Category Archives: Public Health

Food Deserts: A Local and Global Crisis

My action project group was the public health group. Personally, I chose this action project group because public health type work is almost the polar opposite of what I do on a day to day basis. However, despite starting the project with the mindset that my action project group would be challenging, I don’t think I was prepared for just… Read more »

World Hunger Benefit Concert: Explained

This project was one of my first experiences planning an event for a large group of people. I learned just how many moving parts needed to be organized in order for everything to go according to plan. Unfortunately, after all of our planning we had to cancel the event because our venue pulled out. The big lesson we learned was… Read more »

The power of education and starting conversations

Up until this quarter, I had never taken a class that forced students to step outside of the classroom to complete an action project instead of simply writing about it. Many times, we are tasked with finding possible solutions that addresses one of the many problems that are occurring within our community. Yet, the reality is that implementing these solutions… Read more »

Starting Conversations About Food Deserts With DumDums

Group projects are typically a source of anxiety and apathy in the minds of college students. However, the idea that our group project had the potential to make an impact on the students at UW, the community in Seattle, and discuss the political implications of a global problem was enough. We faced a series of roadblocks, yet we were able… Read more »

Consumers’ Role in the Industrialized Food System

In the first contemplative practice, the first thing I thought about was how healthy this raisin was for me. As a health-conscious individual, I knew that this processed raisin had some nutritional value. And then it dawned on me: as much as we like to associate industrialized food systems with words such as “processed” and “unhealthy”, we can also associate… Read more »

The Hoodia Rap Song

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***Click HERE to take a listen — Hoodia Rap*** Here is a rap song I wrote from the contemplative practice about industrialized food process, hunger, and its aftermath. The Hoodia plant grows naturally in the southern region of Africa. The San people traditionally consume the bitter plant as an appetite suppressant, to help survive in desert conditions where food resources… Read more »

Hydropower Clean Energy: The impact of Lancang Dams in Mekong River threaten Southeast Asia’s food insecurity.

I have written a few contemplated reflections before, but this class’s focus on fossil fuel contemplation has really caught my attention. There are many talks right now about substituting fossil fuel with electricity as vehicles’ main source of energy. The rise of electric cars, especially the Tesla models, is an example. Although electric energy is usually viewed as a clean… Read more »

Putting the Present Second – A Contemplative Practice

Why are we as human beings obsessed with the idea of making the most out of the present? There are numerous idioms about “living in the moment” and “making the most out of your time” that convey warm sentiments, but as a society we’ve taken them too literally. In fact, we’re “living in the moment” so much that there might… Read more »

Ocean impacts

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One of the many problems resulting from the state of our current food system directly impacts human health. Pollan claims to offer a simple solution however it is exclusive, many socio-economic barriers render people incapable of practicing his three rules. Furthermore, the rules he lays out are trivial when situated in the modern-ecological context, post-agrarian-revolution and post-industrial-revolution. Revolutions bring with… Read more »

Food Diversity and Allergies

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Within his book, Pollan discusses how chronic diseases were “quickly acquired” by immigrants in America. This reminded me of an experience I had while living in Dubai, as it was only people from North America that were allergic to nuts. Within our expat community growing up, it became a ‘running joke’ to identify North American’s through their nut allergies. New… Read more »