Writing my research paper helped me to discover even further how important plants are to the environment and to each individual ecosystem. I never really gave much thought on how plants function differently when they are in their natural habitat versus when they are not. When plants are put into ecosystems that they are not from, they will either fail… Read more »
The earth is a living system with incredible power to self-correct. Through our collective extraction and consumption of oil, we are accelerating the demise of our culture, at the cost to our survival. The warming of the planet caused by greenhouse gasses are enough that we are beginning to witness the effects now. The earth is responding to the altered… Read more »
Kloven, Leah. “Library Compost.” 2016. PNG file “Ultimately sustainability requires thinking in circles” (Litfin). LCA life cycle, systems theory and cradle to cradle analysis are all ways of looking at the full picture which is absolutely essential to addressing issues and progress. Today we operate largely through a process of linear systems, this is resource extraction, use, and waste. Our… Read more »
Fossil fuels are at the epicenter of the political ecology of the world food system. The direct correlation that fossil fuels have on various feedback loops are a fundamental concept to understand. The economical aspects of utilizing fossil fuels are enormous and were the reason for rapid growth coming into the 21st century. The results of such growth have led… Read more »
(source: terrapass.com) The reality of fertilizer is that while it supports our food systems in the world, it can contribute even more to the pollution. The byproduct and the production itself of fertilizer contribute much to the carbon foot print of the world. The ecological condition that exists involves the climate impact of food and the overall function of the… Read more »
During the past few weeks, we have learned a lot of important concepts about where our food comes from and what we sacrifice in order to keep food on our tables. I found it very interesting and a bit daunting to learn about the amount of petroleum that it takes to make our mass production of food possible. Petroleum is… Read more »
Throughout lessons 5-7, we discussed varying topics from wide ranging areas of our world food system. Something that I could not shake off is the thought that many of the mistakes we have made as a society were encouraged by our leaders who were fully aware of what would result from their actions. For example, the Irish famine that was… Read more »
“Euphrates River Map.” Euphrates River Map, The Bible Study Site, www.biblestudy.org/maps/euphrates-river-valley-map.html. For me, the most interesting themes of this week revolved around water. I was surprised to find how much the political ecology of water can affect different groups. I think the common thought is that water is so plentiful that there is no reason for conflict or differing access to… Read more »
Kwak-Hefferan, Elisabeth. “Spoil Sport: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dumpster.” Grist, 5 Nov. 2012, grist.org/food/spoil-sport-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-dumpster/. For me the most interesting topic discussed this week was the TED talk about food waste. It tied in well with other course work we have read. For example, Stuart in the talk asked the audience how many of them did not… Read more »
While reviewing Peter Menzel’s photographic essay “Hungry Planet”, I was struck by the dramatic differences in food culture between developing and affluent countries. For my paper, I wanted to find two countries that unparalleled each other. One of the countries I chose for my paper was Chad, a country that is extremely under developed and is facing a food crisis… Read more »