Does the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ promise to provide solutions to the detrimental effects on the health and environment of the contemporary food system?
Political Science.
- Does the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ promise to provide solutions to the detrimental effects on the health and environment of the contemporary food system?
Definition.
4IR or Industry 4 are phrases both used to refer to the “Fourth Industrial Revolution.” This phrase is used to describe the unclear boundary between the biological, physical, and digital worlds. It encompasses the integration of robotics, genetic engineering, the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), 3D Printing, and quantum computing, among other technologies. The 4IR is linked to the forces behind products and services that have taken a course of fast production into the market and modern life due to the automation that has come with it. Unlike the other first three revolutions, this is set to change the world like never before. The anticipated transformative changes are expected to have a significant impact on the way of life and operations.
This new revolution, as named by Klaus Schwab, the CEO, and Founder of the World Economic Forum, points to great potential in raising the global income. He also views it as a tool to transform the quality of life. The revolution came along with a lot of promising impacts on different aspects of life. There is expected a long term gain in productivity and efficiency in various sectors. This is what gives hope to the detrimental effects on health and the general environment of the contemporary food system. The technologies that are driving all the changes in the 4IR are: Artificial intelligence (AI), Blockchain, Biotechnology, Virtual Reality (VR), robotics, IoT, and 3D Printing, among many other technologies.
On Health.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is expected to have significant effects on healthcare. The milestones that have been made in biology and the technological advancements are what is bound to change the healthcare systems. This is regarding the ability to manage health issues, quicken the delivery of services, and improve the relationship that exists between the healthcare providers and its clients. Numerous benefits are anticipated to come out of the 4IR. Medical breakthroughs are expected to be a common phenomenon since the developments are foreseen to bring along innovative medication measures.
Biometric technology development and the digitization of the medical record will enable medics to get to patients much faster, besides just resulting in more effective medicines. The management of chronic health issues will also be made easier through the technological, biological, and life sciences advancements. Among the positive impacts that will come along with the 4IR are the faster diagnosis, implementation of personal treatment, and being able to remotely monitor patients in real-time.
Due to the resulting improvement in connectivity, patients are bound to be more active in their healthcare. In such a state, they will be able to learn more about their health and how the conditions can be handled without necessarily needing to visit a health practitioner. Of great importance is that the patients will have an accurate picture and track over their situation. Incredible progress is also anticipated to accompany data collection and analysis that will lead to better innovation across the board. For instance, more data can now be collected about the brain than ever before; an act that leads to the current technology is more effective in terms of handling the critical conditions. Through these technologies, other hidden conditions have also been exposed and a remedy search set in place. Most importantly, it is worth noting that with the existence of the new technologies, then the people will be able to access healthcare facilities at a lesser fee. Overly, this will translate into a healthier population. It is thus expected that as the 4IR will impact on industries and other sectors, it will have a massive impact on healthcare. Due to its effects, world-class healthcare is expected to be available to all people across the world.
On Agriculture.
Regarding food systems, Agriculture plays a crucial role that cannot be undermined. Should there be no Agriculture being practiced, then that would translate to a starving and dying world. Although the whole world has taken the technological and manufacturing path since the first industrial revolution, the agriculture sector remains the spine of a sustainable economy. With all the technology that there can ever be, a state without enough food systems to take care of its citizens can never progress. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is much appreciated for the change it has brought in the agricultural sector, impacting on the way food is produced. The eight essential technologies that include but are not limited to drones, the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and blockchain have led to increased agricultural yield, reduced production costs, and lower environmental impacts. It has become easy to carry out farming and global food production that is including the processing of food using these technologies. Using drones, for instance, one is able to monitor the spread of pests and diseases across a wide range of an area through remote control. Crop management has also been made easy through automated systems.
Through these tools, farms are also empowered to increase resilience in adverse weather conditions, general climate change, and in the unlocking of new-plant based innovations. The technologies also take into account the future terrible conditions that are anticipated. These conditions include pressure on freshwater, overheating of the land due to global warming effects, extreme weather shocks, natural disasters, pressure on the arable land, and other natural resources. With this in mind, the Fourth Industrial Revolution focuses on coming up with advanced systems that will take good care of all these conditions and still sustain the world. Amid these pressures, the 4IR technologies seem to come out of mere fiction but with realities that will help curb the tough moments. For instance, developing a swarm miniature autonomous robot with the ability to plant seeds and is controlled from a farmers’ tablet remote control system is a significant step in the agricultural sector. Such advancement is what will help in timely production. All these are solution promises of the fourth industrial revolution.
- Regarding a particular example, assess the relationship between food and poverty.
Food security or insecurity can be used as a good measure for the poverty levels. Generally, poverty can be determined by the basics of life that one needs to push through life. Among these basic requirements is food. Though shelter and clothing are essential, most researches have used food as a base to determine the poverty levels. This is what brings the close relationship between the two aspects. For poor people, it has been evident that they spend a large share of what they get as their income on food an act that leaves them vulnerable to the high prices of food.
A close association between food insecurity and poverty among children can be determined using the New Supplemental Poverty measure and the official poverty measures. The two definition models based on the needs and resources of the family in terms of being able to sustain their meal needs. Children are thus the factor to consider when looking at these resources. They are the most vulnerable aspect of the utter lack of food as a result of poverty. Food insecurity, which is associated with high poverty levels, can have adverse effects on the developmental outcomes of the children’s health. Among the results are the cognitive effects, low achievements in school, poor socio-emotional development, and the general poor health.
A lack of access to adequate food or disrupted food patterns is what best defines food insecurity. Taking an example of children in a household, when the kids’ intake is way higher than what the caregiver can provide, then they are said to be under food insecurity. The cause of the caregivers not being able to provide enough food is poverty and nothing else. The factors that contribute to this food insecurity issues are the same ones as those that contribute to high levels of poverty among the people. Among the causes that result in high poverty levels are high taxes, low wages, high housing costs, high rates of unemployment, and the general residential instabilities. Political instabilities have also seen a rise in poverty levels and hence food insecurity due to low production and a wavery economy.
Low income is directly proportional to food insecurity. Rolling this down to the root cause of the food insecurity, low income is associated with the low class of people. This are people who can be said to be living in poverty. Many different research organizations have set what is referred to as the poverty threshold. Thus for anyone living below the poverty threshold set standards, can be considered poor. It this threshold that determines the minimum income required to support a family.
Considering the example of states that depend entirely on Agriculture as their main economic activity, the people’s poverty levels can be determined. Most countries are referred to as the third world because they are yet to develop and thus still use the old days’ methods of food production. With these food production methods, the countries are not able to supply enough food to feed its citizens since the production process is slow and not intensive. Drugging behind in mechanization and the use of manual labor is what slows down the whole process. Inadequate storage facilities lead to uncontrolled food storage, so the nation is not able to meet its people’s demands. Such facts are what have led people into living a hand to mouth kind of life. Most people have ended up spending a lifetime from generation to the next with the struggle to search for food to sustain their families, and this is what describes the levels of poverty that they got.
On a global scale, countries are classified form developed to developing to third world countries depending on the poverty index of the people. For instance, in the classifications, some researches claimed that one is considered poor if they are living below the standard of one dollar per day. Considering the world’s current economy, it’s poverty that will allow one to survive on a single dollar per day. One dollar cannot be able to put a meal on the table to sustain a whole family, say of four people. This is not including other requirements and bills such as housing, medical, and electricity. Under such conditions where one strains to make ends meet, then it can be deduced that they are living in abject poverty. And it should be remembered that food was the measure of this. For it is impossible for one to leave a porch and comfortable life when they cannot afford to put a meal on the table.
In the sustainable development goals, the first goal is on no poverty, while the second goal focuses on ending hunger, which is ensuring food securing. This is a clear example that indicates the close relationship that exists between food security and poverty levels. In a bid to end poverty, despite focusing on other aspects such as creating employment, ensuring food security is also critical. The Sustainable Development Goal number two aims at tackling the challenges that are accompanying food supply. There is predicted a population pressure by the year 2050, and thus measures are being set in place to ensure there will be the production of enough food to sustain it. With this in place, then the poverty levels are equally expected to drastically reduce.
Generally, it can be concluded that from families as small units to nations as a whole, food security plays a vital role in determining the poverty levels. To fight poverty, it would thus be recommended that countries start by ensuring that their citizens can access food and adequately provide for their families. After achieving this fundamental aspect, other conditions that deal with shaping the economy and creating employment can follow. Adequate food production for nations and families remains an undisputed fact as a controller of the poverty levels.
- How far, and in what ways, does the media determine what and how we eat?
In the current world where families are determined to eat and living a healthier life, the effects of the media through determining what and how they eat are becoming a subject of concern. These concerns have attracted the attention of the dietitians and the registered public health officials. Different researches have indicated that most kids aged eleven to thirteen years are the most affected when it comes to television viewing. This addiction to television leads then into eating doing no exercise other than stay on the couch and watch movies on the TV. As a result, a high percentage of them were most likely to turn out to be overweight because of the excessive watching ad eating without exercise.
The released news by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that there is an increase in the number of deaths that result from poor diet and a lack of physical activity. Lack of physical body activity is associated with the number of hours people spend interacting with their televisions, computers, and mobile phones. This media is what has led to increased laziness regarding doing physical exercise. On the other hand, poor diet is associated with the junk food that people eat as a result of what they saw a pop in advertisements. In the end, obesity takes control of the people, which stimulates the manifestation of other chronic illnesses as high blood pressure and diabetes. As a result, therefore, people lose their lives. Obesity, as noted by medics, is now a threat to most Americans. It is stimulated by many factors that include; poor eating habits, genetics, and lack of physical activities.
Of the three noted factors that lead to increased obesity cases, two of them can be associated with the television media. Case studies that were carried out by different researchers indicated in their results that advertising and low metabolic rates were the reasons behind the increased cases of eating in front of the television. A reduction in metabolic rates consequently decreases the need for calories. Thus when people continuously eat and the calories accumulate, they automatically become obese. Since people fail to consider this matter, they eat in front of the TV more than ever before without noticing. As a result, they gain unwanted and unnecessary weight. This puts them at risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and diabetes, other than obesity. It is also unfortunate that most people do not know what a balanced diet is. Thus, they end up eating anything and everything they learn on media.
Television media mostly propagate the enticement to eat anything. Upon advertising, this media directly addresses people who are less educated. They thus fall-in as victims who eat without control. These foods look like a logical source to families that cannot afford better meals. The general environment is another aspect that has a significant influence on what people feed on. The general social, economic, and cultural elements contribute to the dietary patterns by a large percentage. In the social aspect, the amount o time that both children and adults spend interacting with different media sources ranging from online media, television, computer, video games, and films is considerably too much. Other than this, the other place where lots of time are spent is sleeping. These two have become people’s norm and are extended up to between sixteen and eighteen hours daily.
Not only does the media consume people’s time, but it also has an impact on how they spend and carry around their daily activities. Dietitians, therefore, advise on the need to notify the young generation on how to balance between what they see on the media and the real-life application. It is essential that the children be put on the know, concerning the foods that are advertised. Not all the foods that are commercially advertised are good for one’s health. Dietary habits that we form are what determines our life and health. These aspects of the diet are greatly influenced by the general family setting, social environment, and the media. It has become common to see parents give in for the sake of pleasing their children by buying them the foods they want. Some of these foods are what kids saw on television or in cartoon boxes. The careless act to fall for what kids want, which was adapted from the media, has become the source of poor health resulting from poor diets. Most of the advertised foods are high in sugar, fat and salt contents, and will seem sweet to children, forgetting their effects. Continuous buying of such foods and unhealthy snacks are bound to negatively impact on the children.
It is worth noting that most advertised foods are bound to taste good. This is because of the advertising companies majoring in publicizing foods rich in high sugar, salt, and fat, targeting the young generation. This is mostly advertised during the programs that are children related, to capture their attention. Since it is difficult for children to differentiate between commercial advertising and television programming, they will fall victim to those adverts.
Thus, a high percentage of children who spend excessive time in front of the television media are most likely to be overweight. Researches have also indicated proof of the relationship between the media and weight increase. The metabolic rates are significantly reduced when people relax, watch, and sleep without carrying out any physical activity. With this low metabolic rates, the calories consumed in the foods that people eat and mostly in junk foods are accumulated. Another impact is seen in the social circles as provided for by the media. For instance, most social media users are said to feed on unhealthy snacks, and very sugary drinks due to the influence they get of what their counterparts are eating. Social peers are thus said to have a significant impact on what some people chose to eat. The eating behavior of a specific age group, therefore, revolves around the social friendship groups.