Federal Land Grazing

I think that land grazing on public land is a good idea. If the public and BLM want to care for the property it will cost tax payers more money. As it goes now the land that is grazed is being cleared of grasses and brush. This helps with fire prevention and with improving the plant growth. I try for myself to get paid for grazing land instead of paying for the feed. It is a service and a lot of work to manage the animals that will be grazing. It would cost millions of dollars in labor and machinery costs to do the same management as the ranchers do. The ranchers are paying for the land and the BLM should give a low cost per head as a small thank you to the ranchers. If any thing it costs the same amount of money to graze BlM property than it is to graze private. The vast area that BlM land covers it take many hours and labor to gather and push cattle around the harsh country. Plus to ship the cattle form private land to the BlM land costs the ranchers a pretty penny. On top of that the ranchers must either stay with the cattle or check on them regularly which take up more fuel and time. We all know that time is money. With this said I believe the ranchers should be charge the low costs that they are paying to graze the federal rangelands.

Globalization

The global market economy has demonstrated great productive capacity and that its
potential for good is greatly needed. It has already opened the door to many benefits, such as promoting open societies and opening economies, and encouraging a free exchange of goods, ideas and knowledge. In addition, growing interaction among people across the world is helping develop a growing sense of interdependence, commitment to shared universal values and unity of purpose among peoples that can and should be channeled to build informed and democratic global governance in the interests of all.

Positive interdependence means that team members need each other to succeed. A childhood example is the three-legged race. Each team player has the same goal in mind. Though smaller than the typical groups, it illustrates clearly the dependence each teammate has with the other individual. This can also be a scenario used with globalization.

Food Safety

Don't you hate being sick? I hate it more when I know it was caused by eating food that was contaminated with bacteria. I am fast to blame the cook at the restaurant for the cause. Now that I think about it, it could have been prevented by the cook but wasn't necessarily his fault. When I think about who's responsibility food safety is I think of everyone that is involved in the process between the farm and the table. I think people that handle food should have integrity with their job. They should want to produce food that is safe for human consumption. If the people aren't properly informed or trained then that is not their fault. The government should overseen this process . If everyone was able to do their part in preventing contamination to foods then it would decrease the effects of bad food. The cook who prepares the food should not hold total responsibility for the contamination. This is were the last step can be taken to eliminate most bacteria. The person who is preparing and cooking the food has the greatest responsibility for completing food safety.

Water Treatment.

The last few years during the rainy season I have had the privilege of working during the winter. I have been able to gain training on the same equipment used in filtering water for agriculture use. In agriculture orchards and fields the water might need to have salt or sand filtered out. The state of California has passed laws for construction builders to filter any outgoing water from a progressive construction site. While the roads are cut and no under ground piping is installed all water has to be filtered to under 15 NTU. When water is pumped off the site the water needs to be clear. Drinking water is less than 1NTU. So when it rains and the water is collected in holding ponds a biodegradable chemical called Chitosan is added to the water. Chitosan is made of shell fish, crabs and shrimp stuff. It run approximately $3500 Dollars for 250 gallons. Not Cheap stuff. It comes in liquid form. When added to the water it reacts to the dirt molecules and attaches itself to them causing them to sink. Water will come in looking like chocolate milk and after reacting to the polymer it leaves looking like cloudy water. After filtering through several holding pond the water is pushed through a sand media filter. This filter has to be run at thirty five pounds to be effective. The filters are in groups of four and have layers of crushed rock and sand in them for final filtration. These filters are identical to the agriculture filters. Only we use the filters to remove dirt and polymer out so the streams, rivers, lakes and eventually the delta doesn't fill up with silt. After the Sand media filters the water passes through the last stage of filters. In this stage we use bag filters that catch any dirt or polymer which slips through the first stage. After that the water is discharged clean into the nearby storm drain or creek. This year was the first time I was able to oversee to set up of the system. I was able to get a closer idea of how things worked and how much water we process. This year we are set up to process and filter 1200 Gallons every minute. That seems like a lot of water, but when thirty acres of rain water is funnel to one spot it can become a problem. When it rains I'll be out pumping water day and night.

Organic Food Production

I think that organic farming is a great idea. I t gives people another choice of what to put into their bodies. If farmers go through the trouble to meet standards their differences should be shown. It was necessary to define the legal term of organic products. Then there is no gray area of what can and can't be used. Farmers have to meet the standards that maintain and enhance a natural harmony. I believe that organic food production is beneficial to the environment. I think as a side note the United States is filled with "good doers" and supporting a cause that is more environmentally friendly helps people's egos. I like to support local farmers and will buy fresh organic fruit year round. I don't believe it is going to feed the world's growing population. It doesn't seem cost and time effective. You end up with a more balanced crop but it can't be mass produced. As part of the food industry, organic products are the only rapidly growing agriculture approach towards a low impact on the enviroment. Traditional methods of food production are more beneficial to our societies growth. The mass production with the aid chemicals is what hurts our environment. If companies can corner the market of selling organic foods I think that is great. As long as the farmer are benefiting from their growing market. I was kinda stunned when I realized there is a grocery store "Whole Foods Market" who only sells organic products while I was visiting Santa Rosa. I am so use to going the farmers market or going to the Blue Goose in Loomis.

Biotech quiz replacement

Labeling foods that have been produced with biotechnology would be a good idea. I like to know what I am eating and putting into my body. Having a safety or nutritional label concerning the use of byotechnology would have some risk. The increase in production costs would filter down to the consumer. The consumers would need to embrace the use of biotechnology in our food production. Loopholes would be found to not inform the public of these products that were genetically enhanced. Records would have to be kept through the production line starting with the farmer. These records then could be manipulated at each stop in the line. The distributors would not be able to compete with other countries with lower standards. I think the labeling would be a safety net for consumers. Knowing what you are using in your body is what a consumer wants to hear. I think if people are informed by the labeling they might be more likely to purchase certain foods. If the consumer didn't buy products with information labeling then it would have a great back lash on the wholesaler, distributor and so on. Having this information offered to the consumer should be necessary.

Biotechnology Week 2

Using biotechnology in our food production today is a huge step in the world's agricultural market. When plants can be genetically engineered or altered, without harm to the consumer it is a great benefit to society. The problem is the time it takes to test these improvements, to make sure there are no side effects. Using seed that has been genetically altered to withstand pests would help the environment greatly. If pesticides were used less, then the effects of water run off in our water sources would lower. I believe that Biotechnology is a leap ahead of the old conventional methods of plant breeding. What use to take generations of selection and cross breeding to produce a plant with good qualities is being achieved in less amount of time. The techniques are different and more precise with biotechnology. Using biotechnology enables our ability to isolate preferred genes and introduce new traits into our foods. With older methods plants that were selected still had undesirable traits that were harder to breed out. Now the undesirable traits can be removed genetically. I believe that our society needs a form of biotechnology to survive our growing population. I also think that boundaries need to be set on this technology. This technology would increase the cost of production and increase the consumer's cost. The smaller farmers would struggle to keep up with larger production. I think that the over flow of technology should be shared to the countries that need it most. I believe that Biotechnology will help our society grow more efficient in the future.

The Green Revolution

I think technology is a huge factor in increasing food production. In the construction industry I see housing going up all over. In many cases it is good for the area. The land they are developing on is only good for livestock. In other instances builders are developing land that is great for farming. These houses are being built on flood plains and on great soil. As more prime farming land is eaten up by civilization the help of technology is a must. With smaller farming areas and an increasing demand of food, the help of technology is helping increase the food production. In the future of food production the need to have more research and further technology to lean on will grow. Technology of every aspect will have some factor of survival of the world's population. The world agriculture expo is a great information source of the technology that is available to use these days.

Population Growth and Food

I believe Malthus was inaccurate about population growth and Food production. I think that population could out grow the world's food production. Nature has ways of controlling population. Natural disasters and war and many other world disasters control population. It may not be the best way or the easiest, but nature is in control. Money has a lot to do with countries dealing with starvation. It is sad to think that money is holding a country as great as the United States back from helping disperse food properly. Farmers need to be paid for their crops and their hard work. It would not be right for them to have to have to sell to countries that can't pay a going rate for food. On the other hand it is awful to hear of countries starving and their government can't or won't help them. It should be a concern of the Countries that are well advanced to help develop other countries. It is good to feed a man a fish for a day. It is better to teach him how to catch his own. I believe that if we can help the other countries with their own food production it could help in the relief of some starving countries.Having regulations on population growth in the United states would be unconstitutional. I think our country has changed a lot. Many people are waiting longer to start a family. If we would reach out further than we have and really emphasized on unwanted pregnancies and more ways to prevent it would help a very small portion of our problem.

Farm Subsidies

If our nations farmers and rancher, who supply us with food aren't making any money it seems to me that I wouldn't want to continue my production either. If Subsidies benefit both the consumer and the farmer then they need to be in place. It's when the tax payers are paying farmers that are not struggling that causes problems. If there was a more balanced or regulated way for these subsidies it would be ideal. I was just working up north and I was able to speak with a few ranchers and farmers who receive money not to plant or raise livestock on their land. I also saw where others were receiving grants and using them to produce large amounts of products. Some farmers used part of the money to pay for the pumping of the water for their irrigation. They were able to pump so much they dried up creeks that had flown an additional twelve miles down stream. So far the government has not put any strict regulations on them. The farmers in the past had pumped reserved water back into the streams and creeks during the time the salmon run was in effect. The past few years this is not the case. When farmers are struggling to pay the bills and make a profit I believe farm subsidies are necessary. I think it is foolish to pay farmers and rancher not to work and produce on their land to keep supply and demand working. I think it would be better for America to produce as much as we can for our own nation instead of importing products that we can produce ourselves.

The Diversity of Food

There are many different plants that humans can consume other than the three main crops. We use oats, barley soybeans, and flaxseed in our foods but not as a major part of our meals. We can also eat wild plants for instance cattails are an edible plant. When selecting young cattails you need to watch out for their look-alike the Irish shoots. Humans could also eat the plant watercress which we already use as an ingredient in V8 cocktail juice. It can be found throughout the United States. Water cress is high in vitamins C and A. Kelp is also a plant that humans may not eat regularly. It also is edible and the salt it contains prevents muscle cramps.
A few people produce food for big numbers of people. If those few people only have the skills, technology and infrastructure to produce three main crops then we are at risk should something go wrong with those people or those few crops. We run a risk of infestation of a pest causing a mass destruction to our crops or to our storage.When planting only a few crops over and over it depletes the soil. You will often see farmers plant legumes after they harvest their main crop to regain the nitrogen.
A positive aspect on society of the result of our main crops we rely on being annuals is that we can be sure to plant and store accordingly. If we need more of one crop we have the chance to plant more of the crop we lack of in our storage. As long as we can preserve our storage of these crops we can survive. The down side to that is we have all our "eggs in one basket". If we drop the basket then we destroy our crops.

Worst Mistake

This essay created a more in depth picture of agriculture for me to think about. I think the author has some great points. The way he presents his view makes me think more about agriculture. Jared Diamond explains his reasoning similar to a waterfall. Each event that takes place has an effect on something else. The effect was that hunter-gathers had to move so often to find food they would have less children. This would make it less work to feed a smaller amount of people. The variety of foods they ate were very healthy for them. As the hunter-gathers adapted to farming they traveled less and were able to feed more children. This concentration of people made disease spread more easily. This is an important point. What Jared Diamond fails to mention is that disease gave more reason for research of different aspects of agriculture to cure or fend off sickness. Now humans have a greater life span than before. Having to support large amounts of people took great organization. This also opened situations that needed a solution. Agriculture has many bi products to offer. As the population enlarges it covers more land making less space for agriculture. The affects of nature help to balance out population and agriculture needs. Natural disasters, war, climate changes, and drought are a few examples that help the balance.
I think agriculture was not a mistake and was a great progression. I Being able to select and grow mass amounts of food is wonderful. With technology today we can transport foods across the world and distribute foods to many countries. The variety of foods we need in our diets are available to us. Sometimes we make the choice not to use our great sources.

Nutritional Extremes

I work in the construction industry. I grab a bite to eat at a fast food establishments often. I have not always chosen to eat healthy. When I see an over weight person order a fast food meal with a diet soda I shake my head in dismay. How can we, who have so much abundance make such unhealthy choices? We in America live a fast paced lifestyle and for many, our "instant" eating habits result in obesity for adults and children alike. Parents looking for a break in the stress of their lives, flip on the television to occupy their children, adding to the obesity problem.
We take for granted our abundant food choices and sources. I work with people who came from Mexico. I sometimes have an invitation to eat with them. Their diet is simple; beans, rice, corn tortillas, chillies and meat when affordable. They are manual labors but still over weight. Their cultural background has a great influence on their diet. They have lived here for over five years now. What influence is our culture having on them?
Restaurants offer all you can eat or extra large portions. When we are so stuffed we can't finish what we're ordered we make an attempt to "save" it by boxing it up and taking it home. Sometimes it rots in the car because we forget about it or it is no longer appealing to us. We don't think twice when we toss the left overs. Our food supply is endless.
When I think of those people in food poor countries and even those in my own country that can't afford enough food it makes me think more about my choices.

Blogging out of my mind

This blogging stuff is going to take a little time for me to get use to. It took me a few hours to get my site up and running. I thought I was done and could not access it. So I hope I worked out the bugs. See ya