Is my meal a problem?
I think my meal is a problem in a lot of ways, mainly because of how the meal I had was delivered/transported to the restaurant I went to eat at and so forth. I say this because in the last post I wrote about how emissions are a big part of our environmental issues, and even such things as delivering food to certain places increases the threat of high emissions more and more. Moreover, I believe the needs for an alternative system are at a higher need then ever before because of how much we depend on trains and trucks to deliver ingredients and food on a everyday basis.
I think the most important issues that need to be handled on a national scale would be to buy more produce and ingredients from local farmers and stores. Not only would that help reduce emissions from transportation, but it would also help ease the price differences around each county/state region. If we could start there, it wold slowly but surely make a big difference on a national scale and maybe even a global scale as well (over time).
On a local scale, besides buying from local farmers and stores, I think there needs to be a limit on what who can buy and how much who can buy. That would help reduce extra waste and maybe even if these local stores had extras, they could give them to people in need. It would be a win win for almost all parties involved. Realistically, this scenario is far-fetched, but that doesn't mean there isn't any steps that could help push it in the right direction.
As far as households go, I think this is maybe one of the biggest deal breakers in all of this because us people are the demand. We demand more and more of whatever we want, which in the end makes producers make more and transport more in order to keep up with the demand. It's a never ending circle we go through and there's no simple solution to fix it. However, if we could start maybe growing our own food and reducing the "wants" from the "needs" we might be off to a great start.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Blog 3
To start things off, I'd say the most realistic environmental impacts that took place by preparing my meal goes as follows: In order to prepare such a meal, one must have freshly ordered chicken, salad, dough, and a bunch of condiments (I will get into those a little bit later), I just want to start at the very beginning. Where does the fresh food come from and how does a restaurant receive such ingredients to prepare the meal I had? Also, the main question to handle first is how does it impact the environment? Here are the steps and impacts I came up with...
Step 1: They have to find a distributor.
Step 2: They have to place a order for certain foods/ingredients.
Step 3: They have to have these items delivered through some type of transportation.
Impact 1: In finding a distributor, they are using power/electric and forms of transmitting a signal to find such a place.
Impact 2: Once again, they are using power/electric to transmit a type of signal or communication in regards to place a order.
Impact 3: Whomever takes care of the transportation, they are paying for a semi-truck, train, plane, etc. to pollute the air with the gas/oil and other toxins each method of transportation releases.
A. Where were three ingredients produced from my meal?
1. Chicken - One can find chicken throughout many places in the world, and since there are many in North America, I'd guess the chain of Olive Garden has many different providers for receiving chicken meat. And I'd guess that each chain has a relatively close provider to their business. But for the sake of this assignment, I looked up the state with the most chicken production, which just so happens to be Georgia.
2. Salad - Now, I'm just talking about mixed greens here, which once again is kind of a easy and common veggie to grow, which one again can be found throughout North America. But for the sake of the assignment I found out what states have the highest production of lettuce, which are California and Arizona.
3. Dough - Honestly, dough can be found and made anywhere, all one needs is some yeast, a little liquid, add flower, and then beat/mix it altogether. After that one needs to roll the dough and then bake it, can be done from anywhere.
B. The ingredients from my meal affected certain resources for many reasons. This resources happened to be soil, water, and seeds/plants. The lettuce used water and soil to help grow, as did the yeast and flower for the dough. The chicken used plenty of water to survive and then polluted the soil and water by it's droppings and other ways about how they live.
C. I don't think fossil fuels were used, but I do know some chemicals were. Some chemicals definitely affected the soil and groundwater around these plants and roots of the lettuce heads and yeast stems. Chemical agriculture is something we've talked about before and something that helps produce food faster, but I still do not understand its' full potential or negative potential.
D. Once again, I believe the production of my meal had a great deal with carbon-dioxide emissions because of how the food had to transferred and transported to the restaurant in order to be prepared to serve. When something needs to be transported it effects the environment on a scale set with many different factors, such as climate change and etc.
E. Some of these impacts are local and some could be worldwide. I think the local impacts are those of the chicken farms that are only breed just to serve as food later because of how those areas are over-ran with chicken droppings and other non-clean factors. The global could be how some plants are chemically raised in order to meet a higher demand because of how wind and water can make the smallest thing travel great distances.
2. I've kind of already touched on this by my earlier writings but to continue on this topic I will try to look further into it...
A. I think the meal got to me by some type of vehicle, such as a van or truck/semi-truck.
B. I think the farthest item that traveled to get to me was the lettuce, since most lettuce in the U.S. is grown in the west, that would be my best bet. Also, I think the chicken is local. It seems most restaurants these days want to have a "local" appeal to customers.
C. This is a very good question! I believe the waste from my food (just that of mine), had a big impact on the environment. First off, to clean my plate, that takes water. Second, to throw my food into a trash bag (which is plastic), already creates more waste then that of my meal. The waste will go to a dump, which will be spread out and"filtered". The overall impact is more then that of a good meal. There is packaging that goes to waste, the unused parts of each ingredient and etc.
Step 1: They have to find a distributor.
Step 2: They have to place a order for certain foods/ingredients.
Step 3: They have to have these items delivered through some type of transportation.
Impact 1: In finding a distributor, they are using power/electric and forms of transmitting a signal to find such a place.
Impact 2: Once again, they are using power/electric to transmit a type of signal or communication in regards to place a order.
Impact 3: Whomever takes care of the transportation, they are paying for a semi-truck, train, plane, etc. to pollute the air with the gas/oil and other toxins each method of transportation releases.
A. Where were three ingredients produced from my meal?
1. Chicken - One can find chicken throughout many places in the world, and since there are many in North America, I'd guess the chain of Olive Garden has many different providers for receiving chicken meat. And I'd guess that each chain has a relatively close provider to their business. But for the sake of this assignment, I looked up the state with the most chicken production, which just so happens to be Georgia.
2. Salad - Now, I'm just talking about mixed greens here, which once again is kind of a easy and common veggie to grow, which one again can be found throughout North America. But for the sake of the assignment I found out what states have the highest production of lettuce, which are California and Arizona.
3. Dough - Honestly, dough can be found and made anywhere, all one needs is some yeast, a little liquid, add flower, and then beat/mix it altogether. After that one needs to roll the dough and then bake it, can be done from anywhere.
B. The ingredients from my meal affected certain resources for many reasons. This resources happened to be soil, water, and seeds/plants. The lettuce used water and soil to help grow, as did the yeast and flower for the dough. The chicken used plenty of water to survive and then polluted the soil and water by it's droppings and other ways about how they live.
C. I don't think fossil fuels were used, but I do know some chemicals were. Some chemicals definitely affected the soil and groundwater around these plants and roots of the lettuce heads and yeast stems. Chemical agriculture is something we've talked about before and something that helps produce food faster, but I still do not understand its' full potential or negative potential.
D. Once again, I believe the production of my meal had a great deal with carbon-dioxide emissions because of how the food had to transferred and transported to the restaurant in order to be prepared to serve. When something needs to be transported it effects the environment on a scale set with many different factors, such as climate change and etc.
E. Some of these impacts are local and some could be worldwide. I think the local impacts are those of the chicken farms that are only breed just to serve as food later because of how those areas are over-ran with chicken droppings and other non-clean factors. The global could be how some plants are chemically raised in order to meet a higher demand because of how wind and water can make the smallest thing travel great distances.
2. I've kind of already touched on this by my earlier writings but to continue on this topic I will try to look further into it...
A. I think the meal got to me by some type of vehicle, such as a van or truck/semi-truck.
B. I think the farthest item that traveled to get to me was the lettuce, since most lettuce in the U.S. is grown in the west, that would be my best bet. Also, I think the chicken is local. It seems most restaurants these days want to have a "local" appeal to customers.
C. This is a very good question! I believe the waste from my food (just that of mine), had a big impact on the environment. First off, to clean my plate, that takes water. Second, to throw my food into a trash bag (which is plastic), already creates more waste then that of my meal. The waste will go to a dump, which will be spread out and"filtered". The overall impact is more then that of a good meal. There is packaging that goes to waste, the unused parts of each ingredient and etc.
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Blog 2
The meal that I will be writing about was that of yesterday night. I went to Olive Garden and had myself plenty of an appetite, along with an empty stomach. However, all that changed in a mere 30 minutes. I order the chicken parmesan entree and with that, you can choose to either have soup or salad, I chose salad. You also receive breadsticks on the table, which I was more then enthusiastic about. Moreover, the salad and breadsticks are endless, which means you can eat and eat until you cannot anymore. (Someone should have told me to stop eating but my date was too busy munching herself). Therefore, I consumed a delicious and over-filling dinner. The items and ingredients which I consumed are as best as I can describe below...
1. Salad: The salad was a mixture of mixed greens and Italian dressing.
- romane and iceberg lettuce
- sliced carrots
- red onions
- dice tomatoes
- green peppers
- italian dressing
- croutons
- black olives
2. Breadsticks: You received five at a time.
- baked breadsticks
- heavy amount of wheat
- salt on top along with a bit of olive oil
3. Chicken Parmesan: A healthy amount of chicken on top a bed of noodles.
- baked chicken breast
- parmesan and mozzarella cheese
- spagetti noodles
- marinara sauce
- bread crumbs
Without looking up ingredients that is what I came up with for what is in what. I know there is probably more and I will take a further look into these recipes, but to keep it short I will stop here.
1. Salad: The salad was a mixture of mixed greens and Italian dressing.
- romane and iceberg lettuce
- sliced carrots
- red onions
- dice tomatoes
- green peppers
- italian dressing
- croutons
- black olives
2. Breadsticks: You received five at a time.
- baked breadsticks
- heavy amount of wheat
- salt on top along with a bit of olive oil
3. Chicken Parmesan: A healthy amount of chicken on top a bed of noodles.
- baked chicken breast
- parmesan and mozzarella cheese
- spagetti noodles
- marinara sauce
- bread crumbs
Without looking up ingredients that is what I came up with for what is in what. I know there is probably more and I will take a further look into these recipes, but to keep it short I will stop here.
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Post 1
One impact of plastic bag waste I observed in the video that I never really thought about had to be how the ocean has been invaded by plastic bags. Not only is this an issue for all the marine life, but also an issue because these plastic bags last pretty much forever. Therefore, these plastic bags will be in the ocean until someone or something takes them out, which I don't foresee in the nearby future.
I didn't really catch how the video portrayed how people were trying to solve this issue, however I could put out a couple examples of possible ways I think would work eventually. One way would be to put up some sort of fence or border on the main oceans that are being effected by plastic bags to try to stop and/or slow down the number entering them. Another way is to simply promote ads and information about how the oceans are being greatly damaged by these plastic bags and inform people on what they can do to help cure this problem.
I think there are a couple "good" ways we could deal with plastic bag waste. One way is to make people pay money for each plastic bag they buy or use. Another way is to stop the production of plastic bags and/or highly monitor how much are made and distributed globally. Moreover, I think it is definitely a global issue because plastic bags can be found throughout the world, not just in certain areas. However, I will argue that some areas waste more plastic bags then others, but the fact still remains the waste is evident.
I didn't really catch how the video portrayed how people were trying to solve this issue, however I could put out a couple examples of possible ways I think would work eventually. One way would be to put up some sort of fence or border on the main oceans that are being effected by plastic bags to try to stop and/or slow down the number entering them. Another way is to simply promote ads and information about how the oceans are being greatly damaged by these plastic bags and inform people on what they can do to help cure this problem.
I think there are a couple "good" ways we could deal with plastic bag waste. One way is to make people pay money for each plastic bag they buy or use. Another way is to stop the production of plastic bags and/or highly monitor how much are made and distributed globally. Moreover, I think it is definitely a global issue because plastic bags can be found throughout the world, not just in certain areas. However, I will argue that some areas waste more plastic bags then others, but the fact still remains the waste is evident.
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