Service Learning Project

     For our service learning project, my husband and I visited Green Meadows Organic Farm in South Hamilton, Massachusetts. We attended a lecture by Paul and Shou-Ching Shih Jaminet, on their book The Perfect Health Diet. I thought this would be an interesting project to undertake, since it encouraged me to learn even more about food, and the type of diets the human body has evolved to accommodate over time. 

    

      I first saw the book advertised on the Green Meadows Farm Event page, and immediately tried to find it at the Salem Public Library. I was unfortunately unable to locate it in time for the signing, but I found the information session so open and informative that I didn't necessarily need to read it in order to participate. We stayed for an hour and a half, and learned ways of adapting the Paleo diet to our own lives. The Jaminets' argue that Paleolithic humans met their diverse dietary needs by eating the plethora of plants that were available to them, as well consuming as many parts of an animal as possible. We can do this in our own lives by deriving minerals from bones by boiling them in stews, and adding gelatin to our soups. Also, we shouldn't just eat the fruits and vegetables offered to us by our supermarket's produce section. Farm stands and CSAs offer a more diverse array of plant life for our dietary needs. I also learned that fermenting vegetables prevents some of the toxins that enter food while cooking, and that raw milk and cream prevent some of the unpleasant side effects I get from drinking homogenized dairy products. 

     I'm not going to blow the "impact" of my service learning project out of proportion. If anything, I was happy to force my husband out of his comfort zone, because he is usually hesitant to learn about the true state of food and agriculture. I plan on reading The Perfect Health Diet, and sharing what I've learned with others. I do think it had at least some impact on the "greater good," because attending events during the winter helps support local farms like Green Meadows. It brings like-minded people together to be part of a cause. 

     I'm sure I'll do something like this again in the future. I'm no stranger to dragging my husband to random, uncomfortable events. In this case, I found what the authors had to say very interesting, but thought that the audience used the opportunity as a sounding board to hear themselves talk. After a while, I I had gotten all of the information I needed, but felt socially obligated to remain seated. If I were to do it again, I'd outline a better escape route. 

     If I were a teacher, I'd offer the opportunity for students to volunteer for service learning projects as extra credit. I'd also highlight the expectations of such an endeavor, so that students have a good understanding of what a service learning project actually is. I would make the service learning project voluntary, because in my opinion, you get the most out of it if you feel like it was your own choice to undertake it. 

     

     If you're interested in learning more, please visit their blog or read The Perfect Health Diet. 

Blog Homework

1.    On your service learning project, where does it stand? 

I emailed my group partner this week, trying to set up a time to do our service learning project. Since she hasn’t responded, I plan on doing it with my husband or a member of my family.

2.     Where are you with planning it? 

I haven’t contacted anyone yet, but I know that it is a casual enough setting where I could just show up if I wanted to. I don’t plan on doing that, so I will contact them this week.

3.    What is your date? 

I plan on doing it either this weekend or next weekend.

4.    Are you prepared to do your service learning project…are you doing it as a group? 

As I mentioned above, I was hoping to do it as a group. I don’t want to have to rely on someone else to complete this assignment, so I’m going to just do it on my own.

5.    Which organization are you working with? 

Green Meadows Organic Farm.

6.    Who is your contact and what is the contact information so that I can contact them as well?

I used to work with someone who works there, named Scott, but I will probably email or call someone who is there on a daily basis.

7.     If you tried one person, or one method, have you been trying new methods of contact or new people, or new organizations? 

I will make sure I contact someone within the next few days, in case I have to do my service learning project elsewhere.

Each individual post in the blog post due this day (so if you are a group of three, it will be three individual’s perspectives in Nov 3 blog post :

1.     A reconnection point with your topic.  This includes looking into the topic a bit on any new news around it, or new action around it, and any new thoughts on the topic.

All of the news in agriculture this week revolved around corn, since it is harvest time for this American staple. Frost on the Corn Belt led to concerns about the wellbeing of the crops. The corn harvest had lowered this year, but the economic demand was lower as well, neutralizing the blow to farmers. We should expect a rise in corn prices coming up, as farmers compensate for the price of new technology.

2.    After teaching, where do you think citizenship and getting involved in issues your students are interested in lies in the curriculum.  Is there space?  Would you as a teacher make space?  How would you engage students in topics?  How would you find out what they are interested in?

I would say, overall, that most people are probably less interested in agriculture than I am. People do seem to care about the food they put in their bodies, at least on some level, so the citizenship/service learning focus should be geared more toward the nutritional aspect of our eating habits.

I think there is plenty of room for this in a grade school curriculum, especially with the presence of a cafeteria, and possibly some sort of community garden on campus. Even students that bring a lunch can be involved. There is no limit to what you can do with food in the social studies classroom, since it is present in all areas of life. The real trick would be gaging student interest, because I wouldn’t want to come off sounding too academic with nutritional or agricultural study. Food should be enjoyed, plain and simple, and there is no reason they can’t enjoy healthy foods. 

Facilitating Discussion

As teachers, we have a number of discussion approaches at our disposal. It is up to us to choose which one is most effective for our students. We facilitate discussion by responding to each of the following:

a problem: “How can a government that claims to care about its nation’s health provide such unhealthy options?”

a narrative: Read or watch firsthand accounts from factory farm workers.

classroom activity:  Students will research the food they eat, then generate discussion on their findings.

an observation: Display one of the following photographs in the classroom for discussion. (I'd be careful not to post anything too disturbing.)

Since I am a hands-on learner myself, I’d like to use the last approach. The activity could be impromptu—have them investigate whatever is in their lunch bag at that moment, then discuss their findings after a bit of research.

The question I’d ask is a big one—How much does your lunch really cost?

Students would probably rush to the easiest answer, but I want them to really think about everything that goes into it, which would naturally prompt the next set of questions:

Were animals harmed in the process? (This includes humans!)

How far did it travel to reach you? What sort of natural resources were wasted in the process?

How does each of these things affect our environment?

How do they affect our own health?

The best practices I would use are:

-Use combination of group and whole class discussion. (I would have students meet in groups beforehand to compare and contrast their findings.)

-Ask students to relate their comments to content they’ve read, viewed, or heard in a lecture. (One thing I’ve noticed in my practicum classroom is that children often make up their own research. Since our topic is a serious one, I’d like prevent that as much as possible.)

-Use silence, my own! (I don’t want to push my opinions on the students, but teach them to think twice about what they put in their bodies.)

Also...

Here is an interesting PDF about the true cost of food by Greenpeace, in case you're interested.

I tried to find a kid-friendly article on the subject, and found this on Oprah's website. (It isn't for kids, but it's easy for anyone with a casual interest in the subject to understand.)

Michael Pollan adapted The Omnivore's Dilemma for younger readers. Check it out!

Sidenote: I know someone at Green Meadows who I plan on contacting soon. I'm open to other ideas for service learning if anyone has a suggestion!

Take Action, Step #1

I took a cue from Professor Worster and signed a petition urging the FDA to label genetically engineered foods. It is something that is required elsewhere around the world, but not in America. As the petition states, Americans have the right to know what goes into their food. 

Online petitions are a quick and painless way for the masses to take action. It often feels arbitrary, but history has taught us that there is safety in numbers. If we spread the word to enough people, the powers that be will have to take notice. 

Please sign the petition for yourself at http://justlabelit.org/takeaction.

Service Learning Project

For my service learning project, I'd like to spend time on Green Meadows Farm in Hamilton, Massachusetts. They are a certified organic meat and vegetable farm that is known for treating their animals and environment with respect. I'd like to volunteer for the day, learning as much as possible about what goes into (and comes out of) a small scale, organic farm.

If you'd like to visit Green Meadows for yourself, contact information can be found at http://www.gmfarm.com.

Informational/Procedural Knowledge

In order for people to understand the need for a more sustainable food system, they must use both informational and procedural knowledge. For the former, I'd suggest reading books like Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer or In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Documentaries like Food, Inc. and Fresh are also a great place to start.

Procedural knowledge, on the other hand, isn't quite as easily acquired. You just might have to leave your couch to attain it. In the long run, however, it leaves a more lasting impression; one that will hopefully change the way you think about the food you eat. Here are some things you can do to become a more informed eater:

-Shop for fruit, vegetables, meat, and dairy at local farm stands and farmer's markets. By doing so, you support local business and get to see where your food is coming from.

-Avoid packaged foods at all costs. Better yet, try and stay away from the bulk of supermarket aisles. All the good stuff is found on the outskirts of the store anyway.

-Plant your own garden. Share leftover fruits, herbs, and vegetable with neighbors and friends. 

-Play detective. If there is something in a snazzy package that you really love eating, try and find out what goes into it, and how far it had to travel to get to your stomach. Then ask yourself if it was really worth it.

-Try and eat fruits and vegetables that are local and in season. 

Critical Attributes of Industrial Agriculture

The web is abound with disturbing agribusiness facts. Here are a few critical attributes found online that I think are central to understanding the need for a more sustainable way of life:

-Almost 30% of agricultural subsidies go to the top two percent of farms
and over four-fifths to the top 30%.

-The price of meat would double or triple if full ecological costs -
including fossil fuel use, groundwater depletion and agricultural-chemical
pollution - were factored in.

-The USDA reports that animals in the US meat industry produce 61
million tons of waste each year, which is 130 times the volume of human
waste - or five tons for every US citizen.

-The pollution from animal waste causes respiratory problems, skin
infections, nausea, depression and even death for people who live near
factory farms. Livestock waste has been linked to six miscarriages in women
living near a hog factory in Indiana.

-Overuse of antibiotics in animals is causing more strains of
drug-resistant bacteria, which is affecting the treatment of various
life-threatening diseases in humans.

-Antibiotics in farm animals leave behind drug-resistant microbes in
meat and milk. With every burger and shake consumed, super-microbes settle
in the stomach where they transfer drug resistance to bacteria in the body,
making one more vulnerable to previously-treatable conditions.

-Poultry processing has almost double the injury and illness rate than
trades like coal mining and construction.

and here are some facts on how the animals fare in such a system:

-Each full-grown chicken in a factory farm has as little as six-tenths
of a square foot of space. Because of the crowding, they often become
aggressive and sometimes eat each other. This has lead to the painful
practice of debeaking the birds.

-Hogs become aggressive in tight spaces and often bite each other's
tails, which has caused many farmers to cut the tails off.

-Ammonia and other gases from manure irritate animals' lungs, to the
point where over 80% of US pigs have pneumonia upon slaughter.

-Due to genetic manipulation, 90% of broiler chickens have trouble
walking.

For additional facts, please visit www.organicconsumers.org/toxic/factoryfarm.cfm.

Last Meal on Earth: The Interview

Since the main focus of my project will be to investigate where our food comes from, I thought a good place to start is with my soda guzzling, candy hoarding thirteen-year-old niece, Kaitlin. I’ve talked with her about her eating habits quite a bit over the years, and I think she is a good example of how the average teenager eats.

Kaitlin, age thirteen.

Whether we think about it or not, we all have a last meal on Earth. Whenever I am particularly satisfied with my dinner, I think this is it. If I had to choose my last meal on Earth, this would be it. Perhaps that line of thinking is a bit macabre for a thirteen-year-old, but she does shoot zombies for pleasure.

The goal for this blog post was to reveal Kaitlin’s attitudes about eating, as well as what she actually knows about where her food comes from. I knew going into it that she had some preconceived notions about industrial agriculture and animal cruelty, because she’s dabbled with vegetarianism over the past few years. I’d like to eventually take a cue from Michael Pollan in his book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and trace her last meal on Earth back to its roots. Our final destination might be a sterile laboratory or idyllic family farm, but regardless of where we end up, it is the journey that really matters. We should all ask questions about the food we put into our bodies. With luck, Kaitlin will do the same.

Here is the brief interview we conducted over Facebook chat (with the promise of reward):

Do you think it is important to know where your food came from? Why/why not?

I think it's important to know where it comes from because what if the country it came from had toxins?

Does the idea of knowing where your meat, dairy, vegetables, junk food really comes from scare you? Why?

The idea of knowing is scary because it's part of an animal usually and no one wants to kill an animal.... and vegetables have bug killers on them and junk food is all fat.

Do you care about your nutrition? If yes, in what way?

Yes, because I wouldn't want to get fat or unhealthy.

Do your friends care about the food they eat? Please explain.

My friends don't care about the food they eat. It depends more on if they like it or not.

If you had to choose your last meal on Earth, what would it be? Be specific about the brand, etc. if that applies.

The last food I would ever eat is Ramen noodles.

Where do you think your last meal started its journey to your stomach?

The meal I think came from a farm… a turkey in a farm, the mayonnaise came from a factory, the bread was baked, and the cheese came from a cow. (I think she assumed I meant her actual last meal, not her imagined last meal.)

What do you imagine the average farm that supplies your average grocery store is like?

The farm is really big, and has lots of animals, vegetables and fruits.

Who do you think controls policies regarding our food? Do you think they are doing a good job?

I think the government takes care of the food and tries to make it "healthy.”

Please list everything you eat on an average day.

Every day I eat noodles from China, Lucky Charms, and dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets. I drink fruit punch and Slushies.

Please list the type of foods they serve for school lunch at your old or new school.

Pizza, chicken, salads, chips, and sandwiches… basic stuff.

While her answers were short at times, they did reveal a few things. For starters, she is concerned mainly with the treatment of animals. Although she stated that the government tries to make sure our food is healthy, she used the word in quotation marks, suggesting that maybe they aren’t really doing what they’ve set out to do. She spoke briefly about the existence of toxins in her food, but only in a manner that implied that it is something that happens in other countries, not ours. Lastly, the list of things she regularly eats was defined more by name brand than content. She’s grown accustomed to eating foodstuff, not food.

I wasn’t the least bit surprised Kaitlin chose Ramen noodles as her last meal on Earth. Between that squiggly white rectangle and silver packet of salty goodness, she’s made a ritual of eating it. She even has accessories, straight from Tokyo, made solely for accommodating Ramen consumption—ceramic spoons with wide-eyed bunnies, and plastic chopsticks in every color of the rainbow. Since I’ve eaten my fair share of Ramen in the past, I look forward to investigating where this nondescript noodle really comes from.

Introduction

We are two Education Block students interested in learning more about the food we eat, the things we buy, and the peace of mind we take for granted. We'll be using this blog to investigate the true cost of our consumption.

We'd like to model our blog after the Story of Stuff website, which perfectly illustrates the concept. Check it out!

Sarah will focus mainly on industrial agriculture and where our food comes from. She'd like to see our society move towards a more sustainable way of feeding ourselves; one that doesn't result in the degradation of our health and environment. There are currently many policies that keep this system in place, but some of the big ones are:

Research and Technology (When big business puts all of their time and money in one area of research, such as the use of pesticides, leaving farmers with fewer options for maintaining their crops.)

Subsidies (Strong government incentives for farmers to produce select crops, resulting in a surplus of commodity grains. Surpluses aren't always beneficial. In agriculture it means less money and more debt on behalf of the farmers.)

Marketing (As the old cereal commercial goes, "We eat what we like." That isn't always the case, however. Even if we don't realize it, much of what we eat is dictated by the media.)

For more information about these topics, please visit the Union of Concerned Scientists.

One policy we're all familiar with is the "Got Milk" marketing campaign set forth by the USDA. While the benefits of consuming more dairy are certainly questionable, the policy is in place to promote industrial agriculture, not our health. One goal of this blog is to get readers to think for themselves, and not eat everything someone with an acronym for a name tells them to. (FDA, USDA, we're talking to you!)