Environment, Man and Nature

This blog was meant as an assignment to explore my journey of thoughts through my environmental concepts 2000 course at the University of Manitoba. I will now continue to write on this blog, so I can follow my journey through my studies.



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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Blog 4- Weblinks- Precautionary Principle...

I invite anyone who reads my blog page to review the following link: http://www.sustainabletable.org/home.php
This website has alot of useful information regarding: laws, dairy, eat local, biodiversity,... and just about anything you need to know about the environment issues we are facing as a planet. I added a couple details to encourage you to read more on this website. Enjoy!

Precautionary Principle: “In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.” http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/precautionary/

Politicians and government officials are fond of saying the U.S. has the safest food supply in the world, thanks to the rules and regulations that govern the production, processing and distribution of food. But as the methods of raising animals for food have changed, our laws have not necessarily kept up. Industrial farms produce mountains of manure, creating a waste-management nightmare that often "leaks" into unsuspecting communities by way of water, air and soil pollution. In order to revive a sustainable food system, we must enact policy and legislation that will help keep small family farmers on the land, while curbing the economic and ecological damage these large farms create. http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/policy/

What You Can Do
Food and agriculture corporations are driven by financial profits, often at the cost of public health and environmental protection. But we, as voters and consumers, have the power to challenge them with their very own source of power: profits.
Vote with your food dollar! As consumers, we all have the power to break down agribusiness by buying our food from small farms. Use the Eat Well Guide to find small local farms with which to do business. If nobody buys food from agribusinesses and industrial farms, corporations will no longer have the financial power to sway policymakers and legislators.
Sign up for Food and Water Watch alerts to stay up-to-date on proposed farm legislation and to find out how you can help affect current policy.
Stay informed about campaign contributions. Every candidate is required by federal law to report how much campaign cash they’ve received and from whom. This information is readily available online at www.opensecrets.org, the website for the Center for Responsive Politics, where you can find out if your legislators are beholden to agribusiness interests. http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/policy/

Monday, March 8, 2010

Blog #4- The Agricultural Crisis as a Crisis of Culture

Wendell Berry philosophy is we should "act locally, think globally" rather than the reverse. This is a slogan supported by many environmental activists.
In this Selection, he argues for the cultural dimensions that leads to sustainable agriculture.
In the past a farmer could easily market its surplus cream, eggs, old hens, and chicken. These minor markets are now banned due to the name of sanitation. The germs that used to be in our food is now replaced by poisons. The field work power was also mainly horses and mules. Nowadays the farms have become increasingly mechanized and less diversified than they used to be. The land is falling more and more into the hands of speculators and professional people from cities- which still have more money than farmers.
The farm people live less and less from their own produce and more from what they buy. The ideas are goals of leisure, comfort, and entertainment.
Few farmers'children will be able to afford to stay on the farm- perhaps even fewer will wish to do so, it will cost too much, require too much work and worry, and it is hardly a fashionable ambition. Many famers who got big "get big or get out" are now replaced with those who got bigger.
Along with the rest of society, agriculture has shifter its emphasis from quality to quantity, even though the two ideas are inseparable.
Wendell Berry's point of this selecetion is that food is a cultural product; it cannot be produced by technology alone.
A healthy farm culture is based on familiarity with the people and their land, no amount of technology can replace this knowledge.
A competent farmer is his own boss, he has learned the disciplines necessary to go ahead on his own, as required by the economic obligation, loyalty, and pride in his work.
The best kind of farming is a task that calls for a sort of complexity both in the character of the farmer and in his culture. to simplify this is to destroy it. A good farmer is a cultural product, he is made in what his time imposes or demands, and he is also made by generations of experience.
The economy of money has shifted from economies of nature, energy, and the human spirit. Man has become a consumptive machine.
Everything in the Creation is related to everything else and dependant on everything else.
We can have agriculture only within nature, and culture only within agriculture. At certain critical points these systems have to conform with one another or destroy one another.

Blog #4 Reflection- Food Meat Production

I was asked as a blog requirement to write down my food intake over the last 48 hours. It goes as follows.

Day 1 Sunday
  • 2 slices of fresh french bread (local bakery)
  • 1 bowl of homemade vegetable soup (leftovers)
  • lot's water from our own waterwell
  • guacamole chips
  • 2 kokanee beers (from Crescent, Britsh Columbia)
  • baby carrots (from California I think)
  • mashed potatoes (Im thinking from Mexico, or last summers growth in MB)
  • a bit of beer can chicken (don't eat meat but this was grown on a Mennonite farm close by, and cooked on the barbecue)

Day 2 Monday

  • 1 green apple (most likely from California)
  • 1 grapefruit (most likely from Florida)
  • 1 -12" vegetable sub from Subway
  • 1 bowl of vegetable soup
  • popcorn

I was asked what kind of foods do I eat regularly. It goes as follows:
Green Apples, Grapefruit, Potatoes, Lettuce, Celery, Onions, Carrots, Tomatoes, Bread, Moose Meat, Deer Meat, Rarely Beef from my sister's farm, Cucumbers, Bananas, Cheese, Homemade Pickles, Cereal, Milk milk milk, Water, Popcorn, Corn, Beer, Vodka, Coffee


My diet is based on vegetables, fruits, grains, and dairy products. When we spoke about Food miles in our February 24 class It really made me think about where my food comes from, I mean how many days in a truck did it spend before arriving to its location to go onto another truck to get distributed to stores in that region. Living in Manitoba we do not have much choice when it comes to eating healthy in the winter. Fruits and vegetables are almost all from accross the borders. Unless we grow gardens ourselves in summer and preserve vegetables over the winter, but this is highly unlikely because most people do not have time plant such a big garden. With our affluent lifestyles an average household needs to have 2 working adults to keep up with bills and other expenses. In cities people don't have any room to grow gardens, they have to rely on markets near by that usually don't sell local food. I have significantly reduced my consumption of meat but I do still need some in my diet. Meat has become the main dish in our meals and in my household as well. When people, including my household, prepare a meal we think about what to cook for meat and then what would go well with this type of meat.

My food contributes to Fossil Fuels energy, to pollution of our water, land and atmosphere. To harmful toxins being released into the air, and alot that is staying in our food. I try hard to be aware of what I consume and I try to bring awareness to the people around me, alot of my family and friends reactions are "oh you environmentalist you". Most of them do not understand why I eat or not eat certain things. My immediate family understands more because they hear me preach as much as they want to hear. My mom even incorporated a Meatless Monday to her meal ideas. One small step at a time, one person at a time, one small decision; we can make a difference.

Blog 4- Meat Matrix- Meatless Monday

I was taking a look at the website:
themeatmatrix1.com

This website is a little far fetched, these issues of cows being treated so badly is not the case in most Canadian farms. American farms are larger in size therefore the cows are on average treated worst than Canadian beef.
Going through this website I found a link to site site called meatlessmonday.com
I had to add this on here because earlier in my blog I spoke of my mom incorporating meatlessmonday to her meal ideas. Its quite entertaining that I just happened to run across this site without thinking it would even exist. I sent the link to my mom as well as I added it here as following: http://www.meatlessmonday.com/
There are great meal ideas on this website, and alot of information and links to inform ourselves about what a healthy diet means. Over the last year I have become more aware of what I consume, food and products, I feel healthier and stronger, meantally and physically, than I've ever felt in my life. Due to my healthier diet I felt urged to quit smoking, I smoked for 2 years and Ive quit for 10 months now.
A healthy lifestyle brings balance to your life, changes can be made one step at a time.
A healthy environment brings life, our environment can not help itself, we have to make small changes for it's benefit.
We must bring balance to our lives, balance to our planet, and an overall balance of our health.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Blog #4- Canada's AvaTar Sands

On friday, instead of the usual notes, we had a great surprise. My teacher Kristina Hunter decided to invite her friend a CBC News reporter in the classroom. The reporter, Mychaylo Prystupa, was covering a story about the film Avatar which is being used by environmental activists to slam the oil industry. Questions that we asked to reflect on prior to the filming were as following: 1. Do you think that the film Avatar is meant to relate to the issues facing the world in Canada's Tar Sands? 2. Do you think using this film as a key to display environmental issues is viable? 3. How do you think the film Avatar relates to what is happening in Alberta's Tar Sands?
We were asked to form groups of three to discuss these questions. In my group there was one girl who hadn't seen it yet, and the other male who had. Their opinions were that using this film was a bit on the extreme side. They didnt think that James Cameron would like his film being publicized this way. My opinion was that in this world where everything is extreme and big, that is the only way to get the message through. This movie definately relates to what is happening in Alberta, because in Avatar the military is trying to mine the land for a mineral called "unobtainium". Avatar is fictional, it attracted alot of attention and sold $1.3 billion in theatres. This movie was a huge hit and I think it does make you think about the world digging for fossil fuels. Oil should be a product that is unobtainable but the fact is that with our technology we are extracting this fuel at a rapid rate to a point where we will be running out. As an activist myself for environmental awareness, I think that we should be using any method to bring the message out because that is the only way we will get people to think about these issues. It is important that people start to notice the message of the anthropogenic damage done to our planet. This message is starting to appear everywhere but cannot be told enough.
http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Local_News/Manitoba/ID=1433027983

Friday, March 5, 2010

Blog 4- Environmental, Energetic, and Economic Comparisons of Organic and Conventional Farming Systems

There was a time when all farming was organic. Fertilizer was compost or manure, fields were left fallowed to recover soil, crops were rotated, and pesticides were nonexistant. The alternatives to these is usually called organic farming. Organic farming techniques is related to sustainable development.

Heavy reliance on synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides is having serious impacts on public health and the environment. Herbicides are used by 90% of US corn farmers. Nutrient loading is associated with deterioration of fisheries and the overall health of lakes and oceans. It is modern agricultural practices that contribute to erosion of soil, environmental and human health. We need to reduce our reliance on agro-chemical inputs; Canada and Sweden hace demonstrated that our use can be reduced by 50% to 65%.

The aim of organic agriculture is to augment ecological processes that foster plant nutrition yet conserve soil and water resources. Organic agriculture is a fast-growing agricultural section in the United States. Organic food sales total more than $7 billion per year, therefore the outlook for organic production is bright. The developing agricultural policies are more in tune with the environment while increasing energy efficiency and economic returns.

The Rodale Institute Farming Systems Trial in Pennsylvania, on 6.1 hector has three subplots that are large enough that farm-scale equipment could be used for operations and harvesting.

Conventional Cropping is based on synthetic fertilizer and herbicide use, represents a typical cash grain, row crop farming unit and used a simple 5-year crop rotation that reflects operations in the region.

Organic animal-based cropping grew grain crops that were grown for animal feed, not cash sale. Aged cattle manure was used as a nitrogen source every 2 years out of every 5. The system did not use herbicides for weed control; it relied instead on mechanical cultivation, weed suppressing crop rotations, and relay cropping.

Organic Legume-based cropping system represented a cash grain operation, without livestock. It used no synthetic fertilizers, relying instead on green manure. It also did not use herbicides for weed control.

Crop yields under normal rainfall were similar for all systems.

Crop yields under drought conditions average yields in 5 dry years were significantly higher in the two organic systems. During the extreme droughts organic animal system it had significantly higher corn yields. The measurements showed significantly more water in the soil farmed using the organic legume system than in the conventional system. This accounted for the higher soybean yields in the organic legume system in 1999.

Discussions came to a conclusion that crop yields and economics of organic farming appear to vary based on the crops, regions, and technologies studies. There wwere large amounts of soil organic matter in the organic systems that aided in the tolerance of droughts.

Oil and natural gas inputs In general, the use of less fossil energy by organic agricultural systems reduces the amount of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere, and therefore the problem of global climate change.

Crop yields Soybeans, and wheat yields were similar in all three systems. There is a higher gross income for conventional than the organic alternative system. The lower yields in organic farming is caused by lower nitrogen-nutrient inputs. In New Zealand, wheat yields are 38% lower than those in the conventional system, but these can be eliminated by raising soil nitrogen throught the use of animal manure or legume cropping systems.
There is a higher gross income for conventional than for the organic however market price for organic food such as corn and soybeans is higher.
Challenges for organic agriculture the two primary problems were nitrogen deficiency and weed competition. The Mechanical weed control is usually more effective than chemical weed control under dry conditions, while the reverse is true under the wet conditions.
Adoptions of organic technologies include 1) off season cover crops 2) extended crop rotation 3) increase level of soil organic matter 4) allow natural biodiversity.
Benefits of Organic Technologies
  • soil organic matter were higher
  • high levels of soil organic matter serve soil and water prove beneficial during droughts
  • fossil energy inputs 30% lower
  • labor inputs are evenly distributed over the year
  • crop rotation and cover cropping reduce soil erosion, pest problems, and pesticides use
  • recycling of livestock waste reduces pollution and benefits organic agriculture
  • abundant biomass increases biodiversity

Blog 4- Food Scarcity: An Environmental Wakeup Call

The author of this article, Lester Brown a farmer from New Jersey, is known for being one of the world's most influencial thinkers of global environmental movement. In this selection Brown warns of economic and social disruptions due to food scarcity. He predicts environmental degradation, such as, deforestation, water population, greenhouse gas emissions, will lead to global decline of the food supply. Brown's opinion about obtaining a sustainable development is to stabilize population and climate.

The extensive extraction of resources has affected the world's food economy substantially. The consequences are clear with regards to deforestation leading to more rainfall runoff, and discharging excessive amounts of carbon will eventually lead to economical disruptive climate change. These consequences are also caused by overfishing, overgrazing, soil erosion, loss of plants and animals species, all will eventually lead to a ecosystem collapse.

Agriculture

The food system will be the sector where environmental degradation will lead to economy downfall. With rising grain prices due to commodity prices, this will affect 1.3 billion people to a point where it is life-threatening. Environmental damage will affect fishers and farmers in keeping up with growth and demand will will all lead to political instability.

Heads of household who are unable to feed their families will blame their governments resulting in riots. If food prices keep going up this will negatively affect multinational corporations, stock markets, and the international monetary system.

The consequences that scientists have warned about can be seen everywhere:

In Europe, allowable fish catch has reduced 20%. In Saudi Arabia, there's a 62% grain harvest drop. The burning of the Amazon rainforest has lead to soil degradation resulting in crop abandonment. These situations will multiply, making it more difficult to feed our world population resulting in 800 million people being too poor to buy enough food for hunger satisfaction.

In Search of Land

As the world's population expands, both the area of cropland and amount of irrigation water decline. Drainage of wetlands has opened fertile areas for cultivation. The growth area to plant grain has peaked in 1981 and is since quite slow compared to that of population. The population growth rate is at some 80 million per year, if this goes on the amount of cropland will continue to decline.

In Search of Water

The world's farmers are facing water scarcity. Among China, India, and United States; they are facing extensive aquifer depletion, they collectively account for half of the world's grain supply.

During 1950-1990 the grain harvest has tripled causing the expansion of irrigation methods which intensified production in low-rainfall areas. Most of the world's rice and wheat are produced on irrigated land. The countryside has no competition with the cities when it comes to water supply. Water scarcity is becoming a prevailing issue as was land scarcity.

The Onset of Food Scarcity

Evidence of earth's degradation has accumulated for many years. Our food security is moving from surplus to scarcity, our buffer zones are minimizing. Food scarcity will provide an environmental wake up call the world needs.

An Unprecedented Challenge

Achieving a sustainable future for future generations to have enough food is as much dependant on family planning as on farmers. The two most difficult components in achieving a sustainable economy are stabilizing population and climate. It may be time to reasess population policy restraining families to having 2 children simply to replace themselves. There are 32 countries, all in Europe, who have already taken a small step in the right direction.

Stabilizing our climate means reducing carbon emissions and supporting the efficient technologies emerging. Adoption of a carbon tax would be another step in the right direction.

In a world where food scarcity is the main issue, land scarcity emerges as a central issue. Like land, water is being diverted to nonfarm uses. Providing water free of charge leads to water waste.

Feeding the Future

Securing the food future will affect every part of human existance- from land use, to water use, to how we spend our leisure time. The grain prices growing will result in people eating less grain-intensive livestock products. The world's politicians need to take a current path away from environmental deterioration and economic disruption but toward an economic and demographic path that is environmentally sustainable.