Earthworks - http://www.cskdetroit.org/EWG/ - Earthworks is one of the larger urban farms in Detroit. They supply a soup kitchen nearby run by Capuchin monks.
I feel that Earthworks is a great attempt to bring not only urban farming back to the city but knowledge and respect for the environment. It's relieving to see that someone took the initiative to start such a project. With support from people in the environment it continues to flourish. The thing that I feel is wrong, is that I live in Detroit, Michigan and have never seen or heard of Earthworks. With an urban farm of this size you would think I would have seen it by now. I think that giving back to the environment this way is important for both the community as well as the actal environment.
I found todays lecture to be quite interesting in regards to seafood. Continuously I am noticing things about my everyday food consumption that I did not realize before. For example, I was unaware of the negative impacts corn production has on our society, not only in energy waste and oil usage, but in overall health concerns. Again, in todays lecture with the discussion of seafood and fishing, I never realized what negative impacts the over consumption of seafood has on our ecosystem and health. Because there is a higher demand for fish products at cheaper prices, sellers need to increase their overall farming and fishing to meet these demands. This creates a positive feed back loop, as sellers have to over fish, and farmers genetically alter their product in order to meet consumer demands. Overall leading to negative impacts on our ecosystem, because we are taking more fish out of the system then the fish can replenish themselves making the market a non-renewable resource. This seems to be a constant factor is many produce markets because we put the consumers demand at a higher priority then the producers (animals, farms)
I thought that the link about Earthworks Urban Farm was very interesting. In my plant essay, I spoke about how as a society we are very disconnected from the environment and people spend more time inside relying on technology, than outside taking advantage of the environment. This website confirmed the fact that we have detached ourselves from the land, and the sources of food that keep up alive. I think that the fact that this garden started off small, and had an overwhelmingly positive response from other people shows that all is not lost, and that we can reconnect with the land. A small plot of land grew into the huge urban farm project that they have today. What happened if more people made this same effort? We could have more people educated about where our food comes from, and inspired to help out with projects like these, or even start gardens of their own. I know that in my family we plant tomatoes and basil every year so we can have them fresh from my backyard to eat. It would be interesting to see what would happen if we started planting more fruits and vegetables and relied more on what we planted ourselves, then going out and buying produce, where we have no control over the process or where it is grown.
The one topic that stood out to me in lecture was about Genetically Modified Animals. The GMAs like the fish that are given different genes to help them grow fatter scare me. Like many other people, I worry about what would happen if that fish were to mate with other fishes and cause an upset in what is a very delicate system. Everyday people do not think about things like fishing to be dangerous, but like we have learned, we need to be careful about depleting certain populations, and throwing back the mating adults instead of the young fish that are bigger. Our food chain is NOT something we want to mess around with, when one species dies it creates a chaotic domino effect. With the way our environment is depleting along with natural food sources, I have an ongoing fear of what our planet will be like in a few hundred years. Earthworks seems like a great place, and the sort of thing we need more of. It is small steps like their project that show people hands on what they can do to help, and help to change attitudes. It is much easier to destroy our planet than save it, hopefully we can create a domino effect of good instead of destruction.
Caitlin Murphy 28 September 2010 ADP III Weekly Statement
Fishing Farms
Harvesting Animals for Consumption is wasteful of resources. Factory Schools of Fish are unethical and unnatural as are most processes of breeding Animals for Human use and Abuse. The overconsumption of fish over that past few decades have been the cause of Major fish shortages and a misuse of agriculture and its accessibility. Fish Farms are invasive of the natural habitats in which fish live and gather and congregate. It is surprising to me that the more I know and research about this, I am becoming more aware of my own consumption of fish and seafood. I really like sea food and am coming to realize that fish and seafood are novel luxury food items that are seemingly very wasteful and impertinent of the environment. The ways in which we choose to consume or choose not to consume say a lot about who we are as active or inactive members of the subcultures that we create.
During the recent lecture, there were a few pictures that really caught my eye and caused me to think a lot. There was a series of pictures as a piece of art, by this artist, where the artist had people stand outside their houses’ with all of their belongings, and have the most important items with them. I thought that this was very interesting because for most of the pictures people did not have that much stuff, and the most important things were things like foods and tools. For American’s, it showed TONS of things on their lawn and the important things were consumer items, like laptops etc. I thought that this showed a lot about our society and what we think is important, and what the world around us think is important. Another really interesting part of this lecture was the part about corn. How we use corn for SOOOOO many things. In North America people consume 13300 calories per day of corn. There also is tons of things that you can make with corn, like cornstarch , glucose, high fructose corn syrup etc. Corn has soo many different uses that I had no idea about, and I found this very interesting. This lecture was a really interesting one, but I still think the part about the people and their belongings was the most interesting part.
The idea of small farms in the city is a great idea but is it even possible? Of course someone could just grow anything almost anywhere but if someone is trying to grow real crops, the land is going to have to be fertile. I’m not sure but most land in cities doesn’t scream fertile to me. Also, there would have to be a lot of people willing to take care of the land and most people that live in cities have had jobs that didn’t involve plants. It makes more sense to me to have people from the less urban areas grow their own crops and then the people in cities rely on stores…kind of like how they do now. With that, maybe more people need to invest time in Farmers Markets so that they know that their produce is organic. Going along with the topic of crops, its insane how much corn is in every thing. Corn is food and plastics and just about every thing that Americans consume. I am sure the ancient Mayan’s are rolling in their graves to see how much something that was so important in their everyday lives is being abused. Its surprising though cause I saw a commercial on TV yesterday about how a mom was doing research on the difference between corn syrup and natural sugar and she came to the conclusion that the brain thinks that they are both the same. However, I saw another commercial about new pops with natural sugar instead of corn syrup. Both commercials are contradicting each other…but are they really?
I feel that Earthworks is a great attempt to bring not only urban farming back to the city but knowledge and respect for the environment. It's relieving to see that someone took the initiative to start such a project. With support from people in the environment it continues to flourish. The thing that I feel is wrong, is that I live in Detroit, Michigan and have never seen or heard of Earthworks. With an urban farm of this size you would think I would have seen it by now. I think that giving back to the environment this way is important for both the community as well as the actal environment.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI found todays lecture to be quite interesting in regards to seafood. Continuously I am noticing things about my everyday food consumption that I did not realize before. For example, I was unaware of the negative impacts corn production has on our society, not only in energy waste and oil usage, but in overall health concerns. Again, in todays lecture with the discussion of seafood and fishing, I never realized what negative impacts the over consumption of seafood has on our ecosystem and health. Because there is a higher demand for fish products at cheaper prices, sellers need to increase their overall farming and fishing to meet these demands. This creates a positive feed back loop, as sellers have to over fish, and farmers genetically alter their product in order to meet consumer demands. Overall leading to negative impacts on our ecosystem, because we are taking more fish out of the system then the fish can replenish themselves making the market a non-renewable resource. This seems to be a constant factor is many produce markets because we put the consumers demand at a higher priority then the producers (animals, farms)
ReplyDeleteI thought that the link about Earthworks Urban Farm was very interesting. In my plant essay, I spoke about how as a society we are very disconnected from the environment and people spend more time inside relying on technology, than outside taking advantage of the environment. This website confirmed the fact that we have detached ourselves from the land, and the sources of food that keep up alive. I think that the fact that this garden started off small, and had an overwhelmingly positive response from other people shows that all is not lost, and that we can reconnect with the land. A small plot of land grew into the huge urban farm project that they have today. What happened if more people made this same effort? We could have more people educated about where our food comes from, and inspired to help out with projects like these, or even start gardens of their own. I know that in my family we plant tomatoes and basil every year so we can have them fresh from my backyard to eat. It would be interesting to see what would happen if we started planting more fruits and vegetables and relied more on what we planted ourselves, then going out and buying produce, where we have no control over the process or where it is grown.
ReplyDeleteJackie San Fillipo
ReplyDeleteThe one topic that stood out to me in lecture was about Genetically Modified Animals. The GMAs like the fish that are given different genes to help them grow fatter scare me. Like many other people, I worry about what would happen if that fish were to mate with other fishes and cause an upset in what is a very delicate system. Everyday people do not think about things like fishing to be dangerous, but like we have learned, we need to be careful about depleting certain populations, and throwing back the mating adults instead of the young fish that are bigger. Our food chain is NOT something we want to mess around with, when one species dies it creates a chaotic domino effect. With the way our environment is depleting along with natural food sources, I have an ongoing fear of what our planet will be like in a few hundred years. Earthworks seems like a great place, and the sort of thing we need more of. It is small steps like their project that show people hands on what they can do to help, and help to change attitudes. It is much easier to destroy our planet than save it, hopefully we can create a domino effect of good instead of destruction.
Caitlin Murphy
ReplyDelete28 September 2010
ADP III
Weekly Statement
Fishing Farms
Harvesting Animals for Consumption is wasteful of resources. Factory Schools of Fish are unethical and unnatural as are most processes of breeding Animals for Human use and Abuse. The overconsumption of fish over that past few decades have been the cause of Major fish shortages and a misuse of agriculture and its accessibility. Fish Farms are invasive of the natural habitats in which fish live and gather and congregate. It is surprising to me that the more I know and research about this, I am becoming more aware of my own consumption of fish and seafood. I really like sea food and am coming to realize that fish and seafood are novel luxury food items that are seemingly very wasteful and impertinent of the environment. The ways in which we choose to consume or choose not to consume say a lot about who we are as active or inactive members of the subcultures that we create.
Sam Goldman
ReplyDeleteWeekly response
9/28/10
Lecture Response
During the recent lecture, there were a few pictures that really caught my eye and caused me to think a lot. There was a series of pictures as a piece of art, by this artist, where the artist had people stand outside their houses’ with all of their belongings, and have the most important items with them. I thought that this was very interesting because for most of the pictures people did not have that much stuff, and the most important things were things like foods and tools. For American’s, it showed TONS of things on their lawn and the important things were consumer items, like laptops etc. I thought that this showed a lot about our society and what we think is important, and what the world around us think is important. Another really interesting part of this lecture was the part about corn. How we use corn for SOOOOO many things. In North America people consume 13300 calories per day of corn. There also is tons of things that you can make with corn, like cornstarch , glucose, high fructose corn syrup etc. Corn has soo many different uses that I had no idea about, and I found this very interesting. This lecture was a really interesting one, but I still think the part about the people and their belongings was the most interesting part.
Rebecca Aguilar
ReplyDeleteThe idea of small farms in the city is a great idea but is it even possible? Of course someone could just grow anything almost anywhere but if someone is trying to grow real crops, the land is going to have to be fertile. I’m not sure but most land in cities doesn’t scream fertile to me. Also, there would have to be a lot of people willing to take care of the land and most people that live in cities have had jobs that didn’t involve plants. It makes more sense to me to have people from the less urban areas grow their own crops and then the people in cities rely on stores…kind of like how they do now. With that, maybe more people need to invest time in Farmers Markets so that they know that their produce is organic.
Going along with the topic of crops, its insane how much corn is in every thing. Corn is food and plastics and just about every thing that Americans consume. I am sure the ancient Mayan’s are rolling in their graves to see how much something that was so important in their everyday lives is being abused. Its surprising though cause I saw a commercial on TV yesterday about how a mom was doing research on the difference between corn syrup and natural sugar and she came to the conclusion that the brain thinks that they are both the same. However, I saw another commercial about new pops with natural sugar instead of corn syrup. Both commercials are contradicting each other…but are they really?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete