Farming industry

We watched a video about the commercialization of the farming industry.  Large corporations have taken over the farming industry driving prices up and cutting the small farmer out of the picture.  More artificial ingredients, more steroids and antibiotics.  As well as cost cutting methods that risk our safety has all become a part of the farming industry.  In my opinion we need to find  a more ethical and sustainable way of feeding this country what ever the cost is.

Crew

Today was my second trip out to CREW.  I first saw crew in my SW bio class freshman year and could not get over the beauty of it.  CREW was set up by Audobone society and displays many difrent ecosystems from marshes to pine flatwoods and more.  You can see where lightning struck 100 year old trees and where hundreds of exotic birds come to migrate to every year.  You walk on a board walk through raw untoched everglades and it offers many beautiful sights.  I can Honestly say that this will not be the last time I visit CREW.

Nat Geo

This week we watched a national geographic documentary on the carbon foot print of the average American. It really opened my eyes to how much we leave behind for hundreds of years.  There are many statistics in this movie that did not really surprise me like 1500 chickens I will eat in my life time or the 3000 pounds of hamburgers I will eat.  Other statics's like the 15 tons of garbage i will leave behind or the thousands of pounds of plastic I will throw away is shocking.  I know the world will not be a very good place to live 50-60 years from now if we don't change out ways.  Nat Geo suggested things like recycling and HE lighting to cut down carbon usage.  Not only will I buy a few led lights when they go on sale I will try and recycle as much as possible, I will also try and buy locally grown food to cut down my carbon foot print.

Nature Trail

This week we went of a Field trip to the FGCU nature trail.  I had no idea how diverse the nature trail was, with different ecosystems living at different elevations.  We saw plenty of slash pines and oak hammocks as well as numerous mosquito's.  I had no idea that only 45% of the land that FGCU owns is built on the rest is set aside for nature.  Also the university takes great steps to be as green as possible on campus as well.

carbon foot print cars

I'm very into cars so far I have owned 3 cars in my life.  A mustang gt which drank gas, a subaru impreza 2.5rs and now I drive an Acura RSX Type S.  The Acura is decent on gas even though its a sports car, I have a six speed manual and can get up to 31 on the highway.  I still go through 12.5 gallons of premium a week,  I also change my oil religiously at 3000 miles.  I believe I will go through cars rather quickly (I get bored and trade up) and will probably buy a car every 4 years minimum for the next 60 years.  Now here's how everything adds up, I will go through a minimum of 36,000 gallons of gas in my lifetime as well as 120 quarts of full synthetic oil (which I recycle). I will probably buy at least 15 more cars for myself at a minimum. 

Story of stuff

This week we watched a documentary on the plight of the current consumer.  The documentary was called the story of stuff and pointed out the flaws in the current product life cycle.  Every part of the chain was flawed from production to disposal.   The main problem in lies in the cheap toxic manufacturing processes, exploitation of developing countries and planned obsolescence in product design.  After working in a retail shoe store for years I know full well that planned obsolescence exists in consumer products, why do you think your 90 dollar running shoes never last more than a year.  The documentary was interesting and presented a very real problem in our global economy.