This week we learned about eh nutrient cycle and how Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus and Sulfur or (CHNOPS) are the essential elements of life and how the water cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle and phosphorus cycle are the cycles that drive life. We also had FFAC come talk to our class about what it means to eat sustainably. Below are questions and answers prompted by my teacher. 1) What was one thing you learned from the Factory Farm Awareness Coalition? How will what you learned change your behavior or perspective? I learned that chicken live in worse conditions than I had previously thought. I know that all factory farmed animals live the saddest life that you may not even wish onto your worst enemy but I had only see pictures of chicken crowned in one big space, I didn't know that so many of them get crammed into one long horizontal cage where they try to pluck and fight each other. And the only things that make a chicken 'free roam' is 'access' to the outdoors that they don't use, and because they can roam they have to get their beaks clipped so they don't fight each other. I have switched to a mostly plant based diet but I am still a flexitarian meaning I'm mostly plant but will have meat when convenient. I thought chicken was the least evil out of all of the meat options and I am still wrong. They all get treated like garbage and I have decided I'm going to stop buying eggs for my house and in the wild if I can get a vegan meal than I will if I can't then I may not go there anymore. 2) How might agendas and biases influence the way information is presented? What agendas/ biases do you think both FFAC and your professor have? Do biases inherently make the information false? How can you be confident that the information that you are receiving is accurate? Why does it matter to think critically about the information that you receive? How do you currently critically evaluate the information that you gain? How confident are you in the accuracy of the information that you are presented with on a regular basis? Be specific. The dairy industry has spent years and millions of dollars making sure we all know that 'milk is great for growing children' when in scientific evidence it's not everything they make it out to be. Based on FFAC's mission statement, "Empowering people to help save animals, the environment, and our health through our daily food choices" this tells you all of their biases. The first, "to save animals" they want to save all of the animals that are forced to live in these cruel conditions and make sure that the next generation of animal doesn't have to live the same way. The second, "the environment" they want to help our environment and they're approaching this by taking out a prime source of methane and carbon dioxide. Cows take a lot of resources and only give back three percent of the protein you need and give off a lot of methane from their burping and farting, then when you take their meat and distribute it you're producing carbon dioxide. Third, "our health through our daily choices" this is referring to two things, the first is how all of these farms are dealing with all the waste that comes from housing so many animals. They make huge cesspools for all the sewage and once they fill up some of them release the mixture in their sprinklers. This can be caught by the wind and drifts to the neighboring homes and makes them sick, think the plot to Erin Brockovich still with the polluted water but the neighbors know what's going on but they can't be caught by the law. Second eating meat at every meal has long term affects on ones health, such as high cholesterol and heart disease. I know my professor has a pro environmental point of view because of the classes she teaches, so she is anti factory farming. Information today is more abundant than it's ever been, anyone can post it or edit it. If you do not cross reference where your information is coming from than risk looking a fool or spreading information that is not correct. You know a source is reliable if it comes from a .org or .gov source that is well heard of, .coms can come from anywhere and are not very reliable when it comes to information. If you think about the data you find then you reduce the risk of getting faulty information, it's important when on the internet to never take things at face value. When I'm getting information I always look at where it's coming from and where the citations are coming from, then I also try to find as little biases when possible. An example is when I get my news, I use third party news sources like Google or Apple news that are not swayed one way or the other they just report what's going on. On a regular basis I'd say I could believe about 65% of what I read on the internet, and about 85% of what I'm taught in my classes. I bring up school because we live in a time where things change so fast it can be hard for school curriculum to keep up, thus making their data out of date and incorrect. 3) What were your recommendations for helping your soil pH, salinity, phosphorus, and potassium? pH: if you want to increase its pH add Lime or Wood Ash, to lower the pH add sulfur, Sphagnum Peat or Mulch/ Compost. Source Salinity: you need to manage the area that it occurs, Managing salinity involves striking a balance between the volume of water entering (recharge) and leaving (discharge) the groundwater system. Source Phosphorus: Plant phosphorus fixing vegetables, these are typically vegetables that are high in nitrogen, also can use phosphorus free fertilizer. Source Potassium: Drain and filter the soil or switch types of fertilizer. Source 4) Describe your photo and why you chose to take and post that particular photo. I chose to post this picture because I think it's important that we all regain awareness of the reality around us. I also wanted to be able to write about them bring awareness of them to the people that follow me on my Instagram, I hadn't heard of them until this assignment and I was sure this is true for other people as well. The reason I only took one this week was that I didn't feel comfortable taking pictures of how the animals are housed, those photos have an impact and I didn't want anyone who had not signed up for that to look at them.
5) What type of service project most interests you? Do you have an idea for a service project? What are your major limitations to doing a service project? I prefer the kind that has an environmental impact, this could be picking up trash by rivers and lakes or planting trees, or spending time to educate others on the environmental impact their actions have. My biggest limitation is the time, I have gotten in contact with SLiCE and I am going to help with their Earth Day events but I'm not on the council I would like to be on because it conflicts with my class schedule.
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