Lesson 05 Guided Contemplative Practice: Feeling Hunger was too spiritual for me and I strongly dislike the word “hunger” was used metaphorically; i.e. Einstein’s quote. Considering the gravity of malnutrition and hunger, I am dismayed we sit thinking about ourselves instead of ways to reduce food waste or increase access to food.
My takeaway from this week’s material is that our planet is in a constant tug of varying systems. Large, complex systems that often seem random and complex viewed from afar, but manage to sustain themselves in relative harmony. For example the industrialized food system has both adopted to and influenced the planet’s water cycle. Each system is a set of… Read more »
“A ‘biological universe’ exists in a gram of soil.” (Fortuna.) I’ve often looked to the stars or the sea to picture a magic-like expanse that holds so many secrets and marvels of life. I’ve never given much thought to what is under my feet. After the contemplative practice from week 8, I started to search for words I have never… Read more »
Food ecology of the world was a very thought provoking subject that I did not know anything about. Prior to the class, I thought that it would only be about the countries in the third world and how people suffer from hunger and poverty. I had no idea that there are many factors that come into consideration when examining the… Read more »
The two most vital resources that humans need for survival are water and land. Both resources are environmentally, politically, and ecologically significant as they support the food production system for human survival and sustainability. As the world population grows larger, there is a growing concern for providing food, for generating food into biofuels, and people wanting to move up the… Read more »
Regarding the seed and meat industry and our contemplative practice for module 9. I thought a lot about how I feel about the choices I make when I eat and why I chose to make them. Do I even care, or do I choose what to eat because I like it? Thinking about this module and then doing the contemplative… Read more »
My big takeaway from the class is that I will be more conscious about what I am eating. We covered a lot of information in this class. I thought week after week that I would get to a place that made everything feel full circle. I was often frustrated to feel that the world food system isn’t operating in a… Read more »
The contemplative practice from lesson seven really stuck with me because it helped me overcome my decidedly negative preconceptions about the role international law plays in combatting climate change. As previously I had concluded that although it was capable of facilitating minor progress in this regard, international law was largely incapable of creating significant positive impacts. My primary evidence for… Read more »
I was a vegetarian for about seven years. I began eating meat again eight years ago. Recently, I have been contemplating my reasons, both for my original choice to not eat meat and my later choice to resume consumption. I can recall quite a few different reasons, none of which had much of an impact on me on their own…. Read more »
My biggest conclusions from the course this quarter primarily concern the nature of the systemic importance that food and water systems possess for human societies and how this will be impacted by climate change. Such is the case as data regarding these aforementioned impacts is far more severe than previously imagined. However, simple recognition of the multitude of ways climate… Read more »