I completed the course evaluation.
What makes organic farming a "very knowledge-intensive" system? What are the benefits of this? What are its drawbacks?
David Biello discusses about the environmental issues and wants to approach this by focusing on the food production system. He suggests of applying organic methods in farming. Organic farming requires a lot of knowledge because one must "learn to manage an entire ecosystem geared to producing food" (Biello 233). In other words, it requires the farmer to know how to maintain their crops by providing sufficient nutrients, controlling pests, and fertilizing fields with animals' waste. The benefits of organic farming provides healthier soil. Provided that, organic soil retains more water than conventional farming. However, the drawbacks of organic farming are the small yields. The amount is not enough when compare to conventional farming methods. According to Prince Charles, what issues will affect the future of food?
Prince Charles provides an oversight of the serious issues that will affect the future of food. The issues that he mentions are environmental impact and the demand of food. Humans cannot control natural disasters. Damages from natural disasters have had dramatic impacts on agriculture costs . For example, Charles mentioned "They have caused the cost of food to rocket, and with it, inflation around the world". The primary demand factor of food is the growing population. The demand of food is expected to grow by 2050. Prince Charles's concern is how the world will feed 219,000 new mouths every day if the population continues to produce. Why is he committed to making positive impacts on the future of food? What impact does he hope to make? Charles is committed of creating positive impacts on the food system because he is aware of the problems society is facing for food. He is aware of the complex food system that 'ensures' of delivering food to society. He hopes to make a sustainable form of food production that will allow alternatives by growing our own food. He suggests that this can happen by taking care of Nature itself in order to make a positive impact of the future of food agriculture. Singer and Kingslover highlights strong opposing arguments when it comes to their preference of diet. Singer argues that it is not necessary for humans to eat animals. He sees it as the "most basic form" in society to use animals for only humans' desires and needs. In Kingslover's perspective, she points out when Harvest Day comes and people get ready for this gathering especially when it comes to meal, "the planning and physical effort are often greater". Singer's moral ideas of equal animal consideration are effective, but did not caught much of my interest as I read Kingslover's writing. She includes her personal connections to display her argument that meat eaters also carry the concerns of a vegan or vegetarian of where their food is coming from, such in her circumstance, her meat. Her connection is what caught my interest because she is aware that even raising animals in a free range, they will still be slaughter for Harvest Day which is why she points out that,''The more we know about our food system, the more we are called into complex choices''. She is aware of the of the ethics of a vegan's diet and respects them by responding," Forgive us" in her essay. I was inspired by her writing not because I am a meat eater, because she raises a different view of conscious eating habits of meat eaters that I did not think of.
My writing piece focuses on my culture's traditions, my personal perspective, and society on how coffee is reflected. A brief summary of my essay begins from my roots of South America. Coffee in my culture holds a strong role in my life because of where I am from and how I follow the principles of my cultural traditions. I chose to cover my essay on coffee because before entering to college, the advice that was given to me repeatedly was that coffee will be my best friend throughout my college years. As a college student, I could now see how coffee is reflected in today's everyday life. I begin my essay starting off with my cultural roots. In my culture, coffee is not value as just an energy drink; it is value in an appreciative approach. An example, when a cup of coffee is being offer to someone, the response to this will never be a no. A cup of coffee in my Southern American culture is a way of showing hospitality when it is being offer to anyone. It represents so much value and it's a way of expressing generosity to someone, an occasion, going through a rough time, or bringing family together. Later on my essay, I brag about how I glorify coffee. Coffee plays a strong role in my life. It has been a complement aspect in my life and the experiences I have gone through. I believe that coffee is strong component of bringing fellowships together because sharing coffee with my loved ones gives me the opportunity to share experiences with them. Finally, I envoked an argument on how society values coffee differently than the way I do.
If I were to be photographed with my food, this would be portrayed. As you can see my food is very limited because of my payments of rent, bills, and school. What would be impossible to capture of my relationship with food is when I am emotional. When I am sad I like to eat french fries and ice cream. When I am happy I like to eat frozen yogurt and drink as much coffee so I can stay up longer to continue feeling my happiness. This would be impossible to capture because I am not open about this to anyone until now, food represents my identity and feelings.
Viewing the King Corn documentary and reading Schlosser's writing about what is an artificial and natural flavors, raised me questions about my environment diet. I live on my own meaning that I live 980 miles away from my parents and have to survive in a small apartment I rented. During my time of survival as an independent student I shop whatever is convenient and of course cheap because of my budget to pay utilities bills, monthly rent payments, transportation, college necessities, and most importantly food. I avoid eating fast foods because of my low income so I prepare my meals and take that to school. However I do buy snacks whenever I am on the go or when I go groceries shopping. Mostly all my favorite snacks and drinks contained high fructose syrup. In the King Corn documentary the cab driver mentioned how he lost weight by avoiding any food that contain high fructose syrup. This ingredient is known as a natural sweetener that meets with the proper requirements of the FDA and is consider natural because of not containing any additives. The term "natural" convinces consumers to believe that their food is all natural because it has been approved by the FDA and they feel safe about what they are eating. When it comes to artificial and natural flavors I can't tell what is the proper taste of determining between these flavors whenever I taste them. My favorite Arizona Green Tea drink claims that it is 100% natural and there are no preservaties however its ingredients lists high fructose corn syrup, natural flavors, and ascorbic acid, pretty ironic if you ask me. These ingredients do not sound natural to me but to the flavor industries and the FDA, it is. Therefore processed foods do not rely alone. In conclusion, I am obtaining more knowledge of how the government, flavor industries, and processing companies affect my environment diet and food choices.
Michael Pollan reveals such a shocking comparison about what is really a food and a food product. Following Pollan's advice and his five essential rules that he mentions in his book, Food Matters, I believed that it would cause a dramatic change and mindset of my eating habits also my perspective towards foods. The pros about following his advice is that I would benefit of eating an actual food rather than a food produced product with long terms ingredients that I don't remember learning or hearing in any of my sciences' class. The con of following his advice would be my conscious. Before reading this book, I was not aware of what I was eating and giving to my body. After reading, my mind was just blown away and completely changed my mindset of eating. There are plenty of things that I could say that I would give up such as cup of noodles, chips, soda, and Gogurt. I am aware now that these snacks have ingredients that I do not know of but yet it still taste good and that is when my conscious kicks in to decide whether I should restrict myself or continue to eat these food products because the taste is good and be careless of how I am treating my body.
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