With our final paper due Monday, I, as most, have worked fervently on it and spent much time reflecting on my group action project. Through this project I learned about the sustainability of our water system and how much of it we use to create meat, and such a small amount of it at that. For just a quarter pound of meat it takes 1,3000 gallons of water, both used in the creation of the animals feed and for drinking. This information shocked me and led myself and the rest of my group to make a large impact on our campus community. We decided to create an art installation where we displayed a burger and hung various cups above it to represent how much water goes into that small piece of food. We had great reception from passersby however we did face some shyness when another speaker came and began shouting to the crowds. I’d say our largest success was having a conversation with the head of HFS who discussed how he was trying to change the dining on camps. Our group worked extremely well together, everyone doing their fair share and meeting deadlines on time as agreed upon. I was surprised since this outcome is not common among most group events yet the fact that this one went so well brought us even more success. As I said each member put in an equal amount of work, mine focused primarily on collecting cups to build our installation and researching for our pamphlet. This work allowed me to get a first look at the nitty gritty of our assignment and really perfect it so as to put our best foot forward to the public. While our project came together and turned out to be a huge success it most importantly allowed me to draw connections to our course material. We’ve talked continually about how we can personally make an impact on our world by the choices we make each day. The United States consumerism view of life has driven us to take more than we give, often at the expense of others. We use water without question of how it affects others of even our environment. Taking a closer look at our project I realized just how much security our nation has in its supply of essential goods or at least what we believe, that we can wastefully grow a $3 burger while people in less affluent countries would never dream of wasting such valuable water when they must fight tooth and nail to get any. Therefore, my paper will pull together all that I’ve learned both in class and on my own, bringing this course to fruition.
Hello Bailey,
I am really intrigued by your action group project. I think that it is both clever and impactful to see how much water is used in a $3.00 burger. Before coming into this class I had never really thought about the nutrients and water that went into meat production let alone the Dicks burgers that I consume. This class has focused on thinking about food as part of a larger system and I think that your action project really exemplified the larger system that goes into meat production. The amount of water that is used daily to feed one healthy cow is about 12.6 gallons which is enough to feed 24 people their daily waters worth. Meat production and consumption is a large waste of healthy clean water. Knowing how meat plays into the larger water and food system as whole is important and spreading awareness as you have in your action project is even more impressive. As I have learned through my own action project collective action can be challenging. Working in groups it is hard to find time in our busy lives to work together on the things that don’t always directly affect our daily activities such as the meat and water systems. I applaud you for the work that you have done to spread awareness about this topic. Spreading awareness about our consumption habits and the food system as a whole is an important part in making a difference in the world that we live in. It really helps us think about the give and take that we have within our global system.
Hi Bailey,
First of all, I just want to say congratulations for having a successful group project! It seems many of the groups did not do so great in turns of carrying out our projects, mine included, so huge props for pulling yours off. In thinking about my own project, we focused on creating a project that would be quantified by attendance and physical butts-in-seats in terms of its success, so great thinking of bringing the project to the audience rather than the other way around! I am going to think critically about trying to implement that into any future projects that I have on campus. Like the previous comment, I am shocked that it takes 1,300 gallons of water for meat! It never crossed my mind how much water, electricity, gas, etc. goes into creating the products that we eat, and even right now I still find it crazy how that much water could go into a single burger, among the other energy inputs that go into its production. It is great that you mention how the USA can take for granted the products that we have without thinking twice about these implications; I mean, hey, myself included, so awesome that you are bringing more awareness to this all! I hope your paper goes well, and you have a great summer!