Socratic Seminar- Farmer in Chief by Michael Pollan

I thought this was one of the most interesting Socratic Seminars that I have ever participated on. I think what made it fun that that topic that it was on could and had a been impact on us. The article, Farmer in Chief, talked on who really need to change on what we are producing and eating. He was talking about food. But at the same time, Michael Pollan talked on bad techniques that we are actually using to produce our food. For example, the factories (if you can call food producer) that food is produced can spray a lot of pesticides and poison just so the food can look fresh and ready to eat, but is it really good for you? The main question that we answered was How Can America Go From Chemically Renowned Food To Organic? I think this was a really good question because you honestly don't know how many people can actually grow organic or even know what organic means. We came up with the answer to the question and we said that America can go organic but it would take time to realize how many "lies" we are being fed from the public. It would have to take time for America to change its ways.

This reading really helped for my senior project. Kevin Middleton and I want to make a video and raise awareness about processed food and what we can do to make the transition to make America organic.

Biofuels

A week ago today, we learned about bio fuels from a very special person to John. The guy that came in was John's best man in his wedding and was the driver for the Veggiebus. The Veggiebus is a bus that toured all over the United States running on vegetable oil, from what I understand. The way they did is to go from restaurant to restaurant and ask if they can have their "oil waste" and use it for their "gasoline" for their bus. Treviit, talked a lot about biofuels and what renewable fuels we could use. For example, I learned that Ethonal, Fossil Fuels, Biodiesel, and Vegetable Oil can all be used for renewable source. What I thought was really interesting is that while they were doing the Veggiebus, they used the leftover oil that they used for cooking. In restaurants, they call this waste, but why would you want to waste something that you can reuse? While this was happening, the public started taking noticed that everyone and anyone can do it. You dont have to be a scientist to renew source. He left with a quote that I will never forget... "Nothing Should Be Waste"

Cover Cropping Techniques

For our environmental project, we were divided into specialty groups. I was placed in Seasonal Rotation and this mainly teaches us what plants are in season and how we can grow it. We had to do an assignment that requires to research best practices in our specialty groups. I decided to to write about the Cover Cropping Techniques that farmers use. Cover Cropping are plants that are planted for soil erosion control, weed control, and improving soil quality. In simple terms, its when there is a plant that you want to plant but we have to add nutrients or something that the soil needs for the incoming plants to grow. Its basically like a the first step of planting.

I was reading this website http://www.mofga.org/tabid/456/Default.aspx to learn more about cover cropping and their philosophy really stood out to me. "WEED THE SOIL, NOT THE CROP" for them, it means that they want to weed out the soil and not ruin the crop. I thought that was really interesting. It also says that their system includes annual alternation between production and fallow crops. Fallow crops means to rest the crops. I found this website really useful because it gave an opinion on how to cover crop.

Stop Motion Planting

This project is basically to take a picture everyday for 28 days of a plant that I am planting. I decided to be partnered up with Ruthie McCowan. We both wanted to do something cool and something we could eat, so we decided to plant snow peas. We are not totally sure if we want to have a start or plant a seed to do it. I am actually really nervous about doing this because we want the stop motion final to look cool.

Presentations

Last Friday, we had a series of presentations about the environmental science and the problems that we are having. The subjects that the presentations were on were Waste, Water, Foods, Energy, Land Development and Population. John told us to blog about something that struck us that we listened to for our Senior Project. I already have my senior project in mind and what subject it is in. Mine is about Food. So when I was listening about the presentation about food they said something really interesting. Foods that have chemicals in them are actually for the most part are imported from other countries. Also food and mouth disease in 2001 was raised because of the cattle that we ate that year. I think this was really interesting because we are basically putting poison in our bodies. This is the only body we are going to have for the rest of life. And that scares me... I want to be healthy so I need to start eating right.

Plant Research

Lettuce is a leaf vegetable. Lettuce can be eaten cold and raw. The most popular dishes that lettuce can be eaten in is salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, tacos, and in soups. Lettuce grows well under cooler conditions and need plenty of water. The lowest temperatures are around 40 degrees F and the highest temperature is 6’ degrees. HARD FREEZE IS BAD FOR YOUR LETTUCE it can damage it. Most likely, an ideal crop can grow in fall or in the early spring. Lettuce doesn’t take up much space so its good to plant in small gardens. It takes about 3to 4 weeks for the crops to show if properly maintain. “Start a crop of lettuce for fall harvest in August. Shade new seedlings from the late summer heat, and then, as the fall gets colder, remove the shading so they get good sun and set up a shelter from the frost. Protect mature producing plants with a cold frame or protective covering material such as white, polyspun row covers of garden fleece. Fall season lettuces include ‘Marvel of Four Seasons,’ (butterhead), ‘Romance’ (Romaine), and ‘Canary Tongue’ (looseleaf).”
http://www.lettucegrowingtips.com/
http://yardener.com/YardenersPlantHelper/VegetableGardening/VegetableFiles/Lettuce/PlantingLettuce

Basil is a tender low-growing herb. This herb is mostly used in Italian cuisine and taste like anise with a strong, pungent, sweet smell. This plant grows up to 18 inches during the season. This plant can grow in full sun in moist, and well-drained soil for best results.

http://nga-gardenshop.stores.yahoo.net/basil.html

Lettuce
http://www.veggieharvest.com/Vegetable-Growing-Information/lettuce-growing-and-harvesting-information/

Basil
http://www.gardeningpatch.com/herbs/growing-basil.aspx