Factors Influencing Supply and Demand of Food Research Paper - 1

Factors Influencing Supply and Demand of Food - Research Paper Example It highlights the main reasons for some of these factors such as food scarcity, prices and volatility. Food scarcity is a significant issue affecting economies globally as they strive to maintain healthy communities. As population increases, pressure on arable land has mounted leading to reduced soil fertility and pasture for livestock production. Potential land for food production is no longer available for farming as a human settlement has continued to expand. FAO (2012) postulated that a 60% increase in food production will be required to sustain the global population by 2050. Many other forces are influencing the availability of food. Climate change and global warming have led to negative changes that have occurred in areas that formed part of the global food basket but no longer support farming as a result of reduced rainfall and desertification. Desertification in Africa, Asia and Southern Australia, arid areas of Spain, Northern and Southern America has caused significant food shortages. Poor farming methods, overgrazing and deforestation of vast areas have accelerated desertif ication to the current crisis leading to dire food shortage globally (Kendall & Pimentel, 2010). Among other dynamics, demand for food is influenced by socio-economic factors that influence people’s food habits. For example, improved incomes globally as more people are able to participate in gainful employment has increased the demand for expensive food such as fast foods and chicken that require more energy to produce compared to the conventional foods. Culture and religion influence what people believe to be edible and hence lower or increase demand for particular foods (Kendall & Pimentel, 2010). Nutzenadel & Trentmann (2008) argue that malnutrition and global food scarcity can be curtailed by discouraging prohibitive beliefs and promoting acceptance of a wide variety of food materials  especially animal proteins that are not eaten by members of certain religious and cultural groups such as pork consumption among communities in the Middle East and beef consumption among the Hindu. Many insect species have been found to be important protein sources but people have not accepted them as food sources (Brouver & Staveren, 2006).  

The Gallant Boys of Gettysburg :: essays research papers

The story I read took place mostly at the Battle of Gettysburg. Tom and Jeff Majors had just enrolled in the Confederate army. Tom enrolled as a private and Jeff as a drummer boy. Their dad, Nelson Majors, who had been in the army for quite some time, had just been promoted to Major. Tom and Jeff were appointed to their father's unit. They fought in the Battle of Gettysburg which was the worst battle of the Civil War. The death total for the battle was great. The Union and the Confederates lost a total of 18,000 men each. During the worst part of the battle, a shell hit Tom's leg. Jeff immediately carried him to the field doctor. The doctor told Tom that his leg would have to be cut off. The Confederate army was being beaten back by the Union and they had to retreat. That meant that Tom was put on a wagon and carried away. Tom knew there was little chance of him surviving the ride. Jeff had an idea to take Tom to the Poteets' house. They had eaten with them before the battle. The Poteets gladly agreed to keep Tom for a short while at their house. Jeff and Nelson Majors were very happy that Tom could stay with them. When Tom's leg was healed, he and Jeff went back to Kentucky where their family was from. When they got home there was a big welcome dinner. A letter came a few days later telling Jeff that he would need to go back to the army. When Jeff got back, he and his dad talked about how Tom was doing and the rest of the family. After that, the story ends just as they were about to go fight another battle. The predominate conflict in The Gallant Boys of Gettysburg occurred when Tom was hit by a shell from the Union army. Jeff turned and saw Tom rolling and rolling on the ground. When Jeff got there, he saw that it had struck Tom's leg. He quickly tied a bandage on it to stop the bleeding. Jeff told Tom that he would have to instantly see a field doctor. The doctor told Tom that his leg would have to be taken off. When Jeff and Tom arrived at their home in Kentucky, Sarah, Tom's girlfriend, saw what had happened to his leg.

Beyond Beyond Fashion

There is a trick of my writing teacher: When we finish reading an essay, first he asks: â€Å"What is it about? † We answer, then he asks:† If that's not what the essay is about, then what is it about? † So we answer again, striving to squeeze out every drop of intelligence out of our brain cells. Repetitively, after we are willingly tortured by this same question for three more rounds, the essence of the essay shows up. This was exactly the same feeling I received from the exhibition Charles James: Beyond Fashion, displayed by the Costume Institution of the Metropolitan Museum ofArt. Throughout the exhibition, I was asked this question over and over again: If fashion is not what the exhibition about, then what? Started from Maya and lasting until August 10, the special exhibition of Costume Institute of Metropolitan Museum presents the audience signature pieces of Charles James, an Anglo fashion designer who was active during the post-WWW 20th century in America. The exhibition is held in the special exhibition galleries on the Museum's first floor and The Costume Institute's Anna Winter Costume Center on the ground floor, including one small adjunct hall showing documents.Fifteen evening ball gowns and about fifty ready-to- wears are displayed. With intricate costumes, James first of all stood out as a king of fabric sculptor without crown beyond the simple definition of a fashion designer who made clothes that fit in the trend. The costumes were indeed â€Å"amazing†Ã¢â‚¬â€- quoting the most commonly used word of the visitors. James' original spiral cut, almost seamless design and the free draping technique are still not nearly comparable in the present day.They were not Just fashion, but sculptures that go around human body with full artistry and could stand the test of pure aesthetic examination. However, if the costumes were examined even beyond their tags of â€Å"fashion† and beyond their sculptural appearances, the int ention of these designs was actually in some degree provoking, if we examine the quotes of James that were written on the walls of the halls. A quote of James revealed that his ideal of fashion was largely sexual. â€Å"The feminine figure,† he believed, was â€Å"intrinsically wrong†.Thereby he claimed, â€Å"All my seams have meaning, they emphasize something about the body. † In this way, he striver to â€Å"perfect† the female body, however destroying the natural beauty of female odd at the same time. As a result, the innate motive beyond the fashion appearance of these designs was sexism aesthetics of the traditional malpractice, which should have been eliminated a long time ago. James' fastidious and male-centric aesthetic of female figure beyond his ability as an artist was further revealed by details in his designs. In the actual practice, James overemphasized the female parts.First, the tops gather into sharp and pointing horn. This design was ma de possible by darts of the gowns' tops following the traditional Rococo corset, which once made the teenage arils and young wives' waistlines tiny but at the same time cruelly took away many of their lives. At the same time, the bottoms of gowns spread widely. Either the gowns had big volume of piled-up drapes on the hip, or they were supported directly by two bustles, which was also a typical classic masculine aesthetic that addressed female's ability of bearing kids.Overall, James' costumes remade a women's body into a funnel shape. In addition, the bosoms were preferably shaped as cones, which presented women lasciviously. Even in the Victorian times, this male-dominant esthetics was giggly controversial for these characteristics defined females simply attractive in the way of a reproduction and bearing machine. In the post World War II America, after the liberation of female body brought by the ‘H' dresses, this Victorian renaissance was a recess that brought female back into the prison of clothes.Rather, in today's aspect, these aesthetics of female body are morbid. For females, it is the blood and tears in females' costume history. These characteristics, as â€Å"beautiful† as some might consider, are dross of the Victorian culture that should never be reused to improve he figure or even hinted in a modern design. I have to say, peeking into the motive of the designer, I saw an egocentric though man who are arrogant in the way he examining females. Finally, the end of the exhibition explored what truly was beyond this fashion designer Charles James explored even deeper.Beyond a fashion godfather, a king of fabric sculpturing, and a self-involved and orthodox masculine artiest, the documentary hall showed James as a person. Traditional mannequins and sketches were shown. While at the meantime, the document room also showed he videos clips of James kissing his finale model on her cheek before going on the runway, and an important list of cele brities and artists typed by James that James would like to design for. The tone of the list was playful, ironic and effusive. There were as well glowing critics, basically eulogies.In this room, though most people do not linger in it, the most interesting information what the artist was available, and it gave anyone who wanted to look deeper into the motive and inspiration of him a lucid answer: genially eccentric, Charles James' boldness and arrogance toward there led to his unceasing pursuit of perfection and the exploration of impossibility, which explained his surprising designs and the elaborate way of fabricating the costumes. As an exhibition of the Metropolitan museum, there were some commendable displaying methods in this exhibition indeed.The exhibition started with a theatrical opening. At the entrance, the world darkened down, and with the wall showing the name of the exhibition and a classic walking mannequin (a woman-shape body model) of James, the bright outer world and the dark inside world were clearly vided. There was as if a magical twilight moment, indicating the arrival of something brilliant in the darkness. After the prologue, I was almost brought into Sesame's studio on 699 Madison Street by muslin samples of his gowns posing around his famous â€Å"butterfly' sofa, recreating the scene of the studio and the salon of James.Inside the hall, the gowns were arranged in a spiral shape, going around his best- known masterpiece: Clover Leaf Ball Gown 1953. The x-ray analysis as well as the animation simulator explained the inner structure of the clothes by showing the involutes plastic bones and complicated drapes in the layers of fabric. The application of new technology treated fashion so scientifically —-as if a real piece of architecture—-that it gave even the most general audience a chance to think about the materialist word â€Å"fashion† in a whole new way.On the pads that showed the information of exhibits, a fe w hints about this sexual intentions of James' designs by showing the costumes of inspiration from the Victorian time, without explaining the underlying meaning of the original design. Though implicit about the word â€Å"sexual†, Hess pictures purposefully gave the audience a clue to the intention but still left them room to think that what was truly beyond fashion beside the artsy structure, allowing their own interpretation.Deliberately, the exposition of the clothes revealed the museum's respect to the master James, for his elaborate effort paid beneath the fabric. Furthermore, the exhibition's respect was also to the audience, as the museum brought fashion back to the ground, accessible to a general audience, while it respect the individual thinking by leading the audience to think about what was truly beyond cushion instead of giving out a definite answer. Still, compare to the art value of the exhibits, the display of the exhibition was fairly not a highlight.The light ing in the main halls was a disaster. Firstly, the semi-dark lighting environment in the black hall was a click. Comparing to other costume exhibitions at the Met Museum, this technique was so widely used that this trick did not tell anything about the artist. It was even anti-characteristic. James had a preference for dark colors. However, the semi darkness created a hostile environment for the audience to see the details. Especially since flash was not allowed, without a professional camera, I could not capture any details of the dark coats and gowns beside their silhouettes.And since the photos could not be used as long-term documents, the educational function of the museum in this aspect was largely sacrificed. Additionally, the semi-darkness also brought a sense of heaviness to the costumes. To illustrate, one of the best-known gown called â€Å"Swan† was named for the lightness of the peplum, which was composed of six layers of delicate chiffon. Nonetheless, with the li ghting, I did not see the eighteens at all because the semi-dark casting light could not go through and light up the costume like natural light.Therefore, what I saw was an impenetrable broom instead of the airy dress, which was not influenced by gravity. Overall, the display was mismatched with the costumes, even though there were few novel techniques applied. The masterpieces were as if sunk in a Jar platitude. The title Beyond Fashion made me feel confused and enthralled when I first stepped in that dark hall, yet I felt illuminated and preoccupied when I stepped back to the bright outer world. The exhibition successfully pushed one to think about the essence beyond appearance by presenting the costumes in different layers and angles.An audience could feel the question of what was beyond fashion throughout the exhibition. The magic would not happen until the very end, where one could confidently give out his/her own answer, like the answer to fifth round of questioning of my writ ing teacher. As for me, beyond fashion, beyond structure, beyond male chauvinism and beyond all his drama, I saw an aloof, fastidious, nostalgic, self- involved, narcissistic yet incredibly serious and genius about fashion soul of this master, this man.

The Death Penalty Should Not Be Legal - 871 Words

There are currently over 16,000 people legally sentenced to death worldwide. The State of Texas has 271 people on death row, the third most in America, but has executed the most people in the country. Twenty-five people have been executed this year in the U.S.; twelve of those have been executed in Texas (Facts). The death penalty must be abrogated because it is an ineffective, antiquated, and expensive form of punishment. Punishment by death has been around since Babylonian times, when the Code of Hammurabi introduced it. Since then, it has not evolved other than becoming more of a life for a life proposition. Studies show that the death penalty does not deter crime. Laws that are punishable by death are premeditated. People who are willing to die committing crimes do them anyways. A life for a life is not justice it is revenge. In addition to being useless, the death penalty is also an antiquated form of castigation. The time preceding execution can be agony for an inmate. Imagine spending 23 hours a day in a cement enclosure the size of a bathroom. Now imagine sitting in that small room nearly all day, every day without respite, for a year, five years, even 10 years. How long before you become restless and lonely? How long before you start pacing and talking to yourself? How long before you lose your mind? (Mann) Death row has become a place of torment where an individual’s only relief will be death. States have started to abolish the death penalty with non-retroactiveShow MoreRelatedThe Death Penalty Should Not Be Legal1261 Words   |  6 PagesThe Death Penalty Should Not Be Legal The death penalty should not be legal because of two major reasonings. These reasons are, the death penalty takes the lives of many innocent people, and it also costs too much. The death penalty should not be legal because innocent people are wrongly convicted and killed. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, it puts innocent lives at risk. At least 4.1% of all defendants sentenced to death in the United States in the modern era are innocent (DeathRead MoreThe Death Penalty Should Be Legal1457 Words   |  6 PagesThe death penalty can be traced all the way to biblical times when people were executed for many reasons such as: for not believing in their god(s), choosing to interact in sexual conduct while unmarried, stealing, murder, etc. The methods of execution back in those times were to either: stone, hang, slay, crucify, and burn not only the offender who committed the crime, but if he or she had a family, the entire family was executed with them as a warning to the people of their tribe or city to notRead MoreShould The Death Penalty Be Legal?985 Words   |  4 PagesBen Goble Mr. Newman English Comp. November 4, 2015 Should the Death Penalty be Legal? The death penalty, also called capital punishment, has been a topic of debate among the public for many years, gaining very little ground in changing the legality of it one way or the other. The topic is very controversial because many people feel that it is wrong to take the life of another person. On the other hand a very comparable number of people push for the legality of capital punishment for condemningRead MoreThe Death Penalty Should Not Be Legal1004 Words   |  5 Pagesabolish death penalty† (Bosman). In thirty-one states, federal government and military legal system, the death penalty is lawful. Even the Supreme Court has been changed direction of capital punishment. One day, it could be a legal and illegal by the Supreme Court. Most of European countries ban the death penalty except Belarus that if a criminal involve international terrorism, murdered, inhumane crime and the criminal receives death penalty. Nowadays, banned the death penalty becomeRead MoreDeath Penalty Should Be Legal943 Words   |  4 PagesDo you think that death penalty will give justice for the innocent lives? The death penalty continues to be an issue of controversy in the whole world because people have different beliefs for giving justice to the innocents. For some people, they want it legal because death penalty will give justice for the innocent victims and a form of vengeance to the criminals. On the flipside, other people don’t agree with it because a lot of innocents are putting into death. These people believe that it isRead MoreThe Death Penalty Should Not Be Legal1573 Words   |  7 PagesThere are many legal issues that come along with the death penalty. Ratified on December 15, 1791, The United States Bill of Rights states in its eight amendment, â€Å"Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.† (8th Amendment to the Constitutio n). The Supreme Court stated during the 1958 case of Trop v. Dulles, that the 8th amendment must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturingRead MoreThe Death Penalty Should Be Legal1555 Words   |  7 Pageshave on a person? The death penalty, or capital punishment, is one of the most debated topics in America. It has been used for centuries, but many claim it to be barbaric, and want the practice to end all together. The death penalty should only be used in cases where there is absolute evidence that the criminal is guilty, because life in prison can be an alternative, there are many flaws in the justice system, and it can be a cruel and unusual punishment. The death penalty is legal in 32 states, theRead MoreThe Death Penalty Should Be Legal1554 Words   |  7 Pagesreceive the death penalty. Some say it is what they deserve, while others say that it is a â€Å"cruel and unusual†punishment. States, such as New Jersey, have already banned the penalty, but some states are still pending on whether to have the penalty or to follow New Jersey’s path . If you were to go and ask people why they are against the death penalty, they would say it is because it goes against morality, constitutionality, and the irrevocable mistakes of putting the wrong person to death. WhenRead MoreThe Death Penalty Should Not Be Legal1553 Words   |  7 Pagescalled problems with our system of justice is the death penalty. Capital punishment in this country seems to have its pros and cons. There are more issues and complications with being sentenced to death, while the positives are minuscule. The death penalty should not be allowed in the United States, and there are many reasons for this argument. The death penalty has caused controversy in the country since it became popular. 31 states use the death penalty and is also used by the military. Its use isRead MoreThe Death Penalty Should Be Legal Essay2884 Words   |  12 Pagesis the death penalty - should it be legalized across the 50 states or be declared unconstitutional? Some believe the death penalty is a better option for those who deserve the highest form of punishment available. However, others argue capital punishment is a waste of resources and should be brought to an end. Therefore, while many believe the death penalty should be legalized throughout the United States because it offers a higher form of punishment, others believe the death penalty should be repealed