Friday, February 17, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Week 5 - 'Omnivore's Dilemma'
Pollan, Michael. 2006. The Omnivore's Dilemma. Penguin Group, New York; p. 15-119.
Oh my gawd.......
with these guys I don't think the question: "What am I eating?" will ever be truly answered (Pollan, 17).
Mcnugget = corn Hmmm, I can't really see it, but I can believe it based upon reading food labels of processed foods. What does bother me a lot (because I really love them) is why would you feed fish with corn? No matter how I look at it, fish would never find corn in their natural environment. Processed foods aside, the idea of corn fed fish really bothers me for some reason - thank goodness I usually catch my own fish.
After all, just like flamingos - you are what you eat...
My overall question from this is - is this such a bad thing? Sure its enlightening to read, and discover, what the food you eat every day really contains; but is the fact that corn is (in one form or another) essentially in everything? I guess it would be if corn crops crashed - that is indeed a terrifying point to consider.
Not only the terror of corn production flat-lining, but the rationale describing why more and more corn is grown despite declining prices is astounding. No matter how you look at, if you're losing 50% on
production (Pollan, 53), there is no way in hell that planting (and maintaining) more will help you break
even (the math won't lie, if you're growing more you'll just end up losing a larger total of 50%); you'll just
end up losing more and destroying your land!
Slow down, slow down... the whiskey jug is passed around at... quilting bees? (Pollan, 100)
I don't know whether this has to do with anything else discussed, but I find it quite hilarious!
Oh my gawd.......
with these guys I don't think the question: "What am I eating?" will ever be truly answered (Pollan, 17).
Mcnugget = corn Hmmm, I can't really see it, but I can believe it based upon reading food labels of processed foods. What does bother me a lot (because I really love them) is why would you feed fish with corn? No matter how I look at it, fish would never find corn in their natural environment. Processed foods aside, the idea of corn fed fish really bothers me for some reason - thank goodness I usually catch my own fish.
After all, just like flamingos - you are what you eat...
My overall question from this is - is this such a bad thing? Sure its enlightening to read, and discover, what the food you eat every day really contains; but is the fact that corn is (in one form or another) essentially in everything? I guess it would be if corn crops crashed - that is indeed a terrifying point to consider.
Not only the terror of corn production flat-lining, but the rationale describing why more and more corn is grown despite declining prices is astounding. No matter how you look at, if you're losing 50% on
production (Pollan, 53), there is no way in hell that planting (and maintaining) more will help you break
even (the math won't lie, if you're growing more you'll just end up losing a larger total of 50%); you'll just
end up losing more and destroying your land!
Slow down, slow down... the whiskey jug is passed around at... quilting bees? (Pollan, 100)
I don't know whether this has to do with anything else discussed, but I find it quite hilarious!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Week 4 - Guns, Germs, and Steel
Diamond, Jared. 1999. Guns, Germs, and Steel. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York; p. 85-113, 131-156.
What life might have been like over 11,000 years ago... *rolling mist*
It was white… everywhere. With sections of cruel deep blue. The man was walking forward, slowed by the bitter wind and the ice biting at his tough skin. This is the Ice Age – but he didn’t know any different, this is how his world has always been. His only thought was survival and how to cross the giant bridge of land jutting out over the choppy waves. He had seen several others from his tribe attempt crossing it.
What life might have been like over 11,000 years ago... *rolling mist*
It was white… everywhere. With sections of cruel deep blue. The man was walking forward, slowed by the bitter wind and the ice biting at his tough skin. This is the Ice Age – but he didn’t know any different, this is how his world has always been. His only thought was survival and how to cross the giant bridge of land jutting out over the choppy waves. He had seen several others from his tribe attempt crossing it.
“Ooog!” There was a seal close by, but no sense in hunting, he had eaten his fill a short while ago.
He had seen some of his people slip off from the thin piece of land connecting his home to another world. There had to be a way to cross without falling into the suffocating waters – it was a problem he really wanted to solve before trying to cross.
Others walked by. “Uggh!”, they said in greeting as they passed quickly. He continued on, behind them now, slowly; carefully thinking of how best he could prepare.
He thought, “Ugh Ugh”. He should have hunted that seal just in case - it's all about survival after all.
Times certainly do change. From those dark mysterious times when hunting and gathering were the only way to survive to our modern method of hunting/gathering the least bruised and shiniest apples at the local supermarket.
In the search of that perfect apple (or whatever fruit suits your fancy), or pet breed, we should really be asking ourselves the question: Just how far will domestication go? And, in light of that, in which direction is it heading?
Is this too much, too far? That the descendant of mighty wolves is 'strutting' around in fashionable pigtails? (I'm sorry for having such animal orientated pictures even though the blog is about plants - but you have to agree that this guy is adorable!)
So what led us from what 'we' were to what we are now? Diamond suggests that by selecting those plants which are edible/nutritious, and taking the initiative to grow them (in higher, and higher concentrations) those people ~11,000 years ago began their long journey to becoming what we are now (couch potatoes, squished like sardines into this sardine can we now call Earth).
--> As Diamond says; higher crop yield per acre leads to higher human density.
There is one point on which I would like to argue. Diamonds attitude towards the geographical location of the origin of food production seems surprised. Asking questions like why did production start in places such as Iraq, Mexico, China, etc? and why not in places like France or California? (Diamond, p.94-95)
His surprises surprises me. Following the Ice Age, the Earth has experienced such weather/climate patterns - though to a lesser degree. People of the Middle Ages weather occurrences in which the Baltic Sea froze over, while in other places of the world experienced other various weather changes. If this 'Little Ice Age' could occur in the last thousand years or so, then it only seems fair to assume that whatever weather, climate or landscapes we see today are not necessarily the same as the landscape seen in the same places a few thousand years ago. The ever growing desert landscape we see now in Mexico or Iraq could very well have been fertile soil able to support the first (geographical) breadbaskets.
Oh yes indeed, just how far will we go with domestication? (yes, I know its way after the holidays, but my pets are such putzes, I just have to show them off)
In the search of that perfect apple (or whatever fruit suits your fancy), or pet breed, we should really be asking ourselves the question: Just how far will domestication go? And, in light of that, in which direction is it heading?
Is this too much, too far? That the descendant of mighty wolves is 'strutting' around in fashionable pigtails? (I'm sorry for having such animal orientated pictures even though the blog is about plants - but you have to agree that this guy is adorable!)
So what led us from what 'we' were to what we are now? Diamond suggests that by selecting those plants which are edible/nutritious, and taking the initiative to grow them (in higher, and higher concentrations) those people ~11,000 years ago began their long journey to becoming what we are now (couch potatoes, squished like sardines into this sardine can we now call Earth).
--> As Diamond says; higher crop yield per acre leads to higher human density.
There is one point on which I would like to argue. Diamonds attitude towards the geographical location of the origin of food production seems surprised. Asking questions like why did production start in places such as Iraq, Mexico, China, etc? and why not in places like France or California? (Diamond, p.94-95)
His surprises surprises me. Following the Ice Age, the Earth has experienced such weather/climate patterns - though to a lesser degree. People of the Middle Ages weather occurrences in which the Baltic Sea froze over, while in other places of the world experienced other various weather changes. If this 'Little Ice Age' could occur in the last thousand years or so, then it only seems fair to assume that whatever weather, climate or landscapes we see today are not necessarily the same as the landscape seen in the same places a few thousand years ago. The ever growing desert landscape we see now in Mexico or Iraq could very well have been fertile soil able to support the first (geographical) breadbaskets.
Oh yes indeed, just how far will we go with domestication? (yes, I know its way after the holidays, but my pets are such putzes, I just have to show them off)
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