Chapter 9 Review: Biodiversity and the Ecosystem

Variation amongst the same species between diverse groups and between versions of the same gene in different individuals in a population is genetic diversity.

Pollan writes , " The way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world. Daily, our eating turns nature into culture, transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds.” (Pollan,386 ). In the book “ Farm city “, Carpenter, who started an urban farm deep in an Oakland ghetto. She showed what is important about food, and what is lacking in our food culture. She pointed out the issues of local food by demonstrating that it could be done on anywhere, even if your community is full of gangsters. She started raising her own food and learned about animal husbandry, her neighbors, and herself. Furthermore, eating less corn-fed meat, or shifting corn toward more efficient dairy, poultry, pork and grass-fed beef systems, would allow American to get more food from each bushel of corn. The US government should encourage American farmers explore other methods for growing corn, including better conventional, organic, biotech and conservation farming methods that can dramatically reduce chemical inputs, water use, soil losses and impacts on

When considering differences between organic and conventional foods often the first thing people comment on is the nutritional value. Organic foods have grown in popularity due to the perception that they are better nutritionally. Barbara Hey (2009), health reporter and author of the article, “A Different Health Debate: Conventional versus Organic Food” and Smith-Spangier, Crystal, et al. (2012), emphasize that the benefits of organic foods and farming are important to society. That organic food can help protect what’s most valuable to people, their health. They suggest that eating a healthy diet rich in vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants is a good investment in preventative care. Jeff Gillman (2008) agrees and states, “ …preventing disease is much more cost effective than treating disease. Organic foods can play a vital role in keeping people healthy” (139).

Part 1 Pros – Organic foods can be costly but you also get what you pay for. Understandable not

Throughout the US there has been the big concern of where the food we eat comes from and if it is healthy. Everyone wants healthy food, yet we fail to eat the healthy food that is right in front of us, instead we eat industrial made food that causes the death of thousands of people each year. In the Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, you explore the pros and cons of our five main food chains; industrial,industrial organic, organic, sustainable, and hunter gatherer. In all ways, the sustainable food chain is the best food chain to feed the US. Animals and plants are developed naturally without any chemicals or pesticides and all of the produce is grown and sold locally and harvested by hand.

Have you ever walked down the grocery store aisle and wondered where your chicken comes from? Or if the ham you just bought is healthier for your family, than the other brand of ham you saw? In “The Omnivore’s Dilemma”, Michael Pollan states that there are four different food chains. They’re the industrial, the industrial organic, the local sustainable, and the hunter-gatherer food chains. I believe that the best food chain for everyone in the United States would be the local sustainable. The local sustainable food chain is the best for the United States because it is better for the animal, and better for the environment. Although the local sustainable food chain would take a long time to get used to, it would be the best option for the United States.

In the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, Pollan explains and describes each of the four major food chains in America; Industrial, Industrial Organic, Local Sustainable, and Hunter-Gatherer. The book was written to inform people about how the food is treated, made, processed, and farmed. However, with four major food chains, the question that arose was, which food chain is the best to feed America? The adjective “best” could be categorized as many things, including taste, accessibility, and affordability. The food chain Industrial Organic is the best way to feed the United States of America.

By eating more foods from community based farms, will reduce pollution and improve the air quality (A) resulting from semi-trucks delivering fewer shipments. Having less polluted air will tremendously improve the environment by reducing the greenhouse gases that are emitted. Although those who oppose this change, claim that consuming home-grown products still can utilize the same amount of fuel (C). For example, a local farmer who sells fifty apples at a stall fifty miles from his farm uses the same “amount of fuel per apple” as a foreign company shipping two-thousand apples over two-thousand miles to a store (C). While this debate is compelling, in the long run, purchasing and consuming regionally-produced foods will have a greater impact in reducing pollution rather than solely buying imported foods. This is because companies will not have to import the same amount of food as often, if everyone joins the campaign by eating locally. Therefore, by switching to this lifestyle, the environment will notably

What is the difference between a threatened species, an endangered species, and an extinct species?

Many people that are locavores are partaking in the movement because those people believe they are eating healthier due to the fact that there is more nutrition in the locally grown produce. While Professor Marion Nestle, of NYU, admits that yes, there are more nutrients in locally grown farms due to the extraordinary soil, however, that doesn’t mean those nutrients are vital to our health or that because people buy organic that we are “nutrient

The first reason why local sustainable is the best food chain to feed all the people of the United States is because it’s healthier for the consumer. According to The Omnivore’s Dilemma page 173 it states that there is no pesticides or artificial fertilizer in the food. This shows that the food is all natural with no pesticides, artificial fertilizer, chemicals, etc. It also states that the consumer knows exactly where there food is coming from. (Pollan 208) The consumers can see where there chickens have been killed and see how clean it is to show that

Source A, an article by Jennifer Maiser, 10 reasons to eat local food, affrims and talks how eating and buying local produce has so many benefits for the people of the community and its environment. Maiser says that “the miles that organic food often travels to our plate creates environmental damage” meaning eating locally is better for you and the environment. Maiser also justified that the locavore movement also helps small businesses in the community by “according to a study by the New Economics Foundation…, a dollar sent locally generates twice as much income for the local economy”. This statistic proves that buying produce locally and supporting the locavore movement helps the community around you.

Food is one of the most important aspects of the human body. Over time it has been proven that food is the key to survival. Food for human beings has definitely made a drastic change throughout the centuries. With that the food industry has been talked about quite a bit. We consume so much processed food to the point where we adapt unhealthy diets which causes us to develop unhealthy habits. In order to combat this we humans have taken different approaches to including buying organic produce as an alternative to conventional, going vegan, as well as just plain watching what they eat

Humans have existed since 200,000 years but the Earth has existed around 4.5 billion years. Nature has provided us with everything we have today - food, medicines, materials, chemicals, metals, minerals etc. It can only keep providing us when we maintain the right environment for it to exist. This environment depends on the biodiversity of Earth. The number of species of plants, animals and microorganisms and the various genes in these species, different ecosystems such as deserts, rainforests and coral reefs are all part of a biologically diverse Earth. Hence Biodiversity impacts everything. We will discuss how Biodiversity plays a crucial role on social, environmental, and economic factors. We will also discuss what

The global assessment of biodiversity and the anthropogenic impacts on them should be an urgent priority for conservation biologists. Though overhunting, introduced species, habitat destruction, trophic cascades and climate change (evil quintet) are known to be the potential anthropogenic threats that are likely to drive extinctions in the future (Diamond 1984, Brook et al. 2008), more frequently, conservation biologists have focused their attention on visible threats like habitat destruction, in comparison with invisible threats like overhunting (Galetti & Dirzo 2013). Traditional biodiversity assessments often ignore hunting pressure though they are aware of its presence, or classify into ways (e.g., heavy, moderate or low hunting) that are unsuitable for auditing by other researchers (Galetti & Dirzo 2013). For example, what might be classified as heavy hunting pressure by one biologist can be classified as low hunting pressure by another. Moreover, also within the hunting classifications of a biologist, what is the difference between heavy, moderate and low hunting pressure? The use of different standards makes auditing of hunting pressure difficult. Here we ask how to measure the intensity of hunting pressure. Knowing this answer will help us better understand the effects of hunting on biodiversity loss and set conservation priorities more efficiently.