What I would like to grow is a fruit – more specifically, strawberries.
Generally, Strawberries are planted and grow in Spring. It is when the sun is warm and bright- perfect conditions to grow strawberries under. Blossoms are destroyed by late frost, so the notion of early Spring is perfect conditions.
From my understanding of the research, you can plant a seed or simply the plant. It seems as though seeds are a bit harder to come by than plants and plants produce quicker results. Given our time-frame, it would seem ideal to grow the strawberries from purchased plants.
It does matter to me to grow from plants because I would like to see what I could grow in the time I have in this class. I would also like the opportunity to eat a bit of what I grow. I think that my legacy for future classes would be having prepared soil to grow strawberries in. Because it is a common fruit, I'm sure having a plot of our flowerbeds already adjusted to grow strawberries could prove beneficial.
It is easiest to use cloning method because of how many runners are produced by strawberry plants.
When using a “matted row” planting method, plants are to be 18 inches apart in rows three to four feet apart. Runners found in the plants will spread out the harvest easier. Given personal observations, it seems as though each plant produces about a pint of strawberries.
While tilling the planting bed about 12 inches, make sure to remove all traces of weeds and grass. Then, dig in compost and manure to make rich and fertile soil. The pH of the soil needs to be slightly acidic, ranging from 5.5 to 6.5.
It doesn't seem like the strawberry plants need much watering. Young plants require at least an inch of water a week. No more than two until the fruit is completely developed.
Companion Plants: beans, borage, lettuce, onions, spinach, and thyme.
Non-Companion Plants: Cabbage, Brocolli. Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower, Kohlarbi.
Helpful Plants: Borage to strengthen the plant's resistance to insects and diseases and Thyme to deter worms.
Interesting Fact #1: Strawberries are not fruits! They are enlarged receptacles of the flower and are considered secondary fruits!
Interesting Fact #2: Fresh juice from strawberry pulp helps recover from fevers. Strawberry juice when combined with honey can reduce inflammation.
Resources:
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Initial Plant Research
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Senior Project Initial Research
Three Annotated Articles
Overpopulation: The Perennial Myth
Summary: This article presents a great alternative point of view of the crisis regarding overpopulation of humans on the Earth. While many seem to be concerned with the supposed lack of resources including food and living space, the author provides information that disregards these concerns. The author uses historical analysis as well as provides facts and data. The direction I would like to take with my Senior Project is to tackle both sides of the issue: the current threat that an overpopulated world presents and the notion that the issue is not quite an overpopulation of humans on this world, but rather an underpopulation. This article provides information that can help with the latter subject of my project.
Quotes of Interest:
“And the fear of overpopulation did not begin with Tertullian. One finds similar concerns expressed in the writings of Plato and Aristotle in the fourth century B.C., as well as in the teachings of Confucius as early as the sixth century B.C.”
According to the author, the prediction/scare of an overpopulated world stretches back centuries – however, such predictions have never actually come true. This may say something about human's and their constant worrisome of the end of the world in some form or another.
“As any population graph clearly shows, the world has and is experiencing a population explosion that began in the eighteenth century. Population rose sixfold in the next 200 years. But this explosion was accompanied, and in large part made possible, by a productivity explosion, a resource explosion, a food explosion, an information explosion, a communications explosion, a science explosion, and a medical explosion. “
This notion has been overlooked by many of the articles I have read as well as most of the folks that I have spoken with in the past regarding overpopulation. The notion that population growth is related to the industrial revolution is an interesting one. If there are more resources, food, and technology advancements, there must be a correlation with birth rates increasing. The rest of the article goes more in depth on this quote.
“Many experts believe that even with no advances in science or technology we currently have the capacity to feed adequately, on a sustainable basis, 40 to 50 billion people, or about eight to ten times the current world population. And we are currently at the dawn of a new agricultural revolution, biotechnology, which has the potential to increase agricultural productivity dramatically.”
This quote disregards the concern of not being able to feed a largely, populated world. Unfortunately, most third-world countries don't have such luxury of advancement in technology. The issue doesn't seem to be how meet the demand of food, but rather the methods in providing the food to everyone.
The Overpopulation Lie
Summary: This article also provides facts and figures regarding the false fear of an overpopulated world and presents the argument that the world will soon face an underpopulated crisis. The article focuses on third-world countries. While the article is an excerpt of a cover story, it provides excellent facts and helps me lead in the direction I would like to go with this side of my project.
Quotes of Interest:
“Yet, while the one-billionth citizen of India was born last year, Japan, if it continues its current abortion policies and fails to raise its average birth rate of 1.4 children per married couple, will have fewer than 500 people by the year 3000. This is not a prophecy of the mad Aum Shinrikyo cult, but rather a pronouncement of Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare.”
It seems as though in the attempt to curb the growth in population, nations are creating a new crisis: underpopulation. In an underpopulated world, advancements in technology become more difficult – thus limiting ourselves.
“Rather than booming, as one might expect in the face of such plenty, the world's population is aging and in decline. As fertility rates fall and abortion, contraception and life spans increase, the world will soon enter a new paradigm in which the elderly outnumber the young. In 1975, the mean global age was 22. In 2050, it will be 38. Europe, South Korea and Japan will be particularly hard hit by this phenomenon.”
These are facts that the article presents. It provides evidence that the world's population is in decline. It also presents the idea that that there will soon be more elderly people than younger. The comparison between the decline in fertility rates and life spans is an interesting one.
“By 2050, the population of Russia will be down to 150 million. In the 1970s, Russia's population rivaled America's, at more than 225 million people.”
This is also an excellent example of the an underpopulated crisis. It is a statistic that counters the argument of the world facing an overpopulation crisis.
Population and Resources: How Can Population Growth and Resources be Brought into Balance
Summary: Rather than to focus on the idea that population growth shouldn't be the concern, this article presents facts and figures about the overpopulation crisis that the media seems to be interested in. In a way, it is a counter-argument to ideas presented in the two previous articles.
Quotes of Interest:
“New agricultural approaches will be needed, such as meat production without growing animals, better rain-fed agriculture and irrigation management, genetic engineering for higher-yielding crops, precision agriculture and aquaculture, drought-tolerant crop varieties, and saltwater agriculture on coastlines to produce food for human and animals, biofuels, and pulp for the paper industry as well as to absorb CO2, reduce the drain on freshwater agriculture and land, and increase employment.”
This idea provides a guideline in what will be required to meet the demand of a larger population. Specifically, new agricultural methods will be required to provide for such a large population.
“To reduce the economic burden on younger generations and to keep up living standards, people will work longer and create many forms of tele-work, part-time work, and job rotation.”
This quote is related to the previous article which states that there will soon be more elderly than younger people. It states a new challenge that will be faced if this prediction becomes a reality.
“Conventional breeding techniques can take 9–12 years; hence, a food crisis may be inevitable. To keep up with population and economic growth, food production should double in 30 years and animal protein may increase 50% by 2020, which increases demands on water and land, further increasing prices and competition between rural and urban requirements.”
This excerpt states that in order to keep up with the growing population, new methods of growing food will need to be developed – ultimately leading to more processed foods. It seems as though traditional, organic food growing may no longer be suitable to provide for a larger population.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After much thought and consideration regarding what theme my Senior Project will highlight, I chose to do a bit of research on the notion of our world being overpopulated by 2110. Initially, I thought my research would yield results that supported the concern of overpopulation – however, as I dug deeper, I found out that the growth in population that is currently occuring is not only going to peak within the next fifty years, but also some nations will face a new form of crisis: underpopulation.
There are certainly concerns about an overpopulated world. These concerns include damage to our environment, how to feed such a large number of humans, and where to place them. As the population increases, the rise in hunger will rise and creating sufficient food will be a challenge. Living space is also a large concern that will need to be addressed with the increase in population. By 2050, the world's population is expected to grow to 9.2 Billion. According to my research, the number of people that currently live in the slums will double.
Despite many concerns that go alongside an overpopulated world, it seems as though the real concern is underpopulation. There are currently 18 nations in the world that have low fertility rates. The average fertility rate to keep a sustained population is 2.1 – however, many nations have a fertility rate lower than that with signs of a continued decrease. This creates many concerns for these nations and has prompted world leaders to provide incentives to promote women to conceive more. These large nations include China, Russia, Germany, Italy, and France. Other nations are still over the fertility rate, but signs of decrease are beginning to emerge. This underpopulated world will cause an inbalance between the young and elderly. With younger people, a larger work force will be needed which may cause the retirement age of the elderly to be pushed back. This could possibly decrease life expectancy, which has had an increasing rate in since the boom in population.
While the notion of overpopulation is certainly present today more than ever, I believe new focus should be put on the idea of an underpopulated world. I would like to convey this new concern through my Senior Project. The idea of my Senior Project is somewhat simple: create a video highlighting the effects of an overpopulated world and what new problems will arise within the next fifty years due to an increasing population as well as present the idea of an underpopulated world. From what I can tell in my initial research, there is plenty of data to support both ideas to create an informative, high-quality video to present. I do not want to disregard both concerns, which is why I believe the best way to approach the theme of population is to highlight both sides of the theme.
Overpopulation: The Perennial Myth
Summary: This article presents a great alternative point of view of the crisis regarding overpopulation of humans on the Earth. While many seem to be concerned with the supposed lack of resources including food and living space, the author provides information that disregards these concerns. The author uses historical analysis as well as provides facts and data. The direction I would like to take with my Senior Project is to tackle both sides of the issue: the current threat that an overpopulated world presents and the notion that the issue is not quite an overpopulation of humans on this world, but rather an underpopulation. This article provides information that can help with the latter subject of my project.
Quotes of Interest:
“And the fear of overpopulation did not begin with Tertullian. One finds similar concerns expressed in the writings of Plato and Aristotle in the fourth century B.C., as well as in the teachings of Confucius as early as the sixth century B.C.”
According to the author, the prediction/scare of an overpopulated world stretches back centuries – however, such predictions have never actually come true. This may say something about human's and their constant worrisome of the end of the world in some form or another.
“As any population graph clearly shows, the world has and is experiencing a population explosion that began in the eighteenth century. Population rose sixfold in the next 200 years. But this explosion was accompanied, and in large part made possible, by a productivity explosion, a resource explosion, a food explosion, an information explosion, a communications explosion, a science explosion, and a medical explosion. “
This notion has been overlooked by many of the articles I have read as well as most of the folks that I have spoken with in the past regarding overpopulation. The notion that population growth is related to the industrial revolution is an interesting one. If there are more resources, food, and technology advancements, there must be a correlation with birth rates increasing. The rest of the article goes more in depth on this quote.
“Many experts believe that even with no advances in science or technology we currently have the capacity to feed adequately, on a sustainable basis, 40 to 50 billion people, or about eight to ten times the current world population. And we are currently at the dawn of a new agricultural revolution, biotechnology, which has the potential to increase agricultural productivity dramatically.”
This quote disregards the concern of not being able to feed a largely, populated world. Unfortunately, most third-world countries don't have such luxury of advancement in technology. The issue doesn't seem to be how meet the demand of food, but rather the methods in providing the food to everyone.
The Overpopulation Lie
Summary: This article also provides facts and figures regarding the false fear of an overpopulated world and presents the argument that the world will soon face an underpopulated crisis. The article focuses on third-world countries. While the article is an excerpt of a cover story, it provides excellent facts and helps me lead in the direction I would like to go with this side of my project.
Quotes of Interest:
“Yet, while the one-billionth citizen of India was born last year, Japan, if it continues its current abortion policies and fails to raise its average birth rate of 1.4 children per married couple, will have fewer than 500 people by the year 3000. This is not a prophecy of the mad Aum Shinrikyo cult, but rather a pronouncement of Japan's Ministry of Health and Welfare.”
It seems as though in the attempt to curb the growth in population, nations are creating a new crisis: underpopulation. In an underpopulated world, advancements in technology become more difficult – thus limiting ourselves.
“Rather than booming, as one might expect in the face of such plenty, the world's population is aging and in decline. As fertility rates fall and abortion, contraception and life spans increase, the world will soon enter a new paradigm in which the elderly outnumber the young. In 1975, the mean global age was 22. In 2050, it will be 38. Europe, South Korea and Japan will be particularly hard hit by this phenomenon.”
These are facts that the article presents. It provides evidence that the world's population is in decline. It also presents the idea that that there will soon be more elderly people than younger. The comparison between the decline in fertility rates and life spans is an interesting one.
“By 2050, the population of Russia will be down to 150 million. In the 1970s, Russia's population rivaled America's, at more than 225 million people.”
This is also an excellent example of the an underpopulated crisis. It is a statistic that counters the argument of the world facing an overpopulation crisis.
Population and Resources: How Can Population Growth and Resources be Brought into Balance
Summary: Rather than to focus on the idea that population growth shouldn't be the concern, this article presents facts and figures about the overpopulation crisis that the media seems to be interested in. In a way, it is a counter-argument to ideas presented in the two previous articles.
Quotes of Interest:
“New agricultural approaches will be needed, such as meat production without growing animals, better rain-fed agriculture and irrigation management, genetic engineering for higher-yielding crops, precision agriculture and aquaculture, drought-tolerant crop varieties, and saltwater agriculture on coastlines to produce food for human and animals, biofuels, and pulp for the paper industry as well as to absorb CO2, reduce the drain on freshwater agriculture and land, and increase employment.”
This idea provides a guideline in what will be required to meet the demand of a larger population. Specifically, new agricultural methods will be required to provide for such a large population.
“To reduce the economic burden on younger generations and to keep up living standards, people will work longer and create many forms of tele-work, part-time work, and job rotation.”
This quote is related to the previous article which states that there will soon be more elderly than younger people. It states a new challenge that will be faced if this prediction becomes a reality.
“Conventional breeding techniques can take 9–12 years; hence, a food crisis may be inevitable. To keep up with population and economic growth, food production should double in 30 years and animal protein may increase 50% by 2020, which increases demands on water and land, further increasing prices and competition between rural and urban requirements.”
This excerpt states that in order to keep up with the growing population, new methods of growing food will need to be developed – ultimately leading to more processed foods. It seems as though traditional, organic food growing may no longer be suitable to provide for a larger population.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After much thought and consideration regarding what theme my Senior Project will highlight, I chose to do a bit of research on the notion of our world being overpopulated by 2110. Initially, I thought my research would yield results that supported the concern of overpopulation – however, as I dug deeper, I found out that the growth in population that is currently occuring is not only going to peak within the next fifty years, but also some nations will face a new form of crisis: underpopulation.
There are certainly concerns about an overpopulated world. These concerns include damage to our environment, how to feed such a large number of humans, and where to place them. As the population increases, the rise in hunger will rise and creating sufficient food will be a challenge. Living space is also a large concern that will need to be addressed with the increase in population. By 2050, the world's population is expected to grow to 9.2 Billion. According to my research, the number of people that currently live in the slums will double.
Despite many concerns that go alongside an overpopulated world, it seems as though the real concern is underpopulation. There are currently 18 nations in the world that have low fertility rates. The average fertility rate to keep a sustained population is 2.1 – however, many nations have a fertility rate lower than that with signs of a continued decrease. This creates many concerns for these nations and has prompted world leaders to provide incentives to promote women to conceive more. These large nations include China, Russia, Germany, Italy, and France. Other nations are still over the fertility rate, but signs of decrease are beginning to emerge. This underpopulated world will cause an inbalance between the young and elderly. With younger people, a larger work force will be needed which may cause the retirement age of the elderly to be pushed back. This could possibly decrease life expectancy, which has had an increasing rate in since the boom in population.
While the notion of overpopulation is certainly present today more than ever, I believe new focus should be put on the idea of an underpopulated world. I would like to convey this new concern through my Senior Project. The idea of my Senior Project is somewhat simple: create a video highlighting the effects of an overpopulated world and what new problems will arise within the next fifty years due to an increasing population as well as present the idea of an underpopulated world. From what I can tell in my initial research, there is plenty of data to support both ideas to create an informative, high-quality video to present. I do not want to disregard both concerns, which is why I believe the best way to approach the theme of population is to highlight both sides of the theme.
Monday, January 18, 2010
Socratic Seminar
The socratic seminar we had Friday afternoon in class was thought-provoking and fun to participate it. The main topic referenced an editorial written by Michael Pollan - Farmer in Chief.
Going into the socratic seminar, I predicted that the seminar would focus on ideas of how to change America's obsession with junk food; sure enough, quite a bit of the seminar did focus on this. Many of the ideas that were presented seemed more idealistic than realistic, but it was interesting to hear what my classmates thought. I had hoped we would be able to focus more on the reading itself and analyze Pollan's ideas, but the direction it took was just as interesting.
What I found most interesting was the idea of banning junk food - or atleast smearing the image of it. I thought many of the ideas presented were very socialistic. I was hoping to explore the notion of banning junk food further because it is certainly something I find interest in. While I disagree with the notion of banning junk food, I'm perfectly open to the idea of creating public awareness campaigns regarding the health issues found in the fast food industry. However, despite the dislike I have fast food, I believe it is ultimately up to the individual to choose what they eat. The government shouldn't decide for it's people what to eat for dinner; if people decide on unhealthy meals, then so be it. Let them suffer the long-term effects and realize their own mistakes. However, a public-awareness campaign to inform even more than before should be implemented. This can be a method of indirectly telling the public what to eat without the use of force. In this instance, fear (the fear of long-term health effects) should be an excellent tool. I find the use of fear, in this case, completely justifiable because junk food is a threat to living a healthy lifestyle and should be feared if you are to care for yourself.
Going into the socratic seminar, I predicted that the seminar would focus on ideas of how to change America's obsession with junk food; sure enough, quite a bit of the seminar did focus on this. Many of the ideas that were presented seemed more idealistic than realistic, but it was interesting to hear what my classmates thought. I had hoped we would be able to focus more on the reading itself and analyze Pollan's ideas, but the direction it took was just as interesting.
What I found most interesting was the idea of banning junk food - or atleast smearing the image of it. I thought many of the ideas presented were very socialistic. I was hoping to explore the notion of banning junk food further because it is certainly something I find interest in. While I disagree with the notion of banning junk food, I'm perfectly open to the idea of creating public awareness campaigns regarding the health issues found in the fast food industry. However, despite the dislike I have fast food, I believe it is ultimately up to the individual to choose what they eat. The government shouldn't decide for it's people what to eat for dinner; if people decide on unhealthy meals, then so be it. Let them suffer the long-term effects and realize their own mistakes. However, a public-awareness campaign to inform even more than before should be implemented. This can be a method of indirectly telling the public what to eat without the use of force. In this instance, fear (the fear of long-term health effects) should be an excellent tool. I find the use of fear, in this case, completely justifiable because junk food is a threat to living a healthy lifestyle and should be feared if you are to care for yourself.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Family History on Farming
Friday night, I asked my Mom and Grandma about our ancestral history and whether or not we had farming experience in the family. Having known that my ancestors from the state of Puebla, Mexico lived off of the farm, I hoped they would be able to give me great information. Unfortunately, both my mother and grandmother knew little about how they worked the land. They did tell me, however, that my grandmother's father lived off of farming and selling the crops.
Although they may not know very much about farming, both know plenty when it comes to gardening. There wasn't much they could explain to me about their gardening skills, but both offered to provide advice and suggestions if our class chose to plant flowers in the school garden.
Although they may not know very much about farming, both know plenty when it comes to gardening. There wasn't much they could explain to me about their gardening skills, but both offered to provide advice and suggestions if our class chose to plant flowers in the school garden.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
The Universe
As I was out on my evening jog, I couldn't help but look up at the stars and remember the slideshow John presented the class earlier today. What I find most interesting (among thousands of other interesting tidbits regarding the Universe) is the notion of Earth being here - inhabited by thousands of different species. The perfect conditions that created Earth and eventually created humans are just astounding - and with the number of other galaxies found in the Universe, it is only natural that there are other, living beings among them. Given the vastness of it all, it dawned on me that there is a great chance that we will never meet any of them. The technology that is necessary to travel to distant planets is so advanced that I fear humans will cease to exist before they ever begin to reach the nearest planets outside our Solar System - let alone any other Solar System!
Although the idea of it all may make some feel insignificant, I appreciate simply being alive and experiencing life as I know it. Although what we, as humans, do within our ozone layer is irrelevant to anything else outside our atmosphere, I feel the motivation to do the best I possibly can with what I am given and make my mark on this planet.
Although the idea of it all may make some feel insignificant, I appreciate simply being alive and experiencing life as I know it. Although what we, as humans, do within our ozone layer is irrelevant to anything else outside our atmosphere, I feel the motivation to do the best I possibly can with what I am given and make my mark on this planet.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
What makes me wonder...
If I were to choose a natural occurrence that makes me wonder from time to time, it would have to be the evolution of man.
Having been raised a Catholic, I was taught the creation story from an early age. As I grew older and began to develop my own beliefs and thoughts, the notion of evolution bedazzled me. The idea that humans today have gone through numerous physical appearances is insane to me. Considering the fact that humans have been around for 200,000 thousand years (which also seems like an incredibly long time - though hardly much at all when compared to how long Earth has been a planet), I find it intriguing that humans once resembled primates.
My biggest question is regarding intelligence: why are humans the only species on Earth to have developed a comprehensive language system and make technological advances. By saying that I don't intend to put-down other species, but it seems as though through evolution, Humans have become the dominant species - why? What in our natural development gave way for intelligence to be much more dominant in humans than in any other type of species?
It's nice to wonder things such as these - when people wonder, advances are made.
Having been raised a Catholic, I was taught the creation story from an early age. As I grew older and began to develop my own beliefs and thoughts, the notion of evolution bedazzled me. The idea that humans today have gone through numerous physical appearances is insane to me. Considering the fact that humans have been around for 200,000 thousand years (which also seems like an incredibly long time - though hardly much at all when compared to how long Earth has been a planet), I find it intriguing that humans once resembled primates.
My biggest question is regarding intelligence: why are humans the only species on Earth to have developed a comprehensive language system and make technological advances. By saying that I don't intend to put-down other species, but it seems as though through evolution, Humans have become the dominant species - why? What in our natural development gave way for intelligence to be much more dominant in humans than in any other type of species?
It's nice to wonder things such as these - when people wonder, advances are made.
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