Unless you are a gardener it might be hard to image the impact that soil, water, and seeds have on the environment. Seeds could not serve their purpose without the help of soil and water. This trio is the key to the longevity of the human civilization. As a consumer ridden society that is overwhelmed by the need to buy… Read more »
Agriculture is generally recognized as the precursor to the world’s first civilizations. The development of irrigation and other farming methods boosted food production and allowed for population expansion and permanent human settlements. Irrigated land expanded at a steady pace until the last century with the advent of modern farming techniques. Modern farming tripled acreage of irrigated land between 1950 and… Read more »
Vegans raise many valid criticisms and open the door to nuanced conversations about ethical food production. While many vegans protest eating meat on a moral basis, others abstain because of unsustainable practices in meat production. For instance, on today’s cattle farms, waste food like meat and bonemeal are often mixed into grain feed for cattle, when simple hay and grass… Read more »
My research paper focused on finding a solution in mitigating the dependency on meat production in the global food production. The problem with animal agriculture is that it uses an enormous amount of our natural resources and creates a high level of greenhouse-gas emissions. Meat production uses a vast amount of water, crops and land. The animals being raised for food create a large amount of… Read more »
Water is essential to every living being and water can heal. This is the idea that I have embraced because of how it acts as a means of cleansing our bodies and providing us with clarity. The nature of water is that whether we consume it, swim in it or we bathe in it, we are filled with a sense… Read more »
After reflecting on my connection and my relation to fossil fuels, I find that I feel like a tiny cog in the massive system that is highly stuck in its ways. Many scientists, engineers, and forward-thinkers have been working on alternative resources in order to slow the use of nonrenewable resources like petroleum. As I look around though it does… Read more »
Industrial farming has had an enormous impact on our environment and the world food system. In Leo Horrigan’s chapter in the May 2002 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives he stated, “Industrial agriculture depends on expensive inputs from off the farm (e.g., pesticides and fertilizer), many of which generate wastes that harm the environment” which reveals the high cost, both financially… Read more »
The final week of the class has addressed the topic of many things that I would have considered to be, “hippie stuff.” Before moving to Washington State back in ’09, I grew up in a poor white family living on government assistance, food was whatever came to the table, whatever the most that could be had with food stamps was…. Read more »
My research paper has gained me alight of insight into the world of antibiotic use in meat, particular the negative effects it is having on antibiotic usefulness. The practice of using antibiotics as growth hormones causing bacteria to become resistant to the to level of antibiotics we ingest through eating meat, and when we become sick, the antibiotics are not… Read more »
What if I told you that soil was not lifeless dirt, but home to an entire microbial ecosystem? Now, what if I told you these microbes were the key to improving soil quality and reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? These are just a few of the innovations that spring from systems thinking. By thinking about soil… Read more »