are ethical issues however in genetically modifying food, however with rising prices in energy, it will become more necessary to make high yields at home. Also, another factor in increasing food prices is fertilizer, which is made with petro products. Genetically modified food would be able to sustain harsher environments, also limiting the use of chemicals used.

ith supply and demand, global food is still cheaper in many areas, however with better technology, local food will eventually become more popular. Alternative energy is currently making gains in changing transportation, thus moving food will become both greener, and cheaper with a more reliable energy source.
-Michael Sherburne
Sources

-http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/341813/economy/business/transportation-sector-to-take-biggest-hit-from-fuel-price-increase-nscb
-http://www.freshplaza.com/article/117244/Logistic-difficulties-for-Central-Americas-fruit
-http://m.scidev.net/global/agriculture/opinion/the-dire-need-to-support-orphan-crop-research.html
-http://www.dw.de/farmers-defend-themselves-at-berlins-green-week/a-17369859

“People say graffiti is ugly, irresponsible and childish… but that’s only if it’s done properly.”                 -Banksy, Wall and Piece

Banksy is an anonymous political activist, film director, and (most famously) graffiti artist. His ability to jab various societies where they feel most vulnerable landed him in Time magazine’s world’s 100 most influential people of 2010. Banksy has always been vocal about the power of graffiti to start revolutions and stop wars.  He began his career in the early 1990s as a freehand graffiti artist in Bristol, UK, typically distributing messages of anti-war, anti-capitalism, and anti-establishment, using subjects including rats, apes, policemen, soldiers, children, and the elderly. Whether it’s his “Stonehenge” made out of portable toilets or his depiction of Pulp Fiction’s John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson threatening with bananas as opposed to pistols, his work has always found its way into the public eye. Banksy’s work has been seen all over the world in numerous countries and shows the ability in today’s world for ideas to spread if they are worth spreading.

In today’s world you don’t have to be standing within 50 feet of a piece of art to enjoy its expression. We now have instantaneous communicative ability that allows the spreading of ideas to happen unlike anything anyone living mere decades ago could comprehend. We trade in the currency of attention. A “meme” is the smallest unit of an idea and they fight for space in our thoughts, conversations, and cultures. They grow and change with the same evolutionary forces as natural life. In the age of the internet and mass information, weak ideas don’t stand much of a chance.

There is a reason Banksy and his works are popular in the world. It stretches our imagination and perspective on different global issues. The type of skill he puts forth is perfect for the era he lives in. “There’s a whole new audience out there, and it’s never been easier to sell [one’s art],” says Banksy, “You don’t have to go to college, drag ’round a portfolio, mail off transparencies to snooty galleries or sleep with someone powerful, all you need now is a few ideas and a broadband connection. This is the first time the essentially bourgeois world of art has belonged to the people. We need to make it count.”

Rumors have started that the featured image was done by Bansky in Sochi.

-Joesph Puletti

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-story-behind-banksy-4310304/

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/jul/17/art.artsfeatures

http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Banksy-Rumours-Bristol-graffiti-artist-starting/story-20596066-detail/story.html

There are different ways to define the term “green”, but each definition has more or less the same meaning.  “Going green” is living a lifestyle using various methods to help protect the planet and its environment.1  Using organic and chemical-free products, saving resources and non-renewable energy, recycling, and producing less waste are all ways to live a green lifestyle.  Over the past century, we have abused our resources and now pollution and waste have negatively impacted plant life and natural habitats for other living organisms.  If we keep treating our planet the way we have been, we’ll soon run out of resources that are necessary to sustain human life on earth.  There are different “levels” of living a green lifestyle.  For example, using a hybrid or other eco-friendly car can reduce the amount of pollutants in the air.  To make a bigger impact could mean using public transportation which will eliminate even more harmful chemicals in the air as well as reduce the amount of vehicles on the road.  To make an even bigger impact, not buying a car at all (when done by a large number of people) would lead to less production of cars, which would in turn lead to less energy and resources used to make them.

Making any change in lifestyle can have a huge impact on the environment in which we live.  One impact is reducing pollution.  This can be done by switching to using natural cleaners and personal products, which do not contain man-made or harmful chemicals; switching to consuming organically-grown food which are free of carcinogens and heavy metals; and driving less to reduce the number of automobiles being used, thus reducing the amount of air pollution produced by vehicles 2as stated earlier.  All of these things can lead to a healthier lifestyle as well.  Eating organically-grown food is more nutritious, and alternative modes of transportation, including walking or biking (both considered to be physical activity which is good for the body), could be used instead of using air-polluting vehicles.  Reducing consumption and waste will lead to less need for energy and resources, which would also lead to less pollution.  There is an economic benefit to this: reusing materials saves money in production costs and money spent by the consumer.  Lastly, current world-wide environmental issues include deforestation, heavy reliance on oil, over-fishing, over-farming, and over-mining.  The solution to using more than the earth can provide for us is to consume only what we really need.  We are currently using finite sources of energy (examples include oil and natural gas) and sustainable energy (examples include wind, solar, and water) is difficult to harvest.  Until we can effectively make use of green sources and energy, we have to conserve our energy sources.  Saving energy would lead to less pollution.2  Less pollution means a healthier environment for both wildlife and future generations to live in.  It is important to have a sustainable environment so that there may be a future for our planet.

​There is also the issue of conflict between those who put a lot of effort into protecting the planet and those who continuously use resources and energy to produce products (such as engineers).  Students majoring engineering at Virginia Tech learn in their courses that it is important to be aware of the environmental impact when making design decisions.  These environmental impacts include resources and energy needed for production and transportation, choices of materials used, and the customers’ use of the products.  With the advancement of technology, products, processes, and systems are becoming more and more efficient as well as environmentally friendly.  Sustainable development, as defined in the ENGE 1024 – Engineering Exploration course at Virginia Tech, is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their ownneeds.3  The job of engineers includes making life better for the public, and with this century’s concern for preserving the environment, there is now a lot of attention going to meeting the needs of future generations for both human life and other forms of life.

-Kristine Mapili

Sources:

1. http://www.savetheworld.com/2009/11/what-does-going-green-mean.html

2. http://www.all-recycling-facts.com/what-does-going-green-mean.html

3. http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-02.htm