Agriculture

The Possibility of Organic Farming

Evan 13 Comments

The Possibility of Organic Farming:

A multi-faceted process of governmental sanction and financial subsidies to promote and advance organic farming practices based on human health and ecological principles.

What would you do?

What if you found out that your favorite hat would make you start to bald prematurely, would you still wear it? Logically, most of us would do without the good looking hat in order to sustain our hairline. Imagine that you have a second hat that costs a little more to purchase than the initial hat, but will not diminish your hairline; would you wear this second hat instead? Following the same logic, you would certainly switch to wearing the second hat because people value their own well-being. Now, what if you found out that the food you and your family have been eating could increase the chances that your children would grow up autistic, with ADHD and have mental or physical challenges; all while increasing your own risk of developing numerous types of cancers, reduced fertility, Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes (Feldman, Kepner & Owens, 2010, pp. 14-21). Would you search for a second “hat” without the side effects of pesticides used for conventionally grown food in order to sidestep a life that appears doomed to be riddled with disease and hardship? Continue Reading →

Shade Grown Coffee, Not just for the birds

Evan 50 Comments

shade-coffee-pic-300x225introduction

                   Imagine a lush plot of rainforest, filled with a vast and diverse community of fauna and flora, but contraire to popular believe, this is actually a productive shade grown organic coffee farm. Usually when one thinks of agriculture, thoughts of fertilizers and pesticides slip through our mind, and unfortunately these thoughts are correct, new age coffee farming embraces all the things sustainability doesn’t simply put. Truth is, conserving our rainforests and biodiversity of our planet is only a sip away with shade grown coffee. With the current state of deforestation and monoculture operations, the sustainability of these systems isn’t present, that’s why shade grown coffee is a viable alternative which can reduce the harmful effects of sun grown coffee. The coffee plant, naturally being an understory plant which requires shade offered by trees to protect its leaves from browning and burning. Over time through selectively breeding the coffee bush, farmers were able to develop a coffee strain which can be grown in full sun which allowed a more profitable and larger harvest. This growing technique though profitable to industry, does not include the many external costs produced such as deforestation and loss of biodiversity of song birds. By practicing sustainable agroforestry such as shade grown coffee, the benefits far outweigh the cons derived from costs and smaller yield (Donald, P). With a multiple-phased approach through converting current coffee monoculture lands to shade grown coffee and by encouraging new farming plantations to be established in the rainforest responsibly, we can mitigate the many harmful effects of sun grown coffee and ensure the health of one of earths most precious and productive biomes.

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Lighting the Fire: Changing the views on prescribed burns on the west coast through education

Evan 14 Comments

Olivia Gould,Christina Baker,Erika Harimoto

 

Figure 1 http://www.forwallpaper.com/wallpaper/fire-smoke-plant-328980.html

Figure 1 http://www.forwallpaper.com/wallpaper/fire-smoke-plant-328980.html

PROPAGATION OF NEGATIVE ATTITUDES TOWARDS FIRE

The little girl cowers in the living room. The flames rise higher and higher. Every snap and crackle sounds like a thunderclap. In her fear she pulls her blanket over her eyes and hides behind the couch, desperately trying to get away from the scene in front of her. If she closes her eyes, maybe all will be well, but she can’t keep them closed. Morbid curiosity forces her eyes open. The flames leap. The timber cracks. The girl screams. “Run Bambi, ruuuuunnnnnnnnnn.” Continue Reading →

Mink Fur Farming: Adapting an industry on the rise

Evan 11 Comments
Figure 1. American Mink as seen in typical single housing cage system (McArthur, 2013).

Figure 1. American Mink as seen in typical single housing cage system (McArthur, 2013).

By Jacqueline Canny (NRC), Elizabeth Galeuci (AniSci)  & Jessica LaBelle (AnSci)

Industry on the Rise

Since the beginning of human existence in the cold regions of the world, fur has been an appealing and practical societal commodity. Fur gathering for many early trappers, especially in the United States, began as a successful and relatively simple business venture aimed at supplying a continuous demand for fur products. Fur has since transcended from being a good necessary for the survival of human societies, to a luxury product in a small niche market where industrial profits are subject to change due to an inconsistent demand. (Fur Commission USA, 2011).  Continue Reading →

Organic Farming Operations are Not Working

Evan 13 Comments

Figure 1. Organic Cows in Field (Sheepdrove, 2010)

Figure 1. Organic Cows in Field (Sheepdrove, 2010)

Organic Cattle Operations are Not Working

Bryna Brooks, Timothy Burdsall, Jessica Condlin

NatSci 397A

Evan Ross

6 December 2013

Introduction

You wake up one morning, feeling nauseated, dizzy and drowsy, wanting to regurgitate last nights dinner. To the average person, these symptoms would indicate the flu or food poisoning. Your concerns send you to your doctors’ office all the way across town, waiting for an hour just to be seen. You tell the doctor what your symptoms are and he asks you what you have eaten in the last few days. You list everything from having a donut covered in glaze three nights ago, to the organic hamburger you had last night. The doctor suspects that you might have eaten contaminated beef with E. coli. After some tests, he confirms that you have an E. coli bacterial infection, probably from the beef that you ate. This can be deadly, causing kidney problems and eventually kidney failure (WebMD, 2010). Continue Reading →

Consumer Misconceptions of Organic

Evan 28 Comments
Figure 1. USDA Certified Organic Label (AMS, 2012)

Figure 1. USDA Certified Organic Label (AMS, 2012)

Kelsey Hobson, Emma King, Marcia Lee Renaud

Consumer Perception of Organic

On January 23, 2011 federal officials announced a recall on organic ground beef and hamburger patties. The recall stemmed from First Class Foods Incorporated, a large company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. First Class Foods Incorporated feared roughly 34,373 pounds of organic beef had been contaminated by E.Coli (Huffstrutter, 2011, pp. 2). E.Coli is a deadly bacteria that can cause a number of intestinal issues and sometimes death. These contaminated beef products were packaged and shipped to retailers in New York, California, Wisconsin, North Carolina, New Jersey, and Washington. Fortunately for organic beef consumers, there were no reported illnesses or deaths associated with this recall. However, this recall did create negative attention toward organic foods in general.

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Amending Biomass Electricity Generation with Transgenic Trees

Evan 10 Comments

Introduction

When asked what she remembers about the 1973 Oil Embargo, UMass Alumni Linda Sarkisian laughs and says, “I remember being stuck at school because my parents did not have enough gas to pick me up” (L. Sarkisian, personal communication, November 12, 2013). Linda was eighteen when the Arab countries cut off oil exports to the U.S. in response to U.S. support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War (Koch, 2013). She bitterly recalls her parents cancelling the family trip to Florida out of fear they would be stranded without gas. Her parents knew about the lines of cars across the country idling for hours, their drivers anxiously waiting for their turn at the pump. Service stations were decorated with hand-made signs that read “Regular Customers Only” or simply “No Gas” (L. Sarkisian, personal communication, November 12, 2013). The crisis exposed our deep dependence on fossil fuels and forever changed how the U.S. viewed energy production (Koch, 2013). Continue Reading →

Using Prescribed Burns in New England to Create Early Sucessional Habitat

Evan 15 Comments

Kate Emond

Halilu Daraja

Mallory Durkee

12/5/2013

Biodiversity within New England is a cornerstone of our regions identity. The beauty of our landscapes and wildlife inspire and enrich our lives. Although many may not readily appreciate it, biodiversity provides us with many of the things that sustain our lives. By maintaining a wide range of biodiversity, both humans and wildlife are offered a range of ecosystem services. Changes in biodiversity can influence the supply of ecosystem services and displace wildlife that depends on certain habitats. One threat facing biodiversity and wildlife within New England is the loss of early successional habitat. “Early successional habitats include weedy areas, grasslands, old fields or pastures, shrub thickets and young forest” (NRCS, 2010). Continue Reading →

Urban Green Roof Agriculture

Evan 18 Comments

Amanda Nee, Dylan Bachand, Matt Dibara

You are standing on the streets of New York City. You look up, following the trail of light leading to the sun, currently eclipsed by the innumerous skyscrapers housing business people, families, politicians, performers, doctors, and everyone in between. Everything around you from the people to the structures is a result of maximizing potential. This is the appeal of the city. If there is space, a builder will build, and in that new building will be a new business with employees thinking up new ideas, and those new ideas will drive the developing world. But if the central dogma of urban development is in taking advantage of every inch, it is ironic that the greatest percentage of our cities’ area is not utilized at all.  Gazing up at these buildings, one can easily overlook the rooftops. Currently in New York City, 1200 acres of this rooftop area has shown potential beyond its primary shelter allocation and legislation has been passed to implement the transition (Department of City Planning, 2013). The Big Apple is home to most walks of life, but it is now time to welcome back farmers. Food will be grown on the roof. Green roofs, the practice of adding vegetation to the tops of buildings, is now widely discussed and progressively accepted. These green roofs replace the green space eliminated as cities grow and develop. With our planet reaching capacity, green roofs have the potential for our cities to once again grow and develop, this time, in a greener direction.

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Effects of Poultry Management Systems on Consumer Health

Evan 15 Comments

Fig 2. Comparison of yolks in eggs produced by grass-fed chickens (left) and grain fed chickens (right) (HealthBanquet.com LLC,  2009) Retrieved from http://www.healthbanquet.com/free-range-eggs.html)

Tyler France, Kylie LaRocque, Kelsi Watkins

Have you ever wondered where the meat you buy at the grocery store comes from?  Or if the animals are raised on a nice green pasture and treated humanely?  We’d all like to think that they were, but the harsh reality is that the majority of our meat is produced by industrialized farming facilities, or concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).  CAFOs are farms designed to produce the highest yield of product for the lowest price, and in the shortest amount of time. Industrial farms don’t raise their meat like local farms do; they produce it as fast as possible to support a high profit margin. For example, most broiler chickens, which are chickens breeds raised for meat, reach market weight around 20 weeks of age or in five months; thus giving these chickens the shortest lives amongst industrialized farmed animals (Sams, 2001). This can be compared to poultry production in the late 1940s, when chickens would take almost triple the time to reach the same market weight as today (Sams, 2001). Continue Reading →