Share and Voice: Fresh Picked Water

--Hello everyone! So one of my favorite websites is the Star Tribunes, one of the two main newspapers from down in the Twin Cities. One of the articles they had on the main page was done by a student intern, Nicole Tommerdahl. It was about how St Cloud State is heading a new trend among drinking water. I'll summarize but here is the article.

--This new type of drinking water intrigues me greatly. What they do is, they take a drink dispenser, 1/2 gallon thing, and fill it with water, ice, and then freshly cut fruit or vegetables. And it basically makes water that tastes like the fruit or veggie, comparable to things like Vitamin Water. They put fruit like apples and oranges, and veggies like cucumbers in the water, and combine things like lemon lime water among other things(hopefully they can get water that tastes like Mountain Dew, if they do, sign me up!)

--The cool part is they have it in Garvey Commons, which is comparable to UMD's DC and food court. The 'Hydration Station' has pretty much replaced Soda machines. Which helps the environment (Think about it, less soda consumed means less resources needed to make the soda). The other cool part is it's healthy for ya obviously. Not only are ya getting your daily dose of water, but you're also getting small amount of fruit and veggies in every drink, which of course is always healthy.

--There are unlimited refills for students, so even if they are just walking by, they can stop and fill up their water bottle! I really think it would be awesome if UMD caught onto the trend and got some Hydration Stations here on campus. One in the Food Court, and one in the DC. Personally, I know this would help me drink more water, and I think the change would be well received among a majority of the student population as well.

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

Hey everyone! The weeks keep on flyin' by, and so do all the blogposts! So for this current post, we have to go to the Environmental Working Group's website. They have a neat little Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database. Ya put some type of cosmetic item you use (I was really confused at first because men don't use cosmetics, women do. So, I decided to call the stuff that guys use (i.e. body wash, shaving gel) cosmanics. I like it.) Anywho, ya put your Cosmetics/Cosmanics into the database, and it'll tell you how harmful your particuar items are to you and the environment. Here are my findings.


I use Nivea For Men Body Wash. Just recently started using it. It smells nice. And honestly, my findings were alright. It gave me a 2 out of 10 on the Hazard Scoring System(1 good, 10 bad). Only 22% of similar products on the market are considered better. I think thats pretty good. It also found that I had a slight chance of getting cancer from the Nivea Body Wash. but, the ingredients found that can cause cancer have only limited evidence relating cancer to the body wash. Some other ingredients were found to cause organ system toxicity. But all of the Hazard Scores were 4 or below, so I am quite happy with all of my results!

Review of Film: The Future of Food

Hey everyone. So I'll be honest, for me, this movie was hard to pay attention to at times. Movies I like usually involve comedy or action, not farming. So bear with me while I try to summarize the film 'The Future of Food'.

Summary
Farming always used to be done the same way. Until the 20th century, when chemical fertilizers and insecticides became the new norm. Right away, this film shocked me with a quote. They said 'Nerve gas was modified to make insecticides. Sounds healthy right?

Then Round Up comes along. Round Up is basically just a weed killer. So Monsanto comes along and makes Round Up ready seeds, meaning they can't be killed by the weed killer. After becoming the first company to patent a seed, the trouble started there. While passing a farmers field, a Monsanto truck filled with seed let some seed fly out of the truck and into his field. The seed mixed some of the farmers crops, creating Round Up ready crops that were not technically the farmers, because Monsanto had their seed patented. Well the farmer didn't know this, Monsanto found out, and sued the farmer.

One other thing of note is labeling. There has been a strong public demand for GMO food to be labeled. Why? Because labeling makes companies liable if anything happens. For instance, someone could be allergic to something in the GMO food, but if it isn't on the label, the person doesn't know that they are about to eat something they are allergic to. This is something I too feel strongly about.

My thoughts
Like I just said, the labeling aspect is something I feel very strong about. I don't know if the law is still in place where companies don't have to put GMO's on labels, but I sure as heck hope so. Otherwise, the whole Monsanto thing is just as disturbing. The fact that you can get in trouble for not knowing that some random seeds flew into your yard is wrong. If you go out and steal patented seeds and put them in your crop, then yes, you are wrong. But if it is all by accident, then I really don't think that person should be held liable.

New Vocab
Germinate - is the process whereby growth emerges from a period of dormancy
GMO - is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques
Monoculture - is the agricultural practice of producing or growing one single crop over a wide area
Superweeds - Any wild plant that has become a hostile plant as a result of acquiring resistance to herbicides through pollination with a genetically modified plant
Transgenic - of, pertaining to, or containing a gene or genes transferred from another species

Reflection: Weeks 5 & 6

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- - -Hey again everybody. So Weeks 5 and 6 were a little bit different than normal, but it was still a nice change.

- - -We started out with the movie Diet for a New America, created by John Robbins. It went over a lot of ways of how our current diets are killing us. Whether it be Heart Disease or Diabetes.But they also went over our current methods of using animals for food. How we keep cattle in confined areas just so they taste a little bit better. One other big thing they mentioned was the size of American's food portions. How one of our meals would feed 5 people in another country. Crazy to think about it like that.

- - -Another thing we did in the first week was a CSPI eye opener. We could choose from three different quizzes and things like that, and most of us chose the Eating Green Calculator. It really opened everybody's eyes and showed us each of our impacts on the environment. With my current diet, I 'create' more than 10,000 lbs of manure, through cattle and pigs and such. Ugh. Don't like to think about that either.

- - -Moving on to week 6, we started out with having an assigned reading due, each person having a different reading. While mine wasn't the most interesting, it was still an important topic. Global warming isn't just affecting humans, it's also throwing the birds off of their normal habits. When it gets hotter earlier in the year, birds migrate earlier, moving to places that don't have their food just yet, meaning they could die off because they don't have the food they like. You can read more about it in my post below.

- - -Another week 6 topic was the movie The Future of Food. This was another movie that really made ya think. The main topic it talked about was a company by the name of Monsanto, that were farmers enemies. After making a 'Round Up ready' seed (one that can't be killed by the weed killer round up), Monsanto was involved in quite a bit of lawsuits. The one that stuck out to me was when some Monsanto seeds flew off of a Monsanto truck, into a farmers field. The Farmer didn't know this happened, so when he noticed that some of his foliage wasn't dieing when RoundUp was sprayed on it, Monsanto took notice and sued him for using their patented seeds. Pardon my french, but that really sucks for the farmer. He didn't do anything wrong, but because the seeds were patented, he gets screwed.

- - -So that is my reflection on the past couple weeks, and I see that we have a couple movies the next couple of weeks as well, so we'll see how they go!

Share and Voice: Green Shirts

~Hey again everyone! So as I sit around, watching me some hockey, I notice how much advertising is going on. Whether it be along the boards of the rink, or how every stat is sponsored by someone, or just the good ol' commercials. So I get to thinking about ways to advertise the thought of 'Going Green.' And one simple way to get the word out is to create a T-shirt. Thus, I decided to show everyone some different 'Go Green' t shirts that are out on the market.

~But I also have a miniature challenge for everyone. Create a 'Green' t-shirt slogan. Ya don't have to go and create one on the computer or draw one up or anything, just give an idea for a t-shirt. I have an idea that relates going green and an awesome childhood TV show. Don't know what the slogan would be, but it would have to do with going green and having Ninja Turtles on it, or perhaps Gumby, or Yoda, and they are planting a tree. I don't know, just a thought. Anywhoooo, here are some T-shirts that are out there, the photos are linked to the site that offers em. Have a good one everybody!

Eye Opener: Review of Reading 15: Silent Spring: A Sequel?

Summary
Hello everyone. First off, the above picture made me smile, so I decided it was worthy of being the main photo. Anyways, the chapter I read was about birds, and how global warming is making them migrate early, and the effects it is having. Here are some quick things to think about from the book.

• Most American bird species are migrating an average of 9 days earlier, and breeding 10 days earlier than they did 30 years ago.
  
• The huge down side of birds migrating early is that the breeding cycle of birds will be out of sync with it's food supply. As a result, 'Early birds may not get the worm.'
  
• State birds such as the Baltimore Oriole (Maryland), and the Black-Capped Chickadee (Massachusetts)will no longer even be in those states.
• In some ecosystems, if a bird that helps control insect population leaves, the results would be pretty bad. A bird called the Nesting Wood Warbler eat the Eastern Spruce Budworm. The Budworm defoliates millions of acres of forest each year as it is. The Warblers already eating 85% of the budworms, so you can imagine what would happen if 100% of the Budworm went uneaten. The millions of acres of forest defoliated would rise significantly.
  

But, climate change might not be a horrible thing for a few species. A bird called the Prothonotary Warbler of Virginia have been arriving from the Caribbean an average of one day earlier since 1987. It is predicted that they sson could become a year round resident of the U.S.A.

New Terms
Avifaunal - the birds of a given region, considered as a whole
Neotropical - belonging or pertaining to a geographical division comprising that part of the New World extending from the tropic of Cancer southward.

New Concepts
Well, this whole chapter was a new concept to me. When I think of global warming, birds and the effect is has on them is not the first thing that comes to mind.

The part that really stuck out to me though was where it talked about what would happen if some birds left, and the insect population got out of control. I had bugs. So I pray this doesn't happen.

Links
American Bird Conservancy - A website dedicated to preserving birds in every aspect

Eye Opener: CSPI

~Hey everyone! So I chose to do my eye opener on the Eating Green Calculator.

INITIAL RESULTS
~So after the initial results were calculated, it told me that my burden on the environment was 1.5 acres of grain and grass needed to feed the animals, .4 lbs of pesticide used to grow the animal feed, 53.1 lbs of fertilizer used to grow the animal feed, and finally, the one that made me giggle, 10525 lbs of manure created by the animals I eat and use.

~It then went on to give me my average daily intake from the animal products I use. 725 calories, which I think is alright, no Fiber which isn't good, 43 grams of fat which I would like to lower, 20 grams of saturated fat (AKA bad fat), and 237 mg of cholesterol, which is 79 % of my Daily Limit. The fat and cholesterol parts scare me.

IMPROVED RESULTS
~So then it gave me the option to see how I could improve my burden on the environment by making better food choices. After I did this, it told me that if I changed, I would use a total of 1.1 acres, 38 lbs of fertilizer, .3 lbs of pesticide, and 8000 lbs of manure. While a lot of it may not seem like a lot, an ongoing theme of this class is 'every little bit counts,' and it's just as true right now.

~It also went on to tell me how it would improve my health numbers. I dont understand how, but it told me it would give me 8 more grams of Fiber. Considering I had none to begin with, and I am eating less, this confuses me. But it would also take away 8 grams of Saturated fat, which would help a lot, and it would decrease my cholesterol intake by 30%. Considering my dad has had cholesterol problems, this is something that hit's close to home so to speak.

PLEDGE
The next question asks 'Did you take the pledge?' I did so. For those of you who did not complete this, the pledge goes as follows...

~~~~To protect my health and the environment, I will eat a more plant-based diet—more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and nuts and fewer fatty meat and dairy products. When I do eat animal products, I will emphasize ones that are lower in fat and raised in humane ways that minimize harm to the environment.~~~~~

~The part of this that I will really attempt to follow is eating less fatty meat. I like Cheddarwurst. It's delicious. But I know it isn't good for me, so that is something I need to stop buying at my neighborhood grocery store.

SUMMARY
~So after looking at all of this, I plan to eat less fatty mean, which will of course lower my saturated fat intake, but also lower my cholesterol intake, which is something I should really stick to. Hope everyone's Eye Openers went well!