Reflection: Weeks 5 and 6

Week 5

weeks 5, we were to read Chapter 15: Feeding the World by Luther Tweeten, and Carl Zulauf. This article was about the potential for food shortage worldwide (which we already have due to corrupt buisnesses and governments controlling the import/export of agriculture). The article states that the population will outgrow in size, causing more demand than supply of food. To combat this problem higher education and research made possible by economic progress will promote awareness of the environment, which in turn can generate effective policy.

Along with the reading for the week, we did an Eye Opener assignment. It is called CSPI or Center for Science in the Public Interest. In the CSPI eye opener activity we were asked to take one of three quizzes. I took the "Score your diet" quiz. By the quiz results I found out that I am not eating an environmentally friendly of a diet as I could be. I eat an excess of meat, and because of that along with eating non-organic foods I am scoring a -39 for my environmentally friendly food section. My Animal Friendly score was at -34, and my Health Food score is at 24.

The video we watched this week is "Diet for a New America" by John Robbins. Mr. Robbins is the son of Baskin Robbins Ice cream. During his childhood he was stricken with polio. During this time he was inspired to live and eat only healthy foods. He overcame his sickness and works to promote eating healthy. He promotes to not eat beef as the meat is high in fats, and to not eat so much fatty foods like milkshakes. The video showed us a blood sample that had been separated. So, when blood gets separated in a test tube the watery plasma should rise to the top. Well in this sample of a man whom just ate a burger and milkshake like he always does for lunch, his blood was full of fatty substance where the watery clear plasma should be. The blood sample was yellowish in plasma color as opposed to the normal clear plasma look. Seeing this in the movie really showed you that the saying of "You are what you eat" is very true.

Week 6

In week 6, we had another film to watch and an Eye Opener assignment to do. Each member of the class had pulled a number out of a hat that is to be their assigned reading to report on for the Eye Opener assignment. I drew the number 13. This article is written by Danielle Knight, "North America Losing Biodiversity, Say Experts". What the article discusses is the fact that human kind is effecting the habitats of wild animals. We are for example, building dams that cut off salmon from being able to spawn. We keep changing the physical environment so much so that wild animals are having trouble adapting to the changes. The animals are dying due to lack of avaible resources as humans cut them out or change things around so they cannot travel to new destinations. To solve the problem all three nations of North America (Mexico, United States of America, and Canada) need to get together and put in place environmental policies and programs that work together to help wild life to thrive across every part of the land.

The film we watched this week is titled "The Future of Food". In the video the Monsanto Corporation is monopolizing the seed and fertilizer market. It has a patent on a gene in some agricultural plants, of which it claims payment from any farmer that has that type (Monsanto's gene) of crop. The Genetically Modified Organisim (GMO) as it is known is the first of its kind and is patented. This GMO product is a life form, a plant can cross-breed with non-GMO plants to get a GMO plant. The issue is can you patent life? For the longest time there is no such thing as patenting life forms, such as plants. The Monsanto Corporation is being run by executives that flip flop from Monsanto's head office, to the Environmental Protection Agencies head office. Because of that they can no longer have governmental pressure to test their GMO products public saftey risks to its consumers.


WHAT I HAVE LEARNED THIS WEEK
The government is not always working for the people's best interest like in the Monsanto Corporation issue. The people that run the coorporations often times give to the politicians so much campaign money that the politicians look the other way on issues of public safety. Special interest groups are essential to keep big coorporations from undermining the public as they often do control the political leaders with promises of political help. Some other important notes are that often times I eat a lot of meat, more so than what I actually need for surrvival by a lot. We humans are really over eating meats. To save on the environment and cruelty to animals, we should all try and skim down on the meats and start eating more vegitables.