There is a slight change of plans for what I expect of you while you read your Free Reading book. Instead of reporting back four times as was originally planned, I would like you to do it only once. You should wait until you are finished, or nearly finished with the book, to write your post. I would like you to explain in your post what the book is about and how you see it connecting to the larger issues of the environment that we will be learning about in more detail in the coming months. You should look through the pages to the right to see the outline for each of the seven main areas of the course to see where your book topic fits in. Please still write 300 words, and finish by August 6.
Mazz
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine living out of your own produced resources, not having to buy anything, and only eating what you produce yourself? Along with this, can you imagine doing it for a whole year? This is what the novel Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver wants to show us possible. The book is about a family who has one and one only purpose: to improve their diet by only eating food that they produce themselves. They start a farm where they learn to grow different types of vegetables and care for animals for their food. They also learn how to harvest the food at its best time, when it is locally at season. This way, they get the best they can out of the different harvests, because time influences the different types.
ReplyDeleteI think this book reflects the theme of land and water use because of different reasons. First of all, the human nutritional requirements, because what the family is trying to do, is making a saner diet that includes all the necessary nutrients. Also, types of agriculture they are using to establish their dietary elements. They need to make a certain use of the land so they can grow the things they want to without damaging the environment. They need to make sure they use the adequate pesticides to prevent the damaging of their ecosystem as well.
What is even more important is that this family is contrasting the ecological costs of growing food in factories, adding chemicals, wasting products, and emitting greenhouse gases, with the ecological form of planting and harvesting their own goods. This way, their bodies will be healthier and the environment will be safer, what a better way to try to save the world as well as live longer? It seems quite of impossible, but Barbara and her family did it for a year. So, who says we cannot survive without junk food?
“Silent Spring” is a book written by Rachel Carson. Through it, Carson criticizes the use of pesticides and insecticides in 1950- 1960 America.
ReplyDeleteThe pesticide she talks most about in her book is DDT, which Carson argues to not only attack insects, but the whole of ecosystems. She emphasizes this with her study of robins in Hinsdale, Illinois. It is believed that when DDT is sprayed on trees, the same poison is transferred to the soil, and then to earthworms. This proves to be very harmful since earthworms are then inhibited from successfully participating in the nitrogen cycle, and what's worst is that these poisoned earthworms are then eaten by birds. This happened in Hinsdale, where elms were sprayed with DDT and the robin population was practically wiped out. Being on top of the food chain, they robins ingested more worms and thus more poison. Eventually, they died.
Carson sets up multiple scenarios as to how ecosystems can be affected by DDT. She also presented the situation in which the salmon population in the Miramichi river dwindled after a mass spraying of the river in order to get rid of the budworm. Baby salmon were able to hatch, but since there were no more budworms to eat, they died. Indeed, Carson is successful in making people ask whether the killing of feeble insects is worth the health of the environment.
Furthermore, the possibility of damage towards the human population is also emphasized by Carson. Exposure to DDT can damage the nervous system resulting in delayed synapse response and depression. Though “Silent Spring” was written in '62, and DDT has also been banned, “Silent Spring” is still timeless. It makes people aware of how such actions can really destroy the environment and themselves.
I think this book will be useful throughout the whole course. It’s interesting to see that the textbook even said, that Carson was probably the one that started the modern environmental movement in the US. It’s probably because of her that we’re taking the class. Regardless, I feel it’ll probably be of more use when we discuss ecosystems and chemical pollutants in the environment.
The book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle concentrates on a family who loves and eats only from the things they grow on their garden. This is astonishing for me since if we really think about it they only eat fresh and juicy food. I would really like for once in my life to plant something, take care of it, watch it grow and happily enjoy eating it. Sometimes this family is disgusted when they know that some people don’t know if for example corn grows from a plant. Also some people just go to the supermarket and grab their vegetables and don’t know where they come from. This is a family who takes care of the environment and knows when to grow or when not to grow food on each part of the year. They know which food is best for each season. They take care of their animals to produce their own cheese, meat and many more kinds of food. It is a cycle of one year where they produce different kinds of foods each month.
ReplyDeleteThis book connects with the issue of pollution. This is since people throw trash everywhere land and water gets contaminated. Since they use land to plant their vegetables their products might get contaminated by the chemicals that people have left or pesticides caused by the lack of clean land. So as you see it also connect with the issue of land and water. People have to be aware of all those families like this one that produce their own food, so they have to stop contaminating land and water. Not only for this reason, but also for a great clean environment.
One thing I liked about this book was the fact that it brings recipes. I made two recipes this summer while reading the book. I tried doing grilled vegetable Panini and the summertime salad. I really like both a lot. I would have like to do them like they made them with the food coming directly from the garden. They tasted delicious; it would have been even better with fresh ingredients.
Barbara and her family produced their own food for a whole year, where there bodies where supplemented by only fresh food without any chemicals added. They did it their own environmentally way. This tells us that everyone is capable of managing his or her own food towards a healthier body!