Thanks for the corrections.Kooper 寫:"Tendency of no return" seems weird to me. I've only heard of "Point of no return." Also no "Tendency of no return" could be found through Google.Sherry Liao 寫:The world is now facing a serious problem of ("problem of" seems redundant to me) imbalance between rapid growth in population and slowly-increased productivity in agriculture. According to an annual report by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation, the world’s population will rise to 9.1 billion in 2050; however, the global growth of produce yield does not meet the need, and some detrimental factors, such as climate change, the growing need for grain to feed livestock in China, and the trend to use food crops for biofuels, have all worsened the situation.
Food shortages could lead to a serious consequence. When the supply lags behind the demand, price will goes up. This is just what has happened: the price of commodity crops has doubled or even tripled in recent years. This could be a great misfortune for the poor, as food expenses present higher percentage of household spending in poorer families. Since the global economic recovery is still questionable, the steep rises in the price of staples could push the less well-off back into poverty.
To solve the problem of food shortage and to boost the produce productivity, some countries have been devoting themselves to the development of agri-technology. Amongst them, Brazil has achieved remarkable success. The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, which has been researching ("on" is not needed) agri-technology for more than thirty years, successfully transformed vast acidic wasteland to cultivated farmland and created high-yielding and tropical climate-adapted crops. The corporation also pioneered new farming techniques, increased the intensity of land use, and sped up the plants’ growing period, to expedite the increase in yields.
Despite the great contribution to farming productivity, modernized agricultural technology and large-scale farming often draw criticism of impact on environment and its possible danger to human health. Brazil asserted that they did not deforest the Amazon to reclaim farmland, but controversy of the genetically modified agricultural technology is still in the air. Nevertheless, as small-scale and organic farming are not to fix the thorny issue of food crisis, it seems that this is a tendency of no return.
I knew this essay was lame. I remembered it was written very early in the morning and I was groggy then. I knew it was couched in a crappy way but since the meeting time was approaching and I didn’t want to finish it after the meeting, I still proceeded to post it, boldly, in the hope that no one would read it carefully. Now I know I was wrong.
I feel really ashamed of myself. I should have taken every assignment seriously.