Eating is an Agricultural Act?
Leit Schafer
Humanities Period #3-4
Jessica McCallum
Reflection
During this project our goal was to study the food ethic of the US and write a essay that relates to a specific point and something that resonates with us individually. For me I decided to write about "whether a individuals food ethic really matters." What I learned this this project was how each person has an impact. The decisions we make when deciding what eat and where we are purchasing those items from affects everything.
I feel that studying food in both humanities and chemistry gave me multiple understandings, I was able to understand the food world from a production and molecular standpoint which was really interesting.
My thinking about food has definitely changed in terms of what I eat and trying to be more conscious of the decisions I am making. As I talk about in my essay is that it all comes down to what each person is willing to do on a individual level, I know that I don't have the commitment that some people do but I do know that with my new knowledge I can try to make better decisions.
5/17/20
Leit Schafer
Humanities Period #3/4
My Food Ethic
Leit S.
My food ethic, Where to begin… I feel I have grown up in a family that has always been “worried” about how we eat and what we eat. As I have grown our mother mainly has grown more and more towards especially what she believes in a better ethic. She tries to buy local and organic and make sure that my family eats as healthy and sustainable as possible. So the more I thought about my food ethic and my familys the more the question “does an individual's food ethic really matter?” enticed me. So I finally decided that I wanted to study that question, and so it began.
I immediately thought of bigger movements like vegetarianism and veganism and when large numbers of people conform to those ideas it makes an impact especially for the better, but the question arises for me, if I don't have a food ethic do my actions as an individual have any real impact? So began the inquiry, the first thing I found was that in the next 30 years the global population is expected to increase to at most 10.2 billion people which will increase the global strain on food in general and how we sustain practices that can feed that many people while simultaneously having a food ethic that doesn’t destroy the environment and planet. In the end it all comes down to an individual's food ethic.
When everyone is able to follow certain food ethics and eat in sustainable ways the strain on the environment from over producing meats and from large farms starts to go away. Meat farms are some of the most unsustainable and cruel factories in the world. From pumping out pollution to cramming animals into confined spaces to live their entire lives, and yet these farms feed a significant portion of the population with many of the people that use their meat never realizing the effects they are having from a simple choice like what food they are buying. This is why supporting local and sustainable farming practices is so important. If we can bring light to the facts that no matter how small your choice is it has some impact so when we can support people with making smart and “correct” choices we can begin to turn the food industry for the better.
The more I look into the problems the world is facing when it comes to the ways we eat the more I realized that the little things do matter. When I make a decision to buy from a big business that I don't agree with from a practice standpoint and I only buy for the ease of it I become part of the problem that I want to change, but in the end it all comes down to my food ethic and the choices I am willing to make. I can disagree with these companies practices but at the end of the day I still can enjoy the product they make. The people that make a real difference are the people that are so committed that they can completely cut themselves off from all practices like that. So at the end of the day all you can do is make a commitment to yourself to do what you can.
Humanities Period #3-4
Jessica McCallum
Reflection
During this project our goal was to study the food ethic of the US and write a essay that relates to a specific point and something that resonates with us individually. For me I decided to write about "whether a individuals food ethic really matters." What I learned this this project was how each person has an impact. The decisions we make when deciding what eat and where we are purchasing those items from affects everything.
I feel that studying food in both humanities and chemistry gave me multiple understandings, I was able to understand the food world from a production and molecular standpoint which was really interesting.
My thinking about food has definitely changed in terms of what I eat and trying to be more conscious of the decisions I am making. As I talk about in my essay is that it all comes down to what each person is willing to do on a individual level, I know that I don't have the commitment that some people do but I do know that with my new knowledge I can try to make better decisions.
5/17/20
Leit Schafer
Humanities Period #3/4
My Food Ethic
Leit S.
My food ethic, Where to begin… I feel I have grown up in a family that has always been “worried” about how we eat and what we eat. As I have grown our mother mainly has grown more and more towards especially what she believes in a better ethic. She tries to buy local and organic and make sure that my family eats as healthy and sustainable as possible. So the more I thought about my food ethic and my familys the more the question “does an individual's food ethic really matter?” enticed me. So I finally decided that I wanted to study that question, and so it began.
I immediately thought of bigger movements like vegetarianism and veganism and when large numbers of people conform to those ideas it makes an impact especially for the better, but the question arises for me, if I don't have a food ethic do my actions as an individual have any real impact? So began the inquiry, the first thing I found was that in the next 30 years the global population is expected to increase to at most 10.2 billion people which will increase the global strain on food in general and how we sustain practices that can feed that many people while simultaneously having a food ethic that doesn’t destroy the environment and planet. In the end it all comes down to an individual's food ethic.
When everyone is able to follow certain food ethics and eat in sustainable ways the strain on the environment from over producing meats and from large farms starts to go away. Meat farms are some of the most unsustainable and cruel factories in the world. From pumping out pollution to cramming animals into confined spaces to live their entire lives, and yet these farms feed a significant portion of the population with many of the people that use their meat never realizing the effects they are having from a simple choice like what food they are buying. This is why supporting local and sustainable farming practices is so important. If we can bring light to the facts that no matter how small your choice is it has some impact so when we can support people with making smart and “correct” choices we can begin to turn the food industry for the better.
The more I look into the problems the world is facing when it comes to the ways we eat the more I realized that the little things do matter. When I make a decision to buy from a big business that I don't agree with from a practice standpoint and I only buy for the ease of it I become part of the problem that I want to change, but in the end it all comes down to my food ethic and the choices I am willing to make. I can disagree with these companies practices but at the end of the day I still can enjoy the product they make. The people that make a real difference are the people that are so committed that they can completely cut themselves off from all practices like that. So at the end of the day all you can do is make a commitment to yourself to do what you can.
Global Warming PSA
Leit Schafer
Humanities Period #3-4
Jessica Mccallum
Reflection
For this project my partner Patrick and I decided to create a project about global warming. In the beginning we thought we would create a ski type movie that talked about global warming and the effects that it has. As the project progressed we instead decided to create more of a PSA type movie that in hope would use emotional (ethos) or satirical appeal to get our target audience intrigued and hopefully wanting to know more or make a change. In the end our project became more rushed and it caused us to have a movie but not much of any type of appeal but more of an interview type movie that was lacking in the places we wanted it to not be.
Since we did our project on global warming I already felt that I had a deep connection to it since I know its an issue that is affecting and will continue to affect the area I call home and all of our homes (earth) in general. So coming into this project I already had a more liberal standing view of the issue. Through the research phase I feel that nothing has changed. My views stayed the same because what I found already supported the views that I had and the arguments I found against my views I felt were easily disputed so in the end my views did not change. I do understand that a lot of the right wing arguments are more about the economic effects that some of the proposed changes will have and not that global warming is fake.
After this project the main things that I learned about democracy is that we as a people have the power to make the government listen to what we want if we have enough power behind our cause. This happens because of the fact it’s a democracy so we have the power because of our freedom to form our own ideas and create with it what we want.
This project did nothing to change my political views. If anything it strengthened them because of the research that was mandatory I learned new things about the issue I studied and realized how much I feel its a problem. This project caused me to strengthen my view still understand some of the more right wing ideas and concerns with global warming. Even though I still don’t agree with them it shed new light into the problems.
I feel that rogerian type qualities play a role in any democratic society, especially ours because of the fact that we can use these skills to convince people of what we believe and why they should also care. If we use ethos for specific issues like global warming and school shootings when used right it makes people feel very strongly about a subject in an emotional way. This causes people to want to make an impact and change on what they now believe in.
Humanities Period #3-4
Jessica Mccallum
Reflection
For this project my partner Patrick and I decided to create a project about global warming. In the beginning we thought we would create a ski type movie that talked about global warming and the effects that it has. As the project progressed we instead decided to create more of a PSA type movie that in hope would use emotional (ethos) or satirical appeal to get our target audience intrigued and hopefully wanting to know more or make a change. In the end our project became more rushed and it caused us to have a movie but not much of any type of appeal but more of an interview type movie that was lacking in the places we wanted it to not be.
Since we did our project on global warming I already felt that I had a deep connection to it since I know its an issue that is affecting and will continue to affect the area I call home and all of our homes (earth) in general. So coming into this project I already had a more liberal standing view of the issue. Through the research phase I feel that nothing has changed. My views stayed the same because what I found already supported the views that I had and the arguments I found against my views I felt were easily disputed so in the end my views did not change. I do understand that a lot of the right wing arguments are more about the economic effects that some of the proposed changes will have and not that global warming is fake.
After this project the main things that I learned about democracy is that we as a people have the power to make the government listen to what we want if we have enough power behind our cause. This happens because of the fact it’s a democracy so we have the power because of our freedom to form our own ideas and create with it what we want.
This project did nothing to change my political views. If anything it strengthened them because of the research that was mandatory I learned new things about the issue I studied and realized how much I feel its a problem. This project caused me to strengthen my view still understand some of the more right wing ideas and concerns with global warming. Even though I still don’t agree with them it shed new light into the problems.
I feel that rogerian type qualities play a role in any democratic society, especially ours because of the fact that we can use these skills to convince people of what we believe and why they should also care. If we use ethos for specific issues like global warming and school shootings when used right it makes people feel very strongly about a subject in an emotional way. This causes people to want to make an impact and change on what they now believe in.
Global Warming PSA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKjrJHGCtWI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKjrJHGCtWI
Leit Schafer
10/15/19
Humanities Pod 1
Environmental Aspects of Climate Change
To begin I wanted to write this essay on this specific topic because of how much it means to me and the effects it has in the area that I live in and how it is going to change the world around us as I grow up. Since I have grown up in the Durango area with parents that are outdoor driven and enjoy multiple sports, I have always felt personally connected to these problems. I feel driven by the effect that global warming has on the weather, animals and the environment in general I feel that in a lot of situations because of our location in the earth and the US we don't see a lot of the effects that are beginning to seriously affect the rest of the world.
Living in Durango one of the biggest effectsI have begun to see is the effect on the weather and how unnatural it is becoming. Last summer is one of the best examples that I have; it was one of the hottest summers on record causing drought and in return serious wildfires all around the world but the specific one in Durango by the name of the 416 fire. Living In Durango for 16 years I had seen summers of rain and cool temperatures, fires for me were something that I hadn't heard of. I knew of the missionary ridge fire back in 2002 but that was only fire that I had heard of in Durango that had ever been serious within the last couple decades. The other big trend I saw was all of the biggest fires in recorded Colorado history have happened in the last 19 years, 2000 or later. All with the exception of the Lime Creek fire 1879 that burned at the second to smallest at 26,000 acres. This is only one example of the extreme weather it is starting to cause. The other effect of climate change in the world in general is the increase of extreme weather. With extreme high there are also extreme lows. One of the big things is it is estimated that winters will in turn become extreme with insane colds and large amounts of snow.
The other huge effect of climate change is what it is doing to animals. Based off of recent research with a rise in the ocean that is caused from the ice caps melting an increase of 50 cm or 19.68 inches it would cause mass amounts of loss of lands for multiple animals, especially sea turtles. It is estimated that this increase would cause them to lose about 30% of nesting ground which would be catastrophic for a species that is already in decline. I would take away nesting grounds for monk seals that are already an endangered species causing them to have to relocate and a further drop in their population. Along with these animals it also affects dolphins and whales which need shallow coastal areas to raise their calves. The most common trend that is seen is the majority of the animals that are being affected is the sea life. This is because global warming has the biggest effect on the oceans. With the rise in temperatures makes it so that the oceans are warming. This is killing one of the biggest habitats for sea animal life. Coral reefs, coral reefs cant survive unless the water temperature is in a pretty specific range, from about 28.5o to 30o C. Any higher and the coral starts bleaching and if the temperatures stay too high the damage can become permanent. The biggest effect is that as animals start to become extinct the food chain starts to fall out of line and when the predators of animals begin to decrease it enable their prey to populate at a rate where they begin to in a way take over the ecosystem around them. For example in Durango we see that there is a lack of predators for deer which in turn has caused the population to increase at an alarming rate. It has also enabled them to in a way become domesticated to human life.
Climate change is an issue that has really affected me because of my love for the outdoors and wildlife. I have always felt impacted by this and this is always going to be something that as long as its a problem I will be educated on and fighting for change. I hope that in the near future we can begin to accept and make changes that will help our world.
10/15/19
Humanities Pod 1
Environmental Aspects of Climate Change
To begin I wanted to write this essay on this specific topic because of how much it means to me and the effects it has in the area that I live in and how it is going to change the world around us as I grow up. Since I have grown up in the Durango area with parents that are outdoor driven and enjoy multiple sports, I have always felt personally connected to these problems. I feel driven by the effect that global warming has on the weather, animals and the environment in general I feel that in a lot of situations because of our location in the earth and the US we don't see a lot of the effects that are beginning to seriously affect the rest of the world.
Living in Durango one of the biggest effectsI have begun to see is the effect on the weather and how unnatural it is becoming. Last summer is one of the best examples that I have; it was one of the hottest summers on record causing drought and in return serious wildfires all around the world but the specific one in Durango by the name of the 416 fire. Living In Durango for 16 years I had seen summers of rain and cool temperatures, fires for me were something that I hadn't heard of. I knew of the missionary ridge fire back in 2002 but that was only fire that I had heard of in Durango that had ever been serious within the last couple decades. The other big trend I saw was all of the biggest fires in recorded Colorado history have happened in the last 19 years, 2000 or later. All with the exception of the Lime Creek fire 1879 that burned at the second to smallest at 26,000 acres. This is only one example of the extreme weather it is starting to cause. The other effect of climate change in the world in general is the increase of extreme weather. With extreme high there are also extreme lows. One of the big things is it is estimated that winters will in turn become extreme with insane colds and large amounts of snow.
The other huge effect of climate change is what it is doing to animals. Based off of recent research with a rise in the ocean that is caused from the ice caps melting an increase of 50 cm or 19.68 inches it would cause mass amounts of loss of lands for multiple animals, especially sea turtles. It is estimated that this increase would cause them to lose about 30% of nesting ground which would be catastrophic for a species that is already in decline. I would take away nesting grounds for monk seals that are already an endangered species causing them to have to relocate and a further drop in their population. Along with these animals it also affects dolphins and whales which need shallow coastal areas to raise their calves. The most common trend that is seen is the majority of the animals that are being affected is the sea life. This is because global warming has the biggest effect on the oceans. With the rise in temperatures makes it so that the oceans are warming. This is killing one of the biggest habitats for sea animal life. Coral reefs, coral reefs cant survive unless the water temperature is in a pretty specific range, from about 28.5o to 30o C. Any higher and the coral starts bleaching and if the temperatures stay too high the damage can become permanent. The biggest effect is that as animals start to become extinct the food chain starts to fall out of line and when the predators of animals begin to decrease it enable their prey to populate at a rate where they begin to in a way take over the ecosystem around them. For example in Durango we see that there is a lack of predators for deer which in turn has caused the population to increase at an alarming rate. It has also enabled them to in a way become domesticated to human life.
Climate change is an issue that has really affected me because of my love for the outdoors and wildlife. I have always felt impacted by this and this is always going to be something that as long as its a problem I will be educated on and fighting for change. I hope that in the near future we can begin to accept and make changes that will help our world.