Green is universal! Caring about the environment is patriotic. In the US that means - red, white, blue and green! As environmental stewards we must all do our part to help protect the earth's delicate eco-system and natural habitat to ensure that it will provide for future generations. The pursuit of all things sustainable, like all prior revolutions, will not be accomplished by a single event, but rather over time and through a process that will require a change in mindset and behavior modification.

Many climatologists believe that we are past the point of no return on global warming. However, if we are to have a chance to reverse the earth's current climatic variations, the business community worldwide must begin to embrace environmental and social concerns, which means abandoning short-term economic thinking for sustainable eco-nomic capitalism. Governments must also send a strong eco-message to help spark the development of eco-preneurs to shape a new eco-consciousness that will lead to the adoption of new eco-habits.

Sustainable Agriculture

The United Nations has predicted that world population will double by 2030. In order to adequately feed that larger population, we will need to double today's world food production. Accounting for the fact that over 1 billion people are currently undernourished, we will need to triple food production over the next 20 years. The head of Australia's National Science Foundation, Dr. Megan Clark, told the press, "It is hard for me to comprehend that in the next 50 years we will need to produce as much food as has been consumed over our entire human history." The sad reality of our global food production is that we are rapidly approaching the limits of arable land and productivity. Further, we are employing practices that are destroying the soil's capacity to produce food. Less than 1% of the land mass remains available for farming, which won't come close to meeting the demand on agriculture for food.

The answer is organic farming, which meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. Governments around the world also need to make a commitment to feed their citizens fresh, healthy, sustainable food. Furthermore, employing a farm to fork strategy of growing and buying locally saves time, money, energy and jobs. Twenty-five percent of all food spoils before reaching the market costing the industry $458 Billion annually. In many cases the cost to ship food exceeds the cost of the food itself. If every nation had the ability to produce greater amounts of food, the reduction in the carbon footprint would be enormous. We must also cut down on waste, as the average grocery store in the U.S. throws away 800-1000 pounds of food daily.

Sustainable Aquaculture

While most of us recognize our dependence upon foreign oil, few realize our dependence upon imported seafood. Unfortunately, today the United States is just as dependent on seafood from Asia as we are on oil from the Middle East. According to the US Department of Commerce, seafood imports represent the second largest natural resource contributing to our national deficit, after petroleum. Retail seafood sales in the US have surpassed $100 billion and we currently import more than 84% of all seafood consumed annually at a cost of over $9 billion.

Recent best-selling books "Oceana" by actor Ted Danson and "Four Fish" by Paul Greenberg detail the depletion of wild salmon, tuna, cod and bass. Overharvesting, pollution, global warming and habitat destruction have all taken their toll on the oceans and these fish are on the verge of extinction. The Marine Conservation Society reports that the global fishing fleet is 250% larger than needed to catch what the ocean can sustainably produce. The According to the USDA, more than 70% of the world's conventional fish species are considered exploited and the top ten species are all close to being fully exploited. Even with conservation programs, there is no way the world's oceans can keep pace with rising population's demand.

Experts agree, that at the current rate we are harvesting fish, the wild supply will be exhausted within a few short years and without sustainable aquaculture, seafood will become extremely scarce and nearly impossible to obtain, driving prices into the stratosphere. It is difficult to imagine that in 1996, less than 30% of the world's seafood was farm raised. In 2009 that figure hit 50%. The United Nations forecasts that farmed fish will soon exceed 75% of our supply. While other nations have invested tens of millions in developing aquaculture, farmers in the United States find it difficult, if not impossible to obtain governmental assistance. The USDA has recently stated that aquaculture is the fastest growing segment of U.S. Agriculture, but the U.S. still lags far behind other nations with a miniscule $1 billion in annual sales.

In order for fish farming to play a significant role in world food production over the next 50 years, sustainable technologies must be employed to preserve the environment. Open net pen systems have been criticized worldwide from government and non-governmental organizations for their pollutive effects, escapement, and spread of diseases. The key to future expansion will be the ability to open up world resources to large-scale fish farming, through the production of healthy seafood in all water-based environments - including lakes, ponds, impoundments, bays, estuaries and sensitive eco-systems such as coral reefs. The systems and technologies that bring commercial fish farming into the future must provide a viable means of collecting and recycling waste, preventing escapement, and returning the "used" water back to the environment in virtually the same condition as it was taken out. A "Zero Waste" approach must be employed.

Sustainable Energy

We must end our dependence on highly pollutive fossil fuels, period, whether they are from foreign or domestic sources. The Associated Press has recently reported that there are more than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells and more than 1,200 idle oil rigs and platforms littering the Gulf of Mexico. Many have been ignored for decades with no one checking them for leaks. Nuclear energy is dangerous and there is no such thing as clean coal technology. Coal is dirty. The answer is investing in all clean alternative sustainable energy sources which include solar power, wind power and hydro power, as well as fuel cells and new battery technologies.

Recycling Programs

While the US represents only 5% of the world population, we produce 20% of greenhouse gases. Why? We over produce and then throw away the unused portion that we didn't need in the first place. We live in a throw-away society. It has been estimated that the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest produces a staggering 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than the entire transportation sector combined. If we recycled more paper, we wouldn't have the need to destroy more trees. This has a dangerous double multiplier effect because the decomposition of paper waste contributes to global warming, while trees help insulate the environment against it.

The US produces 250 million tons of garbage per year. China produces 18 million tons per day. At that rate of waste production, with only a miniscule portion currently being recycled, the earth is on course to become one gigantic trash dump. We must become serious about producing less waste on the front end and utilize waste to energy programs on the back end. Recycling of waste of all types must become a priority if we are to have any chance to save our planet. There must be an eco-premium placed on waste that can be recycled into eco-fabulous products.