Reflection: Weeks 5 & 6

Week 5

This week in class we were assigned to read chapter 15, an article entitled, "Feeding the World".  This article was about Society’s Four Transitional Stages, Evidence for Negative Population Growth, Future Food/Supply Demand Balance, Protecting the Environment, and The Challenges Ahead in regards to food supply and the earth's population.  This article helped me to see exactly why lack of food is becoming such a problem, and how we as the human race can't just sit by and watch it get any worse. 

We also watched the documentary "Diet For a New America".  Although this movie was dated, it was done by John Robbins, a very effective speaker on the food we consume and the effects it has on the environment.  Surprisingly, I learned a lot from this film.  It was really hard for me to look past how dated it was, and at first I was pretty narrow minded to the entire film.  However, by the end of  the film, and after reading the reviews done by some of my classmates I realized that I indeed took a lot of information from the documentary.  Basically the film discussed how the food we eat as Americans (primarily meat and dairy) affects us negatively, the environment negatively, and animals negatively. 

Week 6

We spent this week in class watching the movie, "The Future of Food".  I hated that I learned so much from this film.  Honestly, I like to take comfort knowing that I don't know what's going on. Does that make sense?? It does to me....

Anyways, this movie opened my eyes to so much.  First of all, genetically modified foods aren't just few and far between, they are a dime a dozen!!  How scary.  I loved in the class discussion that we had following the movie, that someone brought up the point, "so with genetically altered seeds being thrown into the mix all over farms across America, how much of our "organic" or "all natural" foods, are actually what they say they are?" 

I was disgusted to learn that LIFE CAN BE PATENTED!? What a joke!? Honestly, how do we go about changing that, because I would be an advocate....

It was sad to hear all of the stories about the little farmers that basically got screwed over by HUGE, money-hungry companies(*cough* Monsanto *cough*)....it made me sad and selfishly, very very thankful that I am not a farmer. 

This week I also learned a lot from my peers by reading their individual posts on the eye opener reading assignments. I enjoyed how the readings were individually assigned.  Honestly I was intrigued enough by some of the reviews that my web group wrote, that I went to my book and read those articles right away! I also liked how we were asked to link to websites that had opposing views on the issue at hand.  Some of those websites were really educational to poke around at. GREAT JOB WEB-GROUPERS!

What I Have Learned

What have I learned these last couple of weeks? Well, a few things:

1. I have a confirmed allergy to shrimp
2. Based on this class, I am SO MUCH MORE environmentally aware of what is going on in this world.  Here is the cliff hanger: on my trip to CO last weekend, I was very receptive to environmentally friendly projects.  I found one project that I will be posting a Share & Voice about. Stay tuned....
3. Monsanto is a disgusting company and I dislike the way they ruin little innocent farmers that just want to make a living off of their family history of seeds. It is sick. I also wish there were a way for me to NOT support any Monsanto products, or to by any of their genetically altered foods.  Sadly, there is no way for me to know.
4. Genetically altered foods don't have to be labeled.  They should be. Looks like I should bust out my pen to sign some petitions...
5. I check my blogger account everyday, similar to my patterns of checking my facebook.  I feel as though this may be a problem, because I tend to waste large amounts of my life on facebook.  What happens if I start using blogger for personal use...eeeek. 
6. The food we eat, the food we grow the food we waste doesn't end where we think it does.  HUGE impacts are made on everyone else in the world, the environment, the animals, the earth itself...I have learned so much about what I should be eating and what I shouldn't.  What I should cut back on, and what I should eat more of. It was a very educational couple of weeks for me.  In fact, I just said The Hail Mary praying that Mrs. Harkins doesn't read my blog (*forgive me if you do*): I think I have learned more about food, consumption, the interaction of humans and food etc. in the past two weeks, than I did in the entire semester I had of Human Nutrition. Wow....typing that was a risk.