Reference no: EM13171492
Impacts of a borderless society
We live in a world where geographic boundaries cease to exist when it comes to goods, services, and even food. We think nothing of having freshly squeezed orange juice or kiwis for breakfast, even if we live in New York City with 10-inches of snow on the ground in the middle of January. We live in an age where everything and anything is available for consumption year-round at your local grocery store. However, this global market also comes with potentially major ecological and economic impacts (both positive and negative). For example, the coffee you drink may come from beans imported from Columbia, the sugar you use may come from India, or the steaks you sear on the grill may have come from Argentina. How much fuel was spent transporting these products across the ocean? Were any pesticides used? If so, was it done in a sustainable fashion? Were forests cleared to make room for grazing herds or larger agricultural fields? These are just a few of the many questions we should be asking ourselves.
This is an article (short) from 2006 in Time magazine. It is called "Local Food Movement: The Lure of the 100-Mile Diet."
This is a much more in-depth look (14 page journal article) at the contrast between global and local food choices. We are reading 2 chapters already this week, so I'm not sure if this would be overload. It is a good article, but it is from 1996.
For this assignment, think about the impact that two (2) of your meals have on our world from an ecological and economic perspective. You can pick breakfast, lunch or dinner, and then answer the following questions. in 1,000-words, using APA style formatting, including all appropriate citations:
1. List all of the components of two of your meals. Then,
A. Where did each component of your meal originate? List the country that each part of your meal came from. (i.e., Did that glass of red wine come from Australia? Is the cheese from France?)
B. List where you purchased the products from.
C. Consider the chain of events that took the product to get from the farm/laboratory to your table.
2. What are some of the benefits of a global market and why? List at least 2 benefits, weighing any short-term and long-term impacts.
3. What are some of the impacts of this global market and why? Considering both short-term and long-term impacts, provide at least 2 negative impacts.
4. Consider the phrase Think Globally, Act Locally. What does it mean to you?
5. Has your research on the global market changed the way you will choose goods in the future? Why or why not?
This project should be a minimum of 1,000-words in APA style format. As always, be sure to provide appropriate citations, references, and links to any information you use in this paper. Be sure to also avoid copying and pasting large sections of text from any given source. For help with citations, refer to the APA Quick Reference.