Unit 7 Blog

Forestry Discussion

In order to manage some forests, people often decide to set certain area of the forest on fire. This is beneficial to the forest because it helps to grow new vegetation and kill all the unwanted weeds and negative chemicals that were damaging the forest. If these areas start bringing up new vegetation, it is also economically beneficial. Farmers might own that part of a land and will be able to produce more organic products after the land goes back to normal. But this method of managing forest also has its downside. Many different species live in the forest. And once people burn a particular area of the forest, those animals will no longer have their home anymore and some animals might die due to the fire. This will eventually cause decreased biodiversity in that area.


Global Nutrition Discussion

Meat production is definitely more expansive that plant production for number of reasons. First, animals like cows, pigs, and chicken require a large amount of land. When a farmer can plant about thousands of corns in a certain area, meat producer can only fit few hundred animals in the same amount of area. Also, unlike the plants, animals require more food and care. They need to be constantly fed and their food cost money too. Also meat requires meat packing process but the plants don't. Workers need to cut up specific parts of the animal and clean and sanitized them which requires more manual work.


Genetic Engineering Discussion

Genetically Modified crops are widely used now in modern world. Economic wise it is a lot cheaper to grow GM crops than non GM crops. For example, GM crops are sometimes modified to fight off certain pests and diseases to grow as a stronger crop. But if the industry was to grow non GM crop, they will eventually spend more money on manual labor to keep up with the dying corps and killing all the pests. And also from the Food Inc. documentary, a scientist said that most of the products we buy at the grocery store has genetically modified corns in them. This make it cheaper for factories to make their products and still be able to make large quantity of products that satisfy the consumer's demand.


Sustainable Agriculture Discussion

In order to prevent another dust bowl from happening, farmers must move lands every now and then. Because if they farm in one certain area for years and years, all the crops that are planted will suck the nutrients out of the soil, leaving that area with no nutrients whatsoever. And these soils that lack nutrients will eventually be weak enough to be blown away by a strong wind, which is the reason why dust bowl happened. And farmers can use advanced technology that will not harm the soil and yet get their work done faster than manual labor. These efficient methods not only prevent farmers from having another dust bowl but helps the economy over all. Constant production that matches the demand of consumers will help the economy flow.


Pest Management Discussion

IPM stands for Integrated Pest Management. IPM is known to be a pest management that not only gets rid of pesticides that are harmful to the crops but also makes sure that it does not harm human health nor the environment during the process of killing pests. It is also known to have the least risk while having the most benefits with reduced cost.


BIG PICTURE DISCUSSION

Overall this whole unit has to do with large amount of human impact. Agriculture practice started because of humans and their needs and it expanded to an enormous size to feed 7 billion people in the world. And as the farming techniques gets better with new and more efficient technologies, people's demand on food got higher and quantity of production got also higher. Now food industry takes a huge part in our economy today. Giant companies are mostly in control of all the meat and food that are available to us at the grocery stores and farmers are payed by the companies to farm and raise animals for food purposes. As companies get more powerful and find a way to produce things much faster and cheaper, workers and animals get abused constantly. And this eventually lead to unsanitary practice in the factory and caused diseases like Ecoli and more. In the New Deal, Federal Meat Inspection Act was created to protect the citizens from contaminated meats. Government departments like FDA is also a big part of making sure that people consume safe and healthy food. Also, the governor of Nebraska, Mike Johanns is considering making a bill for Meatpacking Worker's right not only to protect the workers from being abused by harsh working environment but to ensure the sanitation of the factory.