Global Food Chain Stretched to the Limit

Research Topics:

Weather throughout the last year
Global food supply
Food riots three years ago
Tunisia
Tunisia's president fleeing country
Food riots in North Africa
Food riots in Haiti, Kenya, and Somalia
"Supply/demand" structures
Hot, dry weather in South America/cut in soy bean production
Flooding in Australia/wheat crops
Higher oil prices-shipping-ethanol production



Chosen Topics

"Conley estimates that more than a third of the corn produced in the U.S is now used to make ethanol."

Article One

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/datablog/2010/jan/22/us-corn-production-biofuel-ethanol



The author argues with factual data that in fact one forth of the US's production of corn is used to create Enthanol. And his interest lies in the want to inform that this was instated by President Goerge Bush , and that it is impacting the world food supply. The author was not bias becuase he displayed pure fact and data sheets. My question is that since this data was collected in 2009, what is the percentage of corn used today for the creation of ethanol and how is that in relation to the production of corn that is used to feed poeple?



Article Two

http://healthandenergy.com/ethanol.htm



The author of this article argues that the space needed to produce the corn used for ethanol is the same space that could be used to produce corn for several poeple to live off of for a year. The main idea of the article lies in the explanation of this idea said by David Pemental, an argraculturist at Cornell University, "It takes more energy to make ethanol from grain than the combustion of ethanol produces". I'm not sure if this is necessarily bias because it displays pur facts but the facts are displayed in a way that has a negative effect upon the reader. The question I a have after reading this article is that if the end result does not outway the production cost then why does the US still do it?



"This month's flooding in Australia wiped out much of that country's wheat crop."

Pictures: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/01/australian_flooding.html

Article One

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-19/flood-destruction-in-australia-may-propel-wheat-crop-to-record.html



The aurthor tries to demonstrate that the destruction caused by the recent rains could actually create a record wheat growing season in the year to come. The main idea of this article is that when flooding has swept through the remaining areas that had previously been parched, left huge amounts of water for irragation in dams, and saturated soil for the coming year that Australia could become one of the top four producers of wheat.

What I want to Grow :)

Organic Purple Bell Peppers

http://www.groworganic.com/ltd-pvfs-pepper-sweet-purple-beauty.html

For Honors Mushroom Project

http://www.groworganic.com/white-button-mushroom-kit.html

Top Three Choices

The three items that I would be really interested in continuing research in are:

1. Lambswool

2. Lactose Free Milk

3. Cough Drops

Wednesday Journal Reflection

So for about two and a half days I have been either on my couch or in my bed trying to 'rest'. On either occasion, I had an afghan in which I was wrapped up in. These afghans are crocheted by y mum for different occasions (Christmas, a birthday, etc). The one I had been wrapped up in the last two days was one made for Christmas. Today though I was using my favorite afghan. This afghan has stripes the color of various blues, browns, and off whites. It is made of all sorts of different blends of yarn. I bring this up because the reason this afghan is my favorite is because of its texture. My mum washed the afghan after she finished, which is pretty customary, but she accidentally put it in the dryer. Which would normally be OK, but not when some of the yarn she used is made of 100% lambswool. When you run wool of any sort through the dryer, it has a tendency to 'fuzzy up'. Meaning that instead of being completely wound yarn it has become undone slightly. In this case 'fuzzing up' worked out pretty well. But noticing this got me thinking about where we had ever gotten the wool yarn to begin with. Considering that wool is something that most of the year is not used or needed in San Diego. I then remembered that we had bought the skeins of yarn on a family trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. I also looked at on of my scarves that I had worn the week prior and found out that it was also made of 100% wool.

So I know this yarn is made in Scotland because the scarf had said made in Scotland. And in thinking that, probably more Northern Scotland because that is where most of the farming resides. But are these farms commercially run or family run? Are the lambs this wool is collected from strictly used for their fur harvesting or are they used for their meat as well? If theses farms are family run how much does that fact impact the price once the yarn has gone through processing? Is the processing done on sight? Done by hand or machine? Another aspect that jumped into my mind was if these farms are commercially run does this impact the environment more so than those that are family run? Or is the affect the opposite?