The New Facts of Life: Connecting the Dots on Food, Health, and the Environment

Abstract

In this article, Fritjof Capra provides a rationale for why the systems thinking inherent in ecoliteracy is so important that it ought to be included in education all the way from Kindergarten through post‐doctoral research and retirement reading. Capra shows how focusing on a smaller problem (rising oil prices) gets policy makers into trouble because they fail to see its relationship to much larger issues: The price of food starts rising to match its market value as a potential fuel source, while, hunger and poverty increase throughout the world. Or, as mankind heats up the environment, temperate food producing areas turn into deserts, food prices rise and poverty and hunger increase. As the title of the article indicates, Capra shows how food, health and the environment are inextricably linked as the new facts of life in today's world.

Keywords:

• Ecoliteracy
• Systems thinking
• Sustainability
• Center for Ecoliteracy
• Environmental education
• K‐12 education