Week 3

One concept that stuck out to me this week was the balance that needs to be struck between meeting short term needs of the poor and putting systems and policies in place that protect the environment long term. This is particularly true of the rural poor, where agricultural practices are doing serious damage to the environment, but are seen as necessary to have a viable food supply. I've also been thinking about the question of whether or not its fair to put this burden of environmental protection on developing countries who are also struggling with becoming economically stable (or to what degree they should have responsibility in it). It was good to read about one program that is creatively addressing this issue, but a lot more will have to happen in order to prevent further permanent damage to the environment without enhancing food insecurity or other issues for the poor.

I mentioned this in one of my post replies, but something else that I have been thinking about a lot this week (and in the program in general) is the degree to which developed countries are responsible for supporting/helping developing countries (or at least not hurting them) and at what point policies that are designed for economic/political advancement of one country are unethical to another. I'm sure this will come up quite a bit more as the program continues, but I appreciate the themes that we've been exploring over the last few weeks where these dynamics are highlighted.