ED 262 Above and Beyond the Call

Nós somos aquilo que comemos ...

With more people than ever living in cities and less people than ever working on farms, the future of our food is in question. The riskiness, labor, low gain,  and negative stereotypes of farmers combined with the fear of food conglomerates has led to a depletion of smaller scale farmers. Brain drain in rural farming areas is depleting the number of younger people willing to work in agriculture. With most of our food production being controlled and overseen by large corporations, people are now questioning the quality of our foods. Recently, the local food movement is educating people on the importance of food produced with integrity and supporting  local businesses.  

Occasionally these lists that say something like "40 maps that..." end up being an odd assortment of trivia that is interesting but not very instructive.  Not so with this list that has carefully curated these maps and graphs in a sequential order that will enrich students' understanding of food production and consumption in the United States.  Additionally, here are some maps and chart to understand agriculture and food in Canada. 

Tags: agriculture, food production, food distribution, locavore, agribusiness, USA. 

Brazil’s largest city, Sao Paulo, which provides one third of the countries GPD, is now running low or water due to one of the worst droughts in 8 years. There are more than 21 million people in this city and 13 million of them are facing water outages. If it doesn't rain soon, the city could face a collapse. The city has blamed the drought of lack of water in the vapor clouds that the amazon usually provides to the city. They also blame it on deforestation and global warming. President Dilma Rousseff has questioned the cities misusage of their water supply, claiming that the city mismanaged their water supply.  

This shows just how important water is the human race. It also shows how humans have no sense of urgency in conserving water until it's too late. The saying "you never know a good thing until it's gone" applies in this case. The Brazilian government did not take any sufficient measures to conserve water until it realized how depleted the reservoir is. This event demonstrates the environmental impact of  water depletion on humans, and how humans have such a huge impact on the geographical landscape on Earth. As seen in the picture above, many greens turned yellow as a result of the lowering water levels. The river beds are soon going to be overgrown by shrubbery as water no longer exists there. These are all results of a combination of natural (lack of rain) and human causes of resource depletion.

water

APHG-U4

In all honesty, the history of Africa intrigues me. I've always tried to expand my knowledge on the subject as well as stay current with its modern affairs (as best as possible). I have had the pleasure of studying abroad in South Africa for a semester as well as taking courses focusing on the vast continent throughout my career as a RIC student. 

Ancient Africa is a topic I know more about than the average person. It's slavery and the effects it had on the realm, followed by Colonialism/Post Colonialism that I like to take pride in knowing best. I've taken different courses focusing on the matter and have done my fair share of research for pleasure. However, I still have a lot more research to do because I have so many thoughts, questions, and comments  (before making a comment on a particular subject I like to research it in depth) to make. 

I have the desire to pursue an education focusing on "Africa" and its colonial aspects. I feel like I would pursue a solid topic of high interest-perhaps even importance- to me and research the dickens out of it. I would prefer it to be an original piece though. Not a blunt history of colonial rule in Africa, whether it be specific or broad. I do not want to reiterate what others have already side. I want to create my own theories on Africa. 

Currently I am quite interested in "Post-Colonial" Africa and the fact that I find this term to be exotic, foreign, and even a facade. There are colonial aspects of Africa that have existed for decades and will continue to do so as long as Western and Eastern (China) "business" is "functioning." "Business" is broad yet it is being used here to describe the basic global economy, producers and consumers thus a subsequent supply and demand. Now, what does the term "functioning" mean? Well, to simply put it, business functions through Africa's exponential amount of natural resources, cheap labor, and corrupt officials. Most of the civilized world benefits from Africa's numerable resources yet the vast majority of African's themselves do not enjoy such pleasures. This is a trend that has existed since the Portuguese appraised the Western Coast of the continent in the early fifteenth century. 

I understand that this basic premise may not be the first of its kind, in general. However, there are specific situations/conflicts that can be researched further towards developing a more unique body of work. If I do pursue a higher education in this area I plan on succeeding in producing a sound body of work that I am proud to put my name on. It would be neat to teach the significance of the three maps displayed in this scoop.it article. 

UNIT 4 POLITICAL 

This article shows many maps depicting the history and creation of African borders, as well as the impact of colonialism on Africa. This shows where different groups resided, and how borders were not properly made to fit one single nation, but mixed together many nations in one region.These maps are extremely useful when trying to learn more about Africa and its history, specifically its boundaries.