6 "why do we have to choose?"

Today, I finished my orientation for my graduate studies program. Other than worrying me immensely, I made friends, got to know the campus, and was introduced to some of my program's faculty members. One of these professors gave a presentation on world hunger, mostly focusing on things I already knew. However, I decided to introduce myself to him after the presentation, because, you know, I'm still a brown-nosing Park at heart. I explained to him what I was interested in and that I recently found myself in the debate (with myself) about whether it was more important to feed people or to save our planet from natural resource degradation. In my mind, feeding the hungry demands more resources for farming land, production facilities, etc etc. In a previous blog post I asked, "Are we willing to destroy our planet and get as much out of it as we can so that no one will go hungry?" So I posed this question to the professor, and his answer had a surprising and refreshing simplicity to it.

"Why do we have to choose?"

-stunned-

good question

Yes! WHY? Why has our society decided that we can't save people and save the world? Why does the success of one have to lead to the failure of the other? Not wanting to show any emotion on my face of his blowing my mind, I left the lecture room stunned that I hadn't thought of that myself. So simple, so stubborn to a degree, but I felt like those 6 words made me step back and really evaluate my pessimism concerning solving hunger. I felt terrible telling people that there has to be hunger in the world because without it population would go unchecked and we would be forced to ravage the planet and suck it dry. But why? Why does that have to be the trade-off?

People usually turn to technology in a situation like this, but instead I believe that this is pure policy (as much as it irks me to say it). Politics. My enemy. I've tried to stay neutral, un-opinionated, but I fear that this program is going to force me to take interest, to take a side. And this reality is rearing its head everywhere I turn. Maybe it's time to embrace politics. Take it for what it is and really start to make a difference.