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.

What Should We, As Society, Consider Food?

It has come to my attention that, perhaps, everybody has their own idea on what they consider food. I would like to start this post off by asking, what should we, as society, consider food? Are the greasy calorie laden hamburgers and ridiculously salty fries fast food serves us really food? Do the genetically modified seeds that produce our crops yield real food? Are the chickens that companies - such as Tyson - produce, not raise, food? (I say produce instead of raise because these chickens are no longer considered life anymore. They are a commodity to these corporations. They are a means to make money and nothing more. This is beside the point; I just wanted to explain what I meant.) These chickens are beefed up with hormones and chemicals that debilitate them. The seeds are also modified to terminate. Is this what people should consider food? Or have we become the cattle that are being fed corn, being poisoned by the "food" we eat?

So, how do you define food?

Organic Program Proposal

Hello everyone,

I have been contemplating starting a campus wide organic program. Reading Manifestos of the Future of Food & Seed and watching Food Inc. really inspired me to create this proposal. Today, Professor Harrison and I met and discussed the idea of starting this organization on campus.

Some of the ideas we talked about and envision are: co-opting with local organic farmers, starting an organic store/restaurant on campus that would utilize the locally grown organic foods in its meals, providing educational services about what is in the food the students and faculty are eating and why transferring to the organic world of foods is healthier, incorporating an on-campus garden where students/faculty/organizations/classes could produce organic crops to provide for the university.

I am excited to start such a program and when I mentioned this idea to Professor Harrison she too was exuberant. She told me that she has had students mention ideas like this to her in the past and that the students back out. I believe through this collective of classes that we have the ability to start such a program, without a doubt. Lets keep KSUs 100 Years of Excellence on the right path by providing the student body with a healthy, unbiased, holistic, humanitarian, organic food choice. Better minds and bodies will make for a stronger intellectual student population.

By mentioning this proposal, it is my intention to receive some responses via the Pay it Forward Blog. I would like to know who is interested in this idea? Would those of you who are intrigued by this idea be willing to build this program with Professor Harrison and I? Finally, what are your ideas, other than the ones mentioned previously, that would help to make the best organic program for KSU? I hope to hear from everyone on here.