Selected Readings on Food, Agriculture and the Environment

The following are responses and summaries of various readings related to Food, Agriculture and the Environment. 

The Eco-Foods Guide: What Does IPM Mean?

IPM, integrated pest management, is a middle ground between organic and conventional agriculture.  IPM uses complex planning and processes that are biologically, chemically, and culturally different than organic and conventional growing.  IPM attempts to rid crop fields of pests, only using chemicals as a last resort.  IPM is a multidisciplinary approach involving agronomy, pathology, entomology, weed science, agricultural economics, and much more.  Much of the work involved in IPM is in planning: preparing for the coming pests and making attempts to prevent their inhabitation.  A commonly used mechanic is the use of insect pheromones to confuse a population.  The pheromones can distract the insects enough to keep them from destroying a harvest.  Also, with using “bait” crops and inserting predator bugs into a field, an even greater reduction of chemical use is achieved.  Though IPM seems to preach the reduction of pesticide use, it seems that often its practitioners merely try to limit the negative effects of its use such as the use of planting vegetation along stream banks to prevent runoff.

The Aristotelian Teaching Method

"Aristotle prevailed through persuasion, not coercion." (David Lindberg, 1992, p. 68; 2007, p. 66.) 

Arriving at the first day of class most students, having not previously encountered their professor, will likely not know what the class will be like or how it is going to be taught.  I believe that there are three methods of teaching which one can expect as being the primary form of the class.  The professor may, upon entering, go right on in to lecturing his personal beliefs or that of the majority consensus without mention of opposing views.  A second possibility is a professor who does not really lecture at all.  You may find this teaching method used in many of the philosophy classes on campus.  The professor will often bring up a subject and then require the class to proceed to teach themselves with the occasional prod or redirection via designed questions.  While this method does have its benefits, it has often-times seemed like a much better approach would be method three in which the instructor presents his own and other varying viewpoints and allows the students to make up their own minds on the subject.  It is my belief that people cannot be taught like the contents of a high school history book.  “It is this way” or “This is how it happened”.  When people learn in that context they lose the capability to reason for themselves and they never acquire the ability to question the norm.

What's Science Ever Done For Us?

            The science that appears in the episodes of The Simpsons is often times a dumbed-down, simplified, or petite version of “real world” science.  The Simpsons is not a substitute for classical education, an AP Physics class or an astronomy lab, it is merely an open door to a new world of experience and perhaps even providing the push necessary towards a formal learning.  The Simpsons has, until recent years, been pushing the boundaries of the television censors.  It pretty much perfected the social commentary and political satire that saturates every adult themed cartoon. 

Selected Readings on Food, Agriculture and the Environment

The following are responses and summaries of various readings related to Food, Agriculture and the Environment. 

The Eco-Foods Guide: Don’t Worry Buy Local

The further our food travels, the more costly it is to both us and the environment.  With the advent and widespread use of transit technology farmers, in the 1800s, began to see the financial benefits of producing for the major metropolitan areas in the northeast.  As this sector grew, so too did the number of hands which the food went through before reaching the consumer.  With the passing of NAFTA in the early nineties more and more farming operations are being moved south into Mexico and other Latin countries where the chemical restrictions on farms are much less strict.  Often food bought from the supermarket has taken weeks to reach the shelves, whereas purchasing from a local vendor can see product that is only hours to days off the plant: with more time comes less flavor.  The support of local farmers also keeps that land from falling prey to urban developers.  Once it’s been turned from farmland into housing or business, there’s no way to change it back.  The cash which we use to purchase local produce often stays within the community; going to local shops, utilities, and banks. 

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Stem cells are cells that can be found within all multi-cellular organisms and which have the ability divide and turn in to an array of specialized cells.  In other words, stem cells are blank pieces waiting to be stamped with a purpose.  While all human bodies contain stem cells, in some number, the majority within the developed person lie in the bone marrow and in afterbirth and birth-organs, though it is believed that skin cells may someday be used as stem cells.  Most adult stem cells, which include those cells removed from juveniles, are of the multipotent brand.  Potency is the potential for a stem cell to differentiate into different cell types.  Multipotent cells are limited in that they may only differentiate into the cells of a closely related family (Scholer 28).  So adult stem cells derived from muscle tissue would only be able to differentiate into those cells which are closely related to the tissue from which they were derived.  However pluripotent stem cells have a much greater potential as they are able to differentiate in to any cell of the three major germ layers: those being the endoderm, ectoderm, and mesoderm which are the basis of development in almost all animal groups more complex than worms (Scholer 28).  The greatest source, according to most, for pluripotent stem cells are from the undeveloped fertilized human embryos.  These embryos are often obtained from in vitro fertilization clinics due to their excess or soon expiration and as such are planned to be destroyed anyway.  “The embryos from which human embryonic stem cells are derived are typically four or five days old and are a hollow microscopic ball of cells called the blastocyst.  The blastocyst includes three structures: the trophoblast, which is the layer of cells that surrounds the blastocoels, a hollow cavity inside the blastocyst; and the inner cell mass, which is a group of cells at one end of the blastocoels that develop into the embryo proper” (U.S. DHHS).  The inner cell mass is removed to divide in a culture dish; if successful the dish will fill and the fresh cells will be divided up to be placed in new dishes for further ‘subculturing’.  “The original [few] cells yield millions of embryonic stem cells” (U.S. DHHS). 

The Flat Earth Falacy

Who really thought that the Earth was flat?  Although Aristotle’s physics fail to make mention of what gravity exactly is or why it functions in the way it does his belief is that the Earth is the center of the universe, because that is the most natural of places for it, and that all earthly material comes towards this center from all sides necessarily implies that the earth would form in to a three dimensional rotund shape, though not necessarily a sphere (Magruder Page 7).  If the Earth is flat is taken quite literally, then there can be no up and down, or no left to right.  We must all exist in a plane; we are all elements of two dimensions, with no depth.  Is only the underside of the Earth flat?  If so, then why? Why do these unearthly objects fall from the stars? Do they not reach the other side?  And, also, can we dig through the Earth to the other side?  If up and down are absolute then could we eventually dig a well into the abyss or would there be turtles all the way down? 

The Body Electric

The following is an analysis of the book The Body Electric.

            At the beginning of the 19^th century society was still mostly split between the upper-class elite and the working class, but as machines became more and more prevalent in places of industry there became less and less of a divide between the two classes.  The white-collar worker became a reality as machines began replacing what had previously required the work of men.  So with machines now doing the work there was a great increase in production at factories.  Increases in production lead to a need for an increase in sales and marketing and from there the widespread of the white-collar job was initially formed.  These white-collar business workers no longer had to spend upwards of twelve hours a day shoveling coal, molding iron, or working in textile mills.  This left them and their families, who were now making a greater salary than their ancestors had received, with much leisure time: a concept that had not even crossed the minds of the generations before.  No longer did the patriarch arrive home after a long day and immediately seek the sanctity and comfort of the bed.  Families went out together, socialized with other families, and mostly shopped.  They had acquired all this money with which they had previously not be privy to and what better way to rid oneself of excess than to exchange it for the goods which one desires.