Thanksgiving

While working on my final project I remebered the turkey I had this thanksgiving. My aunt and uncle raised a turkey on their property this year. This homegrown turkey was the best turkey I have ever eaten. I was wondering if anyone else has ever had homegrown turkey or chicken and what peoples thoughts are on free range birds?

Paying it Forward

As we move to the close of the semester, how do you plan to
pay your new knowledge forward?

Can we really end hunger in Ohio?

Will you work with the Kent Campus Kitchen?

The Dark Side of Chocolate

I finally found a link to watch this documentary online. It's 40-some minutes long. Many emotions flared up when watching this. I did tear up at one point. I felt this helplessness build up inside me until it burst. There's nothing graphic in the film; it's just terribly sad yet informing. And the end is great. It leaves the viewer feeling like there is someone out there who is truely fighting this tragedy. You can click on the title of this post and it will take you to the site. (There are pop ups. Just close them and they won't come back.) Please watch. You won't regret it.

World Chocolate Production

What problems are associated with global chocolate production? How is chocolate harvested?
Who does the harvesting?

The Dark Side Of Chocolate

Not too long ago someone did a word of the day about cocoa beans becoming infected with viruses. I came across this online. It doesn't directly correlate with the article dicussed in class but it reminded me of it. Anyway, I haven't watched it. I haven't found anywhere to watch it online yet. It seems interesting. You can click on the title of the post and it will take you to the documentaries website where there is an about section.

Came Across This While Tumbling

I thought this was somewhat relevant due to the fact that we are reading Dreams from My Father. In what we have read so far, Barack has been struggling with his race and society and how to mesh the two together. The difficulties of this, I cannot fathom. Now, take a look at this. The epitome of irony, innocence, bigotry. Call it what you may, sorry for the cliche, but no amount of words can put this photo into perspective. Absolutely stunning.

I have provided the link, if you would like to read the whole article. It's about a family's choice to adopt a child from Ethiopia and the questions they ask themselves before going through with it. The following is from the link:

"To the [left] is one of my favorite pictures. Here is a Georgia State Trooper in riot gear at a KKK protest in a north Georgia city back in the 80s. The Trooper is black. Standing in front of him and touching his shield is a curious little boy dressed in a Klan hood and robe. I have stared at this picture and wondered what must have been going through that Trooper’s mind. Before the Trooper is an innocent child who is being taught to hate him because of the color of his skin. The child doesn’t understand what he is being taught, and at this point he doesn’t seem to care. Like any other child his curiosity takes hold and he wants to explore this new thing that this man is holding probably because he can see his reflection in it and that’s a neat thing and he wants to check it out. In this picture I see innocence mixed with hate, the irony of a black man protecting the right of white people to assemble in protest against him, temperance in the face of ignorance, and hope that racism can be broken because this young boy may remember that a black man smiled at him once and he didn’t seem so bad after all."

Step One: Raise Awareness

For the Organic Food Program, I would like to start on campus, I believe the first step will be to raise awareness about the food on campus. I developed this idea through our class discussions. The common theme, when talking about introducing organic food on campus, seems to be that in order for organic food to be successful on campus that the student population's awareness of what they're eating must be stimulated.

I was thinking about passing out brochures, holding an educational seminar in the Kiva, things along these lines. But, then I thought, in order to get more intimate with the student body, that our class(es) should create a video. My main idea for this video is to buy the lowest and highest caloric food that a student can buy, from each store, in the hub and from the cafes. We would then review each of these meals and just give some facts about each (e.g. "One meal may contain 1000 calories compared to only needing 2000 calories in one day; that's half the calories a person needs to sustain themselves, in one meal!"). Something like that that will really open a student's eyes to what they are really eating. But this is just one idea. We could incorporate many other ideas into this video. If we were to hold an educational seminar in the Kiva, if we made the video professional enough, I think it would be a great thing to show during this event. Share your ideas or bring them up in class.

Please, post ideas for the video or other ways to raise awareness on campus. Posting whether this idea is good/bad is welcomed but please include other ideas that may improve this project.

Thanks.