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.