Blog 4: Problem or Solution?

I believe that the main ingredient in my meal is a problem and not a solution.  There seems to be evidence that there are negative environmental impacts of the chicken used in my meal.   There were a few problems with pesticides being used in the Tyson chicken that I used.  I think that this should be a large consideration of what should be taken into account for in order to reduce the environmental impacts.  It is also important to note that land used for raising animals for food takes up 30 percent of the Earth’s land mass.  Although it may be obvious that something should be done about this issue, it is hard to limit this land use.  Not all of this 30 percent is used up by the physical animals but by the crops and other food grown to feed these animals.  It is also hard to convince us as humans to stop eating these certain types of meats that we enjoy.  Locally this problem may be able to be solved a bit easier.  It seems simple to have the farmers of Tyson chicken to stop using these harmful pesticides and antibiotics.  This company seems to claim to not use antibiotics even though they admittedly have used them.  This needs to be brought up and they should own up to what they distribute to us as consumers.  They should either stop using the antibiotics or stop claiming to not use them.  There are a few things that can happen on an individual scale when it comes to this product.  Ever since doing this blog project, I have learned a few things myself that I will be taking seriously in the future when it comes to buying items at the grocery store.  This is something other consumers should take seriously on an individual scale and be mindful of what they are feeding themselves/their families.

iPhone 6 Materials

iPhone 6

I chose to describe my new iPhone 6 as a consumer item.  The introduction of the first iPhone back in 2007 forever changed the cellular phone and smart phone world.  The phone has evolved through the years with the use of many different materials on the exterior.  The phone's exterior screen is made of ion-strengthened glass. The back of the phone is made up of anodized aluminum.  The interior of the phone is made up of multiple different materials.  There is stainless steel on the interior along with copper.  Paper, polystyrene and other plastics are used in the packaging as well.  All of the wiring on the inside has copper in it to run the electric of the device.  There is also silicon, tin, gadolinium and terbium on the inside of the phone.

Cajun Chicken Pasta

1) A) One major ingredient I used in my dinner was boneless chicken breasts made by Tyson.  Although it is hard to trace exactly where Tyson chicken is produced I gathered some information about Tyson chicken farms.   Tyson uses “more than 4,000 farmers to raise chickens for Tyson Foods.  We supply the birds, feed and technical advice, while the farmers care for the chicken’s bye providing the farm, housing and labor.  The average farmer has been raising chickens for us for 15 years.”  So even though I can’t track the exact location of where the chicken was raised, I found out that it was raised by a Tyson Chicken farmer.  Due to my girlfriend being gluten free the second ingredient used in my meal was Tinkyada gluten free brown rice pasta.  I learned that this pasta is produced by a company called Food Directions Inc in Ontario, Canada.

B) I learned that in general “according to the United Nations, raising animals for food (including land used for grazing and land used to grow feed crops) now uses a staggering 30 percent of the Earth’s land mass.  Obviously these chickens being raised fall into this category.  Both the chickens take up land to be raised and the crops grown to feed them take up land as well.  I also found that it takes 468 gallons of water to produce just 1 pound of chicken.  This also obviously depletes our natural resource of water.  The pasta on the other hand does not require nearly as much water to create.  There is a small amount of water used to create the pasta, and another small amount used to cook the pasta.

C) I found an article showing chemicals used in Tyson Foods.  I read that Chicken plant workers would spray carcasses with dangerous chemicals.  Also although Tyson labels their chicken as being raised without antibiotics, they admitted that they inject its chickens with antibiotics before they even hatch.

D) I was unable to find any information regarding this, however I made a few estimations on the subject.  I have heard that where chickens are raised is often a very dirty environment.  I know that workers have to wear masks while inside the chicken areas.  Therefore I can imagine that these chicken areas are definitely affecting the air quality in the surrounding area.

E) These impacts are local to the areas that the product is being made, or the chickens are being produced.  Going along with the antibiotics being used, this turns into a global issue, because people are affected all over the world wherever the chicken reaches.

2) A) I personally bought my ingredients at my local grocery store in downtown Milwaukee.  I would imagine that almost all of the products I consumed in this meal arrived at the grocery store via truck.

B) I believe the ingredient that traveled the furthest to me would be the pasta from Ontario, Canada.  There were other items that were fresh, however these were most likely more local items since they were primarily fresh produce.  For example there was green onions in my meal, and I believe these were probably more local because they are a fresh ingredient compared to dried pasta that has a longer shelf life.

C) There is quite a bit of waste when it came to my meal.  The chicken was packaged in a Styrofoam container, which was wrapped in a plastic material that all went into my garbage.  The pasta was packaged in a plastic packaging that I actually recycled, so that had less of an impact on the environment.

3)Below is a picture shown where Tyson Foods has food plant locations.

Sources:

http://www.tysonfoods.com/our-story/locations.aspx

http://www.tysonfoods.com/Our-Story/Farmers.aspx

http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/meat-wastes-natural-resources/

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/how-much-water.html

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/11/29/you-need-to-know-this-if-you-eat-tyson-chicken.aspx

Blog 1: Plastic Bags

           

1) What is one local effect or impact of plastic bag waste you observed in the video that you didn’t know about, hadn’t thought about before, or just found particularly interesting?

 One local impact of plastic bag wastes is that the plastic bags are made of oil.  The problem with them made out of oil is that they degrade very, very slowly.  Another interesting fact that I found is that many other countries have banned the use of plastic bags entirely.  Some areas even have certain task forces designed to specifically remove plastic bag waste.

2) Identify one specific way in which people in the video were attempting to manage or solve this local effect or impact.

 As mentioned above some areas have banned the use of plastic bags entirely.  Some areas also use types of task forces designed to remove plastic bag usage in the area they are a part of.

3) How do you think we should deal with plastic bag waste?  Is it a problem we should solve locally, or globally, or at some combination of scales?  Why?  Alternatively, as the manufacturer suggested, are plastic bags “misunderstood”—and thus not a problem to be solved?  Explain your answer!

I think that this ordeal of plastic bag waste should be taken very seriously.  These plastic bags degrade slower than a human life and end up being around for a very long time.  I think that the issue should be dealt with both globally and locally.  This is our Earth as a global whole we are polluting with these bags; therefore it should be dealt with on a global scale as well.  Local municipalities should also enforce strict rules regarding the use of plastic bags.  I think if removing the use of plastic bags entirely is too hard to accomplish, than there should be harsher rules regarding the recycling of plastic bags so they do not end up sitting in our land fills for decades at a time polluting the planet.  I think that manufactures believe that plastic bags are "misunderstood" because they claim that plastic bags resort to only 4% of pollution, which is why they feel it is not a problem to be solved as urgently as others may think.