Sharon asks…
How much money is enought for me to retire?
Objective: retirement with enough money sustainable for food, house, travelling and a quiet life. My wife works, and we have no kids. We live in Beijing with two houses–one we live and one we rent to other people.
The Expert answers:
The simple answer?
(1) Figure out your current monthly expenses, including taxes and extras.
(2) Multiple by 12
(3) Multiple by an estimate of your remaining life. There are actuarial tables for this purpose, although they tend to under-estimate the long lived and add too much to the short lived.
The only real problem with this number is that it tends to ignore two different but important concepts:
(a) The added costs of growing old. These include general care as well as health care. It also includes the point in time when you can no longer work. If, for example, you loose your rental house at the age of 65, you could more than likely go back to work earning a decent living. At 85, that option would be much less likely.
(b) Inflation. The tendency of the cost of things to go up as time goes on. The plague of the middle class…if you live more than two decades in retirement, it is entirely possible that it will cost you twice as much for the same thing (you have now). If you don’t plan for this, you may come up short.
Daniel asks…
How do we create a sustainable, advanced economy for the future?
Today’s industrial economy is based upon explointing labor, natural resources, and the environment as a whole. Today’s farming is based upon degrading the land and water for high yields. Neither industry nor farming have much regard for whether their methods can be sustained long-term. The future is at stake.
Clearly, we must re-focus our efforts toward a more-responsible economy and lifestyle, but this re-focusing will cost plenty. Volunteering to give up the wasteful methods that produce cheap goods and cheap food won’t be an easy pill to swallow for the American populace, where bigger has always been considered better. It’s counter to our sense of “progress.”
How do we convince our populace that this must be done or risk our long-term survival as a nation and people of this smaller-and-smaller earth?
How do we convince others to make the same sacrifices, especially those such as India and China just on the cusp of traditional economic wealth?
The Expert answers:
I don’t know if you can convince someone… It takes longer (and more money) to do something the right way… More money equals higher taxes… It seems like most people don’t care about the “right way” to do things.. Only the cheap way…
I just hope the earth is more resilient than we think…
Steven asks…
What kind of food do you mostly take-out from restaurants or cafe? (Ex. salad, soup, hamburger, etc)?
I’m going to create a sustainable take-away packaging (boxes, cups, bags). I’d like to hear what popular take-out dishes are, and create three different kind of packaging which fit to quantity or form of food. (Pizza requires a spacious box, and soup contains in special container for liquid food.)
And when you think about take-out packaging, what is the most considerable thing?
The Expert answers:
Pizza subs and salads
Jenny asks…
Discuss the possible implications (positive and negative) of the sustainable agriculture/locally grown food.?
Discuss the possible implications (positive and negative) of the sustainable agriculture/locally grown foods movement on American agriculture
The Expert answers:
Local food can be sustainable because it reduces food miles; that is, it reduces the distance food has to travel from the farms to reach us, the consumers. Because food miles are reduced, less fuel (usually from fossil fuel sources) would be reduced. Hence, this leads to lesser CO2 emission and less detrimental global warming. One more way local food can be sustainable is it provide jobs.
However, some food items are best imported rather than grown locally. This is because America cannot possibly grow all its food. Limitations by weather, soil, or infrastructure make production of some local food more expensive and more environmentally detrimental than if the food were to be brought in from another country.
So, in short, it is best America grows what it grows best (locally) and imports those which are best grown elsewhere.
Lisa asks…
Will Sustainable Agriculture be able to feed the world’s population in 50 years?
I need specific data that will support the idea that SA will be able to feed the world in 50 years. I had my choice of Genetically Modified foods, or Sustainable Agriculture, and due to moral reasons I chose Sustainable Agriculture. Now I can’t find data to support my choice. Help! This is a VERY casual paper…we are able to plagiarize as much as we’d like…the instructor would just like us to be able to supply him with data.
The Expert answers:
As you have decided the use of GMO is immoral, I question your personal morality, obviously honesty has precious little use in it.
To answer your question: While the incorporation of Sustainable techniques will increase in usage, to date no properly conducted and analyzed scientific study has shown that these techniques will increase yield (most indicate a 10-25% lower yield compared to conventional agriculture). However, the subject has not be adequately researched to prove either method provides the superior yield consistently.
If you review the literature and conduct some of the research, a few things that do become apparent.
Conventional agriculture is ‘leaky’ meaning some of the compounds used do move and are found in areas outside of the application area
The use of conventional agriculture tends to put producers (farmers, etc) on the “technology treadmill”. This means once you get on board, the producer has to constantly be learning, adapting and responding to the economic pressure of excessively low prices due to increased supply without increased demand.
Use of only Sustainable agriculture techniques is unwieldy. Once locked into this group of techniques and markets, change is difficult. This leads to an industry ill prepared for an uncertain future. Flexibility has always been required for a business to adapt to an every changing world.
Sustainable agriculture will have lower input costs, but tends to have a higher cost per unit of production. Without the ability to increase yield, price per unit of production must increase along with inflation, else the business becomes unprofitable. Prices for agricultural produce (the goods produced by the farmer) have not kept up with inflation over the past century. This price is highly correlated with demand and supply. Organic or Sustainable foods tend to bring greater prices per unit (almost 2x conventional) but currently face little in the way of production competition. Once the supply increases, prices will decrease.
The future of agriculture is very positive. Sustainable practices, especially those involving soil microbiology will increase the efficiency of chemical applications (fertilizer, pests, use of GMO’s), however they will not replace the extremely efficient and cost effective programs of conventional agriculture. Unless, of course, the religious zealots of the environmental movement idiotically make it illegal to farm conventionally. (If so, get ready for a dramatic increase in food costs to the general public, including you).
So the short answer, when incorporated with current conventional agricultural techniques, Sustainable agriculture will help feed the world, but as currently envisioned by some, no.
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