A lot has been made recently in the media regarding sustainability and the need to feed people worldwide. The world population now exceeds 7 billion people, and almost half of it depends on rice. Here in the US, we tend to view rice as a convenience item. Most statistics show that even considering inflation, Americans use around 10% of their income toward food, whereas in third world countries, that number may exceed 80%. As a consumer, I sometimes find myself looking for 'locally sourced' or 'green' products, but I often wonder, how sustainable am I? Am I making a difference by buying this product versus that one? Is an organic strawberry produced in the desert of Baja and shipped to New York really 'sustainable?' I mean, yeah, people will buy it to 'sustain' the industry, but what are we truly after when we look toward 'sustainability?'
As a consumer in the US, is sustainability high on your radar? Does it matter to you that rice you buy at your local grocery store might have yielded more per acre with less fertilizer and fewer pesticides and grown right here in the US? Does that type of information matter to you? Does that define 'sustainability' in your mind, or is it something else?
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