Preliminary Thesis:
For the survival of the human race, both the human eating habits and food cultivation must be changed.
Abstract:
In the last hundred years, there has been the arrival of processed foods that have greatly weakened the human bodies. Although fast progress in hygiene and medicine has been made during this period, life expectancy has not raised in the same proportion. The human race has left the natural resources provided by nature in pursuit of development. If humans want to resist against diseases and sickness, they will have to reconsider the health advantages related to eating natural foods. The survival of the human race has been at its basic level because of the link between the global food requirement levels and the quantity of food that is actually available. As food is the reason for development and growth of human body and tissues, there is no human being who can survive without eating food. This means that food is demanded by the whole of mankind around the world as a basic commodity.
Body/ Discussion
Food may it be for animals or humans, directly comes from cultivation. Cultivation is synonymous with agriculture and generally refers to the process of growing crops or rearing animals (animal husbandry). More than 95% of the food consumed is cultivated and the remaining is managed from the nonfarm sources. Since the food consumed by both humans and animals is comprised of either crop or animal products, the relationship between cultivation and food consumption is very clear. Cultivation provides the food which is consumed by both animals and human beings. From cultivation, we acquire natural food products that do not actually require further or much processing for them to be consumed. Other food products require going through a processing phase before they can be deemed consumable.
As shown earlier, the survival of human beings is entirely dependent on cultivation. It is hard to imagine how human beings would survive were it not for cultivation. Cultivation essentially brings the food on the table of the human beings. The food in question refers to everyday consumable agricultural products like wheat, rice, vegetable, fruits.
Human eating habits have been evolving for generations and they continue to evolving even today. In the olden days, the eating habits were actually very healthy and people lived for long. However in the modern day, poor eating habits have been the norm and these habits have had adverse effects on the health of human beings. One of most common poor eating habits is the excessive and frequent eating of foods that are rich in carbohydrates and fats like cholesterol. These unhealthy foods include French fries, meat pie, fried yams amongst others. In addition to the adverse health effects usually associated with these food products, another effect is that the poor eating habits have increased the food consumption in the world. Since the world is at a stage where it cannot confidently say that there is enough food for everyone, increase in food consumption has essentially led to a food crisis in third world countries where the amount of required food far outweighs the one amount that is available. Thus it is clear to see the relationship between the eating habits, food cultivation and the survival of the human beings.
Increased demand for food which has resulted from poor eating habits has led to a food crisis. The increase in demand therefore calls for increased food cultivation. There is no place for cultivation without the necessity for food at the same time. The greater demand for the food calls for a greater rate of food cultivation because the manner and rate in which all humanity consumes food impacts the manner and rate in which the food cultivation happens.Sometimes, it is not viable to meet the demand for food through normal cultivation. This is where the issue genetically modified foods (GMO) comes into play. Genetic modification involves the use of genetic methods including chemicals, genetic modified seedlings, fertilisers and microalgae to grow food faster. This might seem like an attractive option but the food produced from this method is usually of low quality and may have long term health effects in the consumers. Examples of elements used in GMO cultivation include pesticides, microalgae and chemical and synthetic fertilisers.
The rising demand for food has consequently led to an increase in the world’s food prices. The highest effect of this inflation of food prices is felt by people in the third world countries. Most of these countries in the African and the Asian continents and include India, Somalia and Nigeria.
Conclusion
This essay addresses the relationship between poor eating habits and food cultivation, and the measures that should be taken to prevent the negative impacts of poor eating habits. The primary measure is the adoption of healthier eating habits. This involves encouraging people to alter their eating habits and also placing regulations and limits on the amount of unhealthy food products that enter the market. In addition, to meet the increasing demand for food in the world, governments must also come up with new strategies to increase the food production levels in their countries. The main issue however is that if the world does not alter its eating habits and cultivation, humans will cease to exist.
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