Asking — and answering — life's interesting questions
There are a lot of problems and difficulties right now, from increasing impacts from climate change to political unrest to concern about the future of artificial intelligence.
We care about our readers, so we just want to check in with you: How are you doing?
Related questions: How are we doing? What is the greatest problem facing humanity? How do you maintain hope?
America’s food system is centered neither on health nor sustainability. It is not organized around providing people with healthy food grown in living soil or produced on well-managed pasture.
Much of what fills grocery store shelves today would be unrecognizable to our great-great-grandparents. Thousands of available products are less whole foods than engineered food-like substances, containing preservatives, emulsifiers, artificial flavorings, coloring agents, stabilizers, and even so-called “food glues” used to bind processed meats together. On average, food travels roughly 1,500 miles from farm to consumer.
At the same time, an enormous portion of our food is never eaten at all. The USDA and EPA estimate that 30–40% of America’s food supply is wasted, with approximately $161 billion worth of food ending up in landfills each year. This waste is especially tragic given that millions of people in the United States and around the world continue to experience hunger or chronic undernourishment.
Meanwhile, some estimates suggest that 55% of harvested U.S. cropland is devoted to growing animal feed crops such as corn, soy, and alfalfa, a very inefficient use of land to feed humans in need of healthy food.
Too often, the true costs of our food system are externalized onto the soil, water, air, farm workers, rural communities, public health systems, and future generations. Within a genuinely holistic system, those costs cannot simply be pushed out of sight or absorbed by others.
This raises difficult but necessary questions.
Should truly nourishing food be priced in ways that fully reflects its real costs, even if that makes it more expensive? If so, should subsidies be redirected away from large industrial producers and toward low-income households to ensure access to healthy food?
Or should cheap, highly subsidized food-like products continue to dominate grocery store shelves while their real costs remain hidden in our environmental, economic, and public health systems? What other options are there?
How can we change our current food system so that it is both more healthy, and also sustainable in the long term?
Related questions: How do you stay healthy? What is keeping us from sustaining the planet? Do you garden? What is the greatest problem facing humanity?
The sad reality is that each of us will face a crisis — or even more than one — over our lifetime. What, if anything, have you done to prepare?
Climate change threatens all of us. Rising sea water, stronger storms, weather disruption, even species extinction are all possible consequences of runway global warming. What might you do to be ready for this future?
But maybe you don’t think this is a serious threat, or you have confidence that we will address this problem before it becomes too serious.
The western coast of the United States is due for a major earthquake. Tectonic plates have been shifting, building up energy, the release of which could flood entire cities, impacting millions of people. What can individuals do to prepare for this eventuality?
But maybe you don’t live there, or know anybody who does.
Artificial Intelligence could very well reshape our entire society over the next decade or two. The worst case scenario would see mass layoffs and a collapse of the job market. And that doesn’t include the possibility of A.I. becoming self-aware, and the dangers that might pose. Are there steps that could be taken with this in mind?
Even if you discount any one of these possibilities, it seems like one or more of them could very well happen. Another financial Great Depression, a global pandemic, a meteor strike from the heavens, the rise of dictators across the globe threatening another world war, any of these could happen. Or something we haven’t thought of could catch us by surprise.
But we shouldn’t simply react. We can anticipate bad things, and prepare ourselves for them. So: How do you prepare for a crisis?
Related questions: What is the greatest problem facing humanity? How do we prepare for the next pandemic? Should we try to predict the future? How can we turn sadness into constructive action?
In every life, there will come a time when you don’t like what is going on around you. When that happens, how do you resist?
There are many scenarios that require resistance. As a rebellious teenager, for example, you might not want to do what your parents try to force you into doing. Or, perhaps, an overbearing boss seems determined to make you do something that you disagree with.
Whatever the particulars of the situation happen to be, they have one thing in common. In each case, an authority figure with more power and resources tries to control your actions. This can be frustrating, depressing, and dangerous. You might feel helpless and powerless, at the whim of others.
The good news, however, is that history is full of examples where a smaller, less powerful force wins out in the end.
Resistance comes in many forms. Sometimes, it might mean just patiently waiting for the environment to change. Someone with more authority might step in, for instance. The boss who gives you a hard time might be fired by their boss.
Another way to resist is to mobilize and organize. There is nothing more dispiriting than to feel you are alone against a much larger, more entrenched group. But there are likely others around you that share your viewpoint, and building coalitions can help spark ideas and increase your ability to make change.
Sometimes resisting can be very public and showy, like marching in a parade or attending a protest. But more often, just throwing metaphorical sand in the gears can be effective. Can you think of ways you might do this?
How do you resist someone that has advantages over you and your point of view?
Related questions: How do you stand up to a bully? Where does authority come from? How much power does an individual have? How do you deal with situations beyond your control?
Regardless of your lot in life, you will have to deal with suffering at some point, either your own or someone else’s. How will you handle it?
There are many different ways to go through difficult times. “Suffering” can be defined in many different ways.
One common type is to go through an emotional grieving process at the loss of a family member or other loved one. Because everyone dies eventually, we will all need to handle grief and the wave of emotions that can come with it several times over throughout the course of an average lifespan.
Similarly, the longer you live, the more likely you will have some sort of health problem. These can run the gamut from minor but intense to long-term, chronic issues.
There is yet another wrinkle thrown in when you have to deal not with your own, but the suffering of someone close to you. Even if you don’t experience the pain directly, either physical or emotional, watching a loved one go through it and being unable to do anything to ease that pain can be very difficult.
So how do you deal with it? Chances are, you have had the experience a number of times already, and will have many more in the future. So how did you handle it in the past, and how will you approach future events? Do you keep things bottled up, or share with others? Are you more likely to experience anger, grim resignation, or black humor? How do you deal with suffering?
Related questions: What is the worst pain you’ve ever experienced? What is the right amount of emotion? How do you deal with loss? What can you learn from loss? What are our responsibilities to others?