Share and Voice: Solar Power Plants to Rise on US Land

This is a news article I found from the New York Times titled Solar Power Plants to Rise on US Land.  I thought it was a really fitting article after reading some of my web groups Read 'n' Seed posts.  These solar plants were just recently approved to begin building in California.  They estimate the plants can produce enough solar, wind, and geothermal energy to power 566,000 homes.  Another cool thing this article discusses is that the White House plans to install solar panels.  The article even talks about how these things are reducing their ecological footprint.  It is so funny to me, because before this class I had never heard of an "ecological footprint" and now I feel like it is everywhere.

Here is a final quote from the article that I feel is very beneficial, and I sure hope that it becomes a reality:
“This project reflects President Obama strong commitment to U.S. leadership in solar energy and the jobs it will create here at home,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement. “Deploying solar energy technologies across the country will help America lead the global economy for years to come.”   I hope you all find this article interesting too!

Read 'n' Seed 3: Second Quarter of Plenty - Eating Locally on the 100 Mile Diet

For this section, I read the months June, July, and August which also are the summer months.  The pages covered were 65-128.

The main topics covered during this section was how to find local farmer's markets within their 100 mile area and getting all the main food groups.  Since it is summer, and many products are blooming they were on the hunt for wheat, greens, and anything other than potatoes.  They travel all over to find new varieties of thing.  The best example I thought was when they drove to Seattle, WA (they crossed the border), and went to local shops.  They feel in love with nuts and cheese and other goodies they hadn't seen in who knows how long, but they remembered that they would have to cross the border to get back into Canada, and the border patrol was not too fond of the transportation of food products.  Through much debate among James and Alisa, they finally settled to "smuggle" cheese into Canada.  I just found it to be an entertaining part of the story, because who would ever think that it would really be an issue to bring food to eat to your home, big deal that you drove through an imaginary line to get there.  Another topic discussed in this section, was during the month of August they went to their cabin in Dorreen.  This cabin was essentially isolated from the world.  So they lived off the land and one farmers market they went to on day one.  Thus they bought things that they hoped would last for 30 days in the heat because they did not have a refrigerator at their cabin.  Their neighbor gave them canned salmon and they had cherry trees.  It was interesting to watch them adjust to another environment in the story.

This section provided a lot more words that were new to me.  The first being prawns, which seem to be a form of shrimp.  James and Alisa were very excited when they were able to get prawns since it was something different and something they enjoyed.  Another interesting term I learned is succotash, it is a dish with peppers, beans, and tomatoes, and was popularly during the Great Depression since it was readily available.  Lastly, I learned the term autochthon, which is referring to the indigenous people to the area.  The most significant thing I have learned thus far in this book is that it is possible.  You can eat locally, yes it may be difficult and you may not always get exactly what you want, but you can do it.  You improvise and come up with new creations and have a fun adventure in the process.

I think it is important to pay attention to what is produced locally around you.  In the end, you and entire world benefits from your decision to eat locally, sure it mind be hard at first, but James and Alisa are six months in and they are really getting the hang of it.  I definitely think it is possible.  I already catch myself questioning what is or is not locally grown foods.  They are learning local farmers' names and in return are told when certain crops come in so they can get the first pick.  It is really fun reading about how this transformation is taking place and I hope I can instill enough knowledge in you, so you will attempt to eat local foods too.

Eye Opener: CSPI

I took the Eating Green Calculator.   I chose to do this one because I am most concerned about what it is I am actually eating. 

I generally consider myself to be a person that eats few meat and dairy products.  I typically only eat chicken, and don't drink a lot of milk.  But I do consume a good portion of eggs, cheese, and yogurt.  I was shocked to see what kind of impact I was having from my servings of meats and dairy.  I was absolutely disgusted to see how many pounds of manure was created by the animals I eat.  I was also not fond of the amount of pesticide needed for the feed for the animals, because I ingest those as well.  I definitely took the pledge.  One thing I always try to do is incorporate more fruits and veggies into my diet.  This pledge should help me do that.  It also says that when you do eat animal products, choose those that are less in fat.  I think that will be an easy fix to do.  I am excited about eating more fruits and veggies because it will be beneficial to my diet and the environment.  Overall, I think experiences like this are good ones to have.  It makes me more aware of how things I have been doing for all my life affect the environment.  I never would have thought what I eat actually matters to the environment.  I am learning so many new things I can do in my life to help the environment and that makes me really excited.

Just for fun, I checked out the Tour of Food Supply.  The statistics offered on this site were shocking.  It makes me not want to eat meat at all.  I feel like we are so wasteful with so many products.  And I do not support abuse to animals which sometimes we forget what goes on because we only see the packaged items or the finished product.  I am glad I checked out this site too because it provided a lot of useful information.