Senior Project Annotated Sources

I like this website because it provides some facts such as “In 2007, for example, more than 200 billion liters of bottled water were sold worldwide. Americans alone purchased more than 33 billion liters for an annual average of 110 liters (nearly 30 gallons) per person—a 70 percent increase since 2001.” It also includes a PDF of an article written about the energy intensive process it takes to transport the water bottles to our local markets. It also mentions some facts about how much oil is being consumed in making these water bottles and it provides links to other articles and websites.
West, Larry. "Bottled Water and Energy - How Much Energy Does It Take to Make Bottled Water?." Environmental Issues - News and Information about the Environment. 22 Oct. 2009 .

“Most people who buy bottled water have access to clean drinking water virtually for free (in the US, tap water costs less than a penny per gallon, on average). Nevertheless, the consumption of bottled water continues to grow, far surpassing the US sales of milk and beer, and second only to soft drinks.” This fact truly struck me because the fact that tap water is basically almost free and that bottled water sales are passing the sales of milk, beer and even soda. That’s too crazy. Think about all the energy and oil consumed during that process.
"How Much Energy Goes Into Making a Bottle of Water?." PhysOrg.com - Science News, Technology, Physics, Nanotechnology, Space Science, Earth Science, Medicine. 22 Oct. 2009 .

Research Paper

Shed Organization and Tool Maintenance Research Paper

Just like Michael Pollan states in the article Farmer in Chief, “the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.” Most people don’t realize the issues and complications being caused by our food production.

The inequality of international trade poses a big problem towards the farmers’ community and also has an impact on the environment. Because the green revolution has occurred industrial food production and industrial farming are being used all around the world due to the fast rate of production as well as the huge numbers that can be produced in a minimum amount of time and the prices to produce those foods. These methods of farming pose a serious threat to the population of organic farmers or the people who do all the labor because of the fact that they get a low amount of pay which don’t necessarily meet living standards. It poses other problems to their health because of the conditions when working. Pesticides, chemicals, and harsh working conditions all play a part in the life of whoever is doing the dirty work and they don’t even get paid much for them. In the article The Global Food Crisis by the National Geographic Magazine, it stated that “the high cost of fertilizers and pesticides has plunged many Punjabi farmers into debt” a number of those famers committed suicide due to that reason. The article also mentions how some of the areas in where chemically enhanced farming takes place, the population around that are harmed from the harmful bacteria in the air and water that come from the chemicals and pesticides. How do we ensure the equality of international trade?

The answer is Fair Trade. Fair trade is considered a social movement which aims to provide and help producers in developing countries as well as the approach to implement sustainable alternatives that are safer to the environment. Fair trade helps farmers/producers create more of an economic stability and self sufficiency. According to the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, it was estimated that over 7.5 million producers and their families were benefiting from fair trade funded infrastructure, technical assistance and community development projects and according to UK's Fairtrade Foundation, $4.12 billion was the total amount of money in fair trade sales for 2008. In my opinion if we keep this up both producers and consumers will be satisfied with the sales and products thanks to fair trade organizations.

Some of the goals of Fair Trade Organizations such as TransFair USA and the Fair Trade Federation are for certified organic farmers receive a certain amount of pay for their product, as well as maintaining and enforcing fair labor conditions for the farmers, community development, and most importantly environmental sustainability. TransFair USA strictly prohibit harmful chemicals and GMOs, instead they promote alternative sustainable farming methods.

Sustainable farming methods should be more of the standards of farming due to the fact of energy used to produce industrial foods. The Farmer in Chief article stated that according to one study “ the way we feed ourselves contributes to more greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere than anything else we do, as much as 37%,” we need to find alternative ways of producing our food that won’t burn up fossil fuels as well as find more sustainable ways of using energy to reduce our green house gas emissions when we produce our foods. Michael Pollan is right, our abundance of producing food “depends on cheap energy which we can no longer count on.” We need to face the facts, oil is becoming more expensive and we are depleting our oil and fossil fuel supply in an alarming rate, and we need to do something about it.

There are so many sustainable energies that can be implemented in different methods of farming; there are biofuels, geothermal heat pumps, hydroelectric power, passive solar heating, solar hot water systems, and wind energy. I believe that all these alternative energies can be used to significantly decrease the damage that our greenhouse gasses are doing to our atmosphere and environment. The US Department of Energy states that farms and ranches can use anaerobic digesters in their farms. Anaerobic digesters, also known as biodigesters, recover methane from animal manure to produce electricity and heat, and they reduce methane emissions, which is in fact a green house gas. Another alternative energy that can be used in not only farming but in the use of homes, is solar energy, which in my opinion is the most “sustainable” because we will never run out of solar energy for maybe a couple billion years. According to the US Department of Energy, such examples that solar energy can be used are; solar water heating (being used in dairy farms to clean equipment and stimulate and warm cow udders), and photovoltaic systems are being used for lights and water pumping.

The truth is there are so many alternative ways to farm as well as use in your home. They way we produce, consume, and transfer food consumes so much energy and does a significant amount of greenhouse emissions and can damage the environment. The population needs to be aware of what some say this “food crisis” is causing. “Food is about to demand your attention” said Michael Pollan, Farmer in Chief Article, I think food has always had our attention, we just didn’t know exactly what to do with it. We solve problems with solutions that bring up other problems. The green revolution is a great example of that. So how do we stop history from repeating itself? No one knows for a fact.

But there are still ways that our food crisis can be contained and monitored, fair trade and sustainable farming, may be a solution to this problem.

Sources:

-Bourne Jr., Joel. "The Global Food Crisis." National Geographic June 2009: 13. 11 Oct. 2009 <http://ngm.nationalgeographic

-"Fair trade - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 15 Oct. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade>.

-"Welcome to the Fair Trade Federation." Fair Trade Federation. 16 Sep. 2009 <http://www.fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/sp/i/2733/pid/2733>.

-"TransFair USA About Fair Trade." TransFair USA . 16 Sep. 2009 <http://www.transfairusa.org/content/about/>.

-Pollan, Michael . "Farmer In Chief." New York Times 9 Oct. 2008. 11 Oct. 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html?pagewanted=all>.

-"What Alternative Energy Options are Available for Farms?." National Agricultural Library. 15 Oct. 2009 <http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/altenergy.shtml>.

-Energy Savers, U.S Department of Energy, <http://www.energysavers.gov/your_workplace/farms_ranches/index.cfm/mytopic=30002>

Researach continued.

Fair Trade:
“It is a holistic approach to trade and development that aims to alter the ways in which commerce is conducted, so that trade can empower the poorest of the poor. Fair Trade Organizations seek to create sustainable and positive change in developing and developed countries.”
Facts and Figures:
*$4.12 billion - amount of total fair trade sales in 2008 according to the UK's Fairtrade Foundation
* 2.7 billion - estimated number of people in the world existing on less than $2 / day, according to the World Bank
*7.5 million - individuals in 2008 that directly benefit from Fair Trade Certified production, according to the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International
*$25 billion - amount spent annually on US farm subsidies, according to a 2007 Heritage Foundation report
Source:
"Welcome to the Fair Trade Federation." Fair Trade Federation. 16 Sep. 2009 <http://www.fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/sp/i/2733/pid/2733>.
“The Fair Trade Certified Label guarantees consumers that strict economic, social and environmental criteria were met in the production and trade of an agricultural product. Fair Trade Certification is currently available in the U.S. for coffee, tea and herbs, cocoa and chocolate, fresh fruit, flowers, sugar, rice, and vanilla. TransFair USA licenses companies to display the Fair Trade Certified label on products that meet strict international Fair Trade standards”
Fair Trade Information Map: http://www.transfairusa.org/content/about/global_reach.php
Fair Trade is much more than a fair price! Fair Trade principles include:
*Fair price: Democratically organized farmer groups receive a guaranteed minimum floor price and an additional premium for certified organic products. Farmer organizations are also eligible for pre-harvest credit.
*Fair labor conditions: Workers on Fair Trade farms enjoy freedom of association, safe working conditions, and living wages. Forced child labor is strictly prohibited.
*Direct trade: With Fair Trade, importers purchase from Fair Trade producer groups as directly as possible, eliminating unnecessary middlemen and empowering farmers to develop the business capacity necessary to compete in the global marketplace.
*Democratic and transparent organizations: Fair Trade farmers and farm workers decide democratically how to invest Fair Trade revenues.
*Community development: Fair Trade farmers and farm workers invest Fair Trade premiums in social and business development projects like scholarship programs, quality improvement trainings, and organic certification.
*Environmental sustainability: Harmful agrochemicals and GMOs are strictly prohibited in favor of environmentally sustainable farming methods that protect farmers’ health and preserve valuable ecosystems for future generations.
Source:
"TransFair USA About Fair Trade." TransFair USA . 16 Sep. 2009 <http://www.transfairusa.org/content/about/>.

Farmer In Chief Response

* One idea that I really want to put an emphasis on is, like i said during discussion, that everything we do would take different resources and different ways and amounts of resources we use. No matter what we decide to do we would need to find the money, the time, the energy, the information, the materials, etc. to do what we need to do. Several times in the article he makes the point that "cheap energy" is a resource we are running out of and should not depend too much on. We all know that oil is getting more expensive and we are running out of fossil fuels, some of the ways we use energy isn't healthy for the environment. One way farmers are doing something about this is using more sustainable methods of producing food. Even then you still need cetain resources to use these methods, for ex. you need sunlight for solar energy, and things like that cost money, which is another resource that is important. Everything falls upon money, does the government have enough money to do this and that? Does the population have enough money to buy it, which is more efficeint, more convienent? A lot of questions pop up in my head when thinking about these type of things.

*Another thing to think about is how certain things will effect the environment and the population of the world not just certain areas. On page one it says " you will not be able to make a signigicant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change." What exactly does that mean? He mentions that " after cars, the food systems uses more fossil fuels than any other sector of the economy," I'm pretty sure thats not neccesaraly a good thing. If we are blowing through all these resources that we might not have later on in the future then what will it come to when we actually reach that limit. I have a feeling that we will just find another resources that we can rely on DURING THAT TIME. Theres a pattern with the world, we always try to solve things with certain things that will cause a different problem in the future, for ex. the green revolution reading, yeah it fixed the problem at the time but entirelly caused a new problem of disease caused by the chemicals used to enhance the growth of the crops. When will this pattern stop? I honestly don't think it will anytime soon.

*During the discussion I heard a large number of the students say that people "just don't care," i dont think thats exactly right. I think people don't have the resources to actually do something. People don't have the TIME to do certain things that are healthy for the environment and themselves, they dont have the MONEY to do all these things like buy more expensive organic foods, they arent AWARE that the food production has a dark side and it's causing a problem that most likley they will have to deal with later. And he government and media play a big part in that situation. Maybe if the media put out that there is a problem then people would start to relize whats going on. Maybe if the government started to monitor certain things like, say compost in homes or recycling, etc., then maybe the people will start to do these certain things. And it always goes back to the resources. Does the government have the money to do all that, how will media portray these problems, is it actually a problem. There are so many different situations that come up on this subject.

*On page 7 the author talks about how alternative agriculture is taking into place in different places and what kind of positive impact it will have on the environment but he also mentions that if these projects are being done it will become more of a long procees and a "long term project" it will be. And lets face it, do we really have the time to do this things, theres a food crisis going on and if we spend alot of time doing something that might work will it be worth it? maybe it will and maybe it wont, we just dont know. And we dont neccesaraly have the time and money to be playing trial and error. We have to deal with this problem right now. Who knows what'll happen if we don't.

Best Practices

Special Assignments Groups

(Shed/Organization)

For our special assignments group we are in change of keeping the tools and she organized, as well as keeping track of each tool and make sure it is returned to its correct place in the shed. We plan on doing this by having each person check out the tool they are going to be using by putting their name, what tool they have, what time they checked it out, and what time they checked it back in. We realize that there maybe multiple numbers of a certain tool (such as a shovel) so we plan on taking colored tape and taping it around the handle and in that case you will put what color shovel you have.

For the shed itself, we still plan on putting shutters on the windows, cleaning up the inside more (getting all the dust and dirt out of there), putting some sort of lighting, and organizing the tools so that everything can be found easily and there is easy access to it.

For our experiment, our special assignment group plans on doing something with waste. We plan on having two different plants grow in little pots, one growing organically with nothing but organic material and the other grown in more of an industrial fashion with the use of plant enhancements etc. We are going to log what happens and see how they differ. Our question will be "How does a organic plant differ from a plant that is treated with waste grow?"