Service Learning Reflection

I have been primarily volunteering at the SOL garden. Early on during my volunteer work Miles, the garden coordinator, took notice of my love for painting. Thus, I’ve been given various art projects every time I’ve shown up. I am currently working on the main sign for the SOL garden, which is placed right outside the fence facing the oncoming street. My vision for the mural in which Miles assigned me, is for it to have various mushrooms growing at the bottom, and have trees at the top with failing leaves covering most of the board. Currently, I only have the lettering and grass done, but Miles made sure no one else was going to touch it!

            Although I’ve been mainly painting, I have done some gardening work such as pulling weeds and planting rye in one of the raised beds. I learned how to make seed mixes and how to extract seeds from various plants and flowers. I also got to talk to Miles about building a mushroom garden in the shady corner of the SOL garden. Academically, I learned many hands on techniques in regards to planting foliage, nurturing it, and also what soil sows the best crops.

            After planting the rye, I came back a few weeks later to check on it. To my surprise, it had grown almost completely! I was shocked as well as extremely pleased to see what my hard work had done. I now understand what people mean when they say that gardening can be therapeutic, nurturing and watching what your hard work can do is able to make one feel refreshed. Personally, I learned that I would love to have my own little garden of my own to take care of. I also learned that I love getting my hands dirty, and that this would be a great stress relief for me.

            When painting, I have been collaborating with Anneisia with projects. We first visualize what we want done, then I sketch it out for us, and then we fill it in with color. I have been learning valuable collaboration skills thanks to my service learning experience, and I learned that I am capable of working with partners very well.

            In the future I definitely want to have my own garden, and even educate people more on gardening as well as the health benefits associated with it. Since taking this class and gardening, I have been developing healthier lifestyle choices. For example, I have been eating a lot healthier and I have been primarily eating the salads and vegetables at brown. (However, tomorrow is my cheat day because my friend found out she has $300 left on her declining balance and is going to buy us all personal pizzas) So hopefully I will keep up my healthy lifestyle choices and will definitely continue to try and keep up with volunteer work.

Fooooood

        Ron Finley's TED talk was both moving as well as inspiring. He discusses life in the inner city, showing how deprived the city is of fresh foods, but a large abundance of fast food chains. South Central has the most vacant lots per square mile in America. He puts this into perspective by stating that there are enough vacant lots in South Central to fill 20 Central Parks. His proposal is to build gardens around the city and to teach children about eating fresh fruits and vegetables. This will not only educate the young ones, but will also lower obesity rates, give the people of the city a therapeutic hobby, and will give the people of the city fresh produce, which they have no access to.
        I found Ron Finley's piece to be deeply inspiring. In fact, his TED talk makes me want to grow a garden of my own. I agree that everyone should try their hand at gardening and feel as though everyone should have their own garden. Like Finley so eloquently states, "growing your own food is like growing your own money."
        David Biello's "will organic feed the world," discusses the potential solutions to restrain environmental issues and increase the production of whole foods. Studies were conducted to show the difference between organic yields and synthetic yields, indicating that organic yields are lower than its' counterpart. This raises the issue of whether or not organic will be able to feed our ever-growing world. I found this article to be interesting due to it bringing to light an ugly truth: that our world is growing faster than our demands, making it hard for the food industry to keep up. I agree with Biello's solution in that we should asses, "many alternative management systems, including conventional, organic, other agro-ecological, and possibly hybrid systems to identify the best options to improve the way we produce our food." (Biello 235)
        In "Biotechnology isn't the key to feeding the world," Frances Moore Lappe discusses the issue of food access in America. The hungry people across the nation do not allow their voices to be heard, and the author points out that democracy is needed in order to sustain food security. It disturbs me that capitalism is part of the reason for these big fast food chains taking over, and I believe another green revolution is needed.

The Omnivore's Delusion/Delima

        The Hurst and Pollan debate on agriculture discusses the effects of modern agriculture on the economy as well as how it effects the body, and its humane implications. Pollan feels as though modern agriculture is demonizing food as we know it, not only making it unhealthy, but doing so through un-humane practices, such as the mass production and slaughter of animals. On the flip side, Hurst argues that we can not feed 5 billion people, or the world, without using modern technology. 

        I find myself sympathizing with Hurst more than Pollan. Hurst creates a strong ethical appeal, since he is coming from the standpoint of someone in the agricultural business rather than someone who has not lived the farming lifestyle. In Hurst's article, "The Omnivore's Delusion: Against the Agri-intellectual", which is a rebuttal against Pollan's book, "The Omnivores Delima," he discusses why modern technology is efficient, better for the economy, and has the ability to feed more people. He argues that technology has brought us closer and closer to ending world hunger, and the GMOs aren't all harmful in that they can be create larger crop yield and even put more vitamins into the plant; Therefore, "Farmers have reasons for their actions, and society should listen to them as we embark upon this reappraisal of our aggricultural system," (Hurst 213) 

        Pollan, whom is also the creator of the "Food Inc" documentary, makes very strong points when he argues that food as we know it is loaded with corn starch and corn sugars. It indeed has been increasing obesity rates in America, since corn syrup is used in almost every sugary foods. However, halting the usage of the corn crop would be illogical since corn is used in over 100 different ways from making baby diapers, fuel, and other products.