we're living in a rapidly growing and
changing world and human well-being has
greatly improved in recent decades there
are about three billion people getting
wealthier and by 2050
they'll be entering the global middle
class our challenge as teens will be
meeting the needs of these people all
the while trying not to destroy the
environment that supports life around us
we are intricately connected to that
environment beyond the resources that it
provides nature is absolutely amazingly
cool living organisms and the ecosystems
in which they reside are complex
intricate beautiful gross simply put our
world is amazing to be a part of
surprisingly a big way we interact with
the environment is through the food we
eat and how we grow it food production
is a huge cause of environmental change
in habitat destruction agriculture
wishes farms and pastures take up the
most amount of land on earth crop lands
alone take up as much land as a
continent of South America while
pastures for grazing animals take up as
much land as a continent of Africa on
average it takes around 2,300 square
meters of land to grow food for just one
American that's the equivalent of five
NBA basketball courts in recent years
five to ten million hectares of land
have been cleared for food most of this
land came from diverse tropical
rainforest but not every diet takes the
same amount of land diets different but
on average takes three basketball courts
to feed a person and that's 40% less
than the typical American diet meat
production requires more land than
vegetables fruits and grains in fact
meat projection requires three-fourths
of all agricultural land and this is
because of the space needed to grow
animal feed animal feed also needs a lot
of water it can take up to 1,800 gallons
of water to produce just one pound of
beef that's as much water as 90 showers
around the world people are making more
money to buy things like food clothes
and shelter and as people make more
money they buy more meat which takes
more land to produce if everyone wanted
to eat like Americans do we would be
twice the land we have to grow crops and
where would that land come from
individual diet choices like choosing
between a hamburger or a veggie burger
or even a chicken sandwich can have a
big impact on the environment well what
if you don't have those options over 1
in 14 Americans have little or no access
to fresh or affordable food that is
necessary to maintain a healthy
lifestyle let alone the ability to make
choices that are better for the
environment these areas are known as
food deserts food deserts are defined as
urban neighborhoods or rural towns
without ready access to fresh healthy
and affordable foods these communities
may only be served by fast-food
restaurants or convenience stores that
offer few affordable options lack of
access contributes to a poor diet and
higher levels of obesity as well as
other diet related diseases such as
diabetes and heart disease but lack of
food isn't just a problem sometimes we
have too much food and one-third of that
goes to waste that's 20 pounds of food
per person every month
it also takes on a significant
environmental toll to 31 percent of u.s.
cropland and 25 percent of us fresh
water goes to raise that uneaten food
these are all large problems fortunately
we live in a time in history with the
opportunity and the technology to really
change the fate of our planet by making
smart decisions we can put the
environment on a more stable path the
actions we take today can greatly
improve our future but if we don't take
any action then we may find ourselves
with massive environmental problems
later on it's not adults that have to
bear this burden and recognize this
opportunity it's us we're inspired to
think differently and together we can
change the world we can do this we can
find a solution to the problems of today
you