Intro

  1. describe the relationship between agriculture and energy use in America: cheap food prices are dependent on cheap fuel prices

  2. how does our agricultural system affect our health: the creation of good uses more fossil fuel than any other part of the economy 19%. Greenhouse gases to the atmosphere 37% comes from making food. When farmers clear land for crops carbon is released into the air. Fertilizer and pesticides have increased dramatically. Also the food we make now is so full of sugar it causes diabetes. Heart disease stroke and diabetes along with cancer have gone up.

  3. how do our policies create a food shortage in the developing world: high grain prices and food shortages will not allow for free trade and food because nations that open markets in search of cheap grain lost too many farmers and now they cannot feed their own people so countries need to you wrecked trade barriers to stop food prices from being too high.

  4. how does our agricultural policy affect our national security we do not have any impact over the safety of imported foods and another country could deliberately contaminate our food and that would be a national security threat because it is so easy to do it is surprising it hasn’t Arty happened.

How We Got Here

  1. describe the effects of monoculture on both crops and livestock farming monocultures of corn and soy are grown in fields and create cheap calories of fat sugar. It is the landscape created by cheap oil farmers used to have crop diversity to fix the soil and to kill bugs by cheap energy created monocultures

Resolarizing the American Farm

solar energy is human energy. It is actually very difficult to do because humans cost a great deal more than fertilizer and oil so most farms choose not to do this there is no regional food economy it is now a national food economy using cheap energy to create as much as possible. And it is a lot more expensive than using fossil fuels the government subsidizes commodity crops by paying farmers so there would be cheap grain that could be sold for less than across farmers to grow so now farmers can feed their livestock more so Americans can eat 190 pounds of meat a year I half a pound a day.

  1. how do our present policies discourage farm diversity the government subsidizes commodity crops by paying farmers so there would be cheap grain that could be sold for less than across farmers to grow so now farmers can feed their livestock more so Americans can eat 190 pounds of meat a year I half a pound a day.

  2. describe the authors suggested alternative to monoculture he suggests that the food policy needs to create a health-based diet for all people that focuses on Wally the and diversity of calories not just quantity. He also believes agriculture is part of the solution to environmental problems like climate change. He believes that we need to not use oil but use the sun to improve health using solar power

  3. what are the three government policies that support use of CAFO’s confined animal feeding operations are efficient. The government makes them work because the ability to buy grain for less money than it costs to grow it. The FDA approved routine use of antibiotics in need and this allows animals to survive and routed farms. The third reason is that the government does not require these farms to treat waste as it would for human waste.

  4. how does the author address the concern that solar farming cannot feed the world moving animals off the lots and back into farms will raise the price of meat and this will make people eat less of it and that is a good thing he says. It will help preserve freshwater and help animal’s. Meat and milk production are the biggest burdens to the environment so we should eat less. He believes that although farming this way will not create as much food it will create higher quality food and solar farms actually do better when there’s a drought.

  5. how will resolarizing affect the work of the farmer and the geography of farming: farmers will have to work less because they are actually creating less crops but they are more substantial and better for you. Foods have higher nutritional values but the farming is complicated and needs more people to make it work without fossil fuels

 

Reregionalizing America’s Food Culture

  1. describe three suggestions the author makes to change our food culture he believes that most farmers because they are 55 years old in America to be replaced with a new breed of farmer that doesn’t mind, Plex ecological approach to agriculture. He believes we should teach ecological farming systems to students and value farmers more. We need highly skilled small farmers and workplaces across America. He believes our food should be grown closer to where we actually live.

Your Reactions

  1. what most surprised you or interested you in the article. I have no idea how farming actually works. I didn’t know that there were so few farmers in the world. I haven’t been to most of the United States but somehow I figured in the middle of the US there must be like 1 billion farms that make all of my food and then they ship it in. I have no idea how it actually works or how my food actually gets to Safeway before I eat it.

  2. what seemed like the most significant reason to change the way we grow food I believe that the threat of terrorism will be greatly reduced if everyone eats local food. If we only ate local food it would be very difficult for some terrorist group to poison all of us it would only poison a small area and would figure it out before it spread all over the US.

  3. did the author’s suggestions seem possible or too much is a radical overhaul of the way we do things right now. Americans are fat and we love our food it will be very difficult finance people that eating less of more nutrient rich food is better for them. I think it is an uphill battle.

Open Letter to the Next Farmer in Chief #2

Intro

  1. describe the relationship between agriculture and energy use in America: the lower tax and fossil fuel prices are the more agriculture churns out cheap food

  2. how does our agricultural system affect our health? Americans eat way too much of cheap low quality food. We eat way too much meat and fat and diabetes and obesity are killing us all slowly. Because cheap fat laden food is so easy to make because fossil fuel prices are so low food is abundant and inexpensive so everyone buys too much

  3. how do our policies create a food shortage in the developing world? There are actual civil wars where leaders are being toppled because of food shortages. The farmers in foreign countries send their foods to us and they don’t have enough food to feed their own people. Because there is free trade they’re allowed to do this so the US free trade policy is what is causing the food shortages and other countries

  4. how does our agricultural policy affect our national security? It is very easy to paint our food source and kill many people by poisoning our food. There are very few safeguards to prevent this. Terrorists could kill a great number of people this way

How We Got Here

  1. describe the effects of monoculture on both crops and livestock farming. Farmers used to have crop diversity and that would fix the soil in between plantings and they used to have farm animals whose poop would naturally fertilize the ground but now food producers only produce one thing over and over again and it is destroying the land and they no longer have animals because animals are on different kinds of farms so there he sees gets into the water systems and causes pollution.

Resolarizing the American Farm

  1. how do our present policies discourage farm diversity the government pays people to create the most amount of food possible so they actually make more money from government tax than they do from selling food. The government also supports the use of CAFO’s by 1. The government pays farmers to grow cheap grain so grain costs less than the money it cost to grow it 2 antibiotics are given to animals so they can survive in the farms but now there are are anti-resistant strains that her humans 3 the government doesn’t require farms to treat animal feces the same way it treats human feces and it is clogging up and polluting the land

  2. describe the authors suggested alternative to monoculture if the government made a switch from quantity to quality everybody would eat better with far less food. Organic solar farming can feed just as many people with far less food making everybody were healthy

  3. what are the three government policies that support use of CAFO’s diversity 1. The government pays farmers to grow cheap grain so grain costs less than the money it cost to grow it 2 antibiotics are given to animals so they can survive in the farms but now there are are anti-resistant strains that her humans 3 the government doesn’t require farms to treat animal feces the same way it treats human feces and it is clogging up and polluting the land

  4. how does the author address the concern that solar farming cannot feed the world he believes that more wallet eat less wanted the can help people also you need to use less fresh water so you would make more food during a drought than regular farming

  5. how will resolarizing affect the work of the farmer and the geography of farming he doesn’t believe so because you can actually grow or high quality food and far less space and is use right now and people why actually be healthier if they are thinner and you can grow more food with less water

Reregionalizing America’s Food Culture

  1. describe three suggestions the author makes to change our food culture he believes that we all ate less fat laden food and meet we would actually be more healthy, make farming a high paying job, teach young farmers how to farm more ecologically sound

Your Reactions

  1. what most surprised you or interested you in the article I did not know that terrorist would have such an easy time tainting our food. It makes you want to go to the Farmer’s market and eat some kale so Al Qaeda can’t kill me.

  2. what seemed like the most significant reason to change the way we grow food I believe we are all so fat as a country that we need to change the way we make food just so we are healthier nation. I also love animals so much I cannot imagine how gross some of these animal farms must be so I think it is more humane to have them live on a normal farm and not in some big conglomerate feed station farm that sounds disgusting.

  3. did the author’s suggestions seem possible or too much I believe he is asking an awful lot at of us. We love food. We love eating way too much. That name overprocessed food is delicious. HoHo’s probably have 0% food in them but damn they are good, people are going to have a hard time giving up delicious food.