TOPIC THREE: AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGY

Western-intensive methods, promoted by the agribusiness giants, are being pushed upon the poorest countries. But these methods need research, fertilizers, seeds, and irrigation, which is simply not as obtainable and accessible for these people. The increased deployment of Western-intensive agriculture and the spread of Western food practices also have significant detrimental implications for the environment in terms of undermining bio-diversity, localized pollution, soil damage and rainforest depletion. Cudworth believes that if the emphasis on world agricultural production were to shift to the preservation and technological development of low input systems, world food needs might be met more fully, to the great advantage of billions of small farmers and with far less environmental damage.

I, again, completely agree with the claim that Cudworth is presenting here. The West can be a leader when it comes to international politics; however, it shouldn’t force its policies and procedures upon the rest of the world. Every nation is entitled to their own culture and ways of doing things to best fit their peoples’ needs and environment. Forcing culture onto anyone is ignorant and pretentious. It puts human and environment health at risk, and as technology advances, so should advancements in health. Waste should be a concern to everyone as it hurts the environments in which we live in. Jonathan Sterne’s chapter Residual Media—Out with the trash, on with the future helps support my opinion on this topic as he focuses on trying to minimize electronic waste. “Whether metaphorical or real, our trash heaps are public secrets. Computer trash is a catastrophic dimension of that middle space between fantasy and accomplishment occupied by so much digital halfway technology. A seemingly endless cycle of creation and disposal is driven by the dreams of users who seek that killer application and by manufacturers who stay above the bottom line only so long as they anticipate the underground burial of next year's new product” (Sterne, 29). Like with modern phones that Sterne discusses, modern agriculture does its fair share to pollute and damage the planet, which hurts our environment. We need to put an end to this cycle of creation and disposal that Sterne discusses and agree with Cudworth that we as a society need to help preserve and support low input systems because they are less damaging to our environment.