The Need for Nourishment

   The Need for Nourishment

    Hunger is a growing issue that is causing distress to many families across the world. An astounding 50 million Americans are hungry, and 1 in 6 children are hungry. Hunger is a major misconception in America considering we are a considerably wealthy and stable country. However, a large amount of our population suffers from hunger every day. There are multiple organizations that are trying to fight this issue like UNICEF, who has helped to decrease the amount of children who are affected by hunger by nearly 100 million since 1990 http://www.unicefusa.org/mission/survival/nutrition?gclid=CjwKEAiA4rujBRDD7IG_wOPytXkSJACTMkgafjFTvRk-BF2jlbTDi0U3_e2lAfHPga8gwXjVpgDKdRoCY1vw_wcB. Another organization who is creating hunger awareness is Feeding America who provides food to over 46 million people in America through food pantries and meal programs https://secure.feedingamerica.org. It seems as though these organizations are strong, however, they are constantly looking for donations due to the increased amount of families who rely on them. According to USA Today, 1 in 7 American families rely on food pantries year round http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/17/hunger-study-food/14195585/. Also, the demand for food assistance has increase by 30 percent between 2008 and 2009 according to food banks across the nation. This puts a great amount of stress on these organizations to try and help families in need.

Blog writer Floyd Hammer claims that access to nutritional meals for children across the country is becoming a serious issue. According to his blog, 16.7 million children rely on meals at school through the National School Lunch Program. This program brings great relief to families who struggle to provide their children with nutritional meals. Hammer describes his experience of helping countries in East Africa to fight off hunger. In doing this, he describes, it made him realize how severe the hunger situation is here in the US http://www.huffingtonpost.com/floyd-hammer/attacking-the-hunger-epid_b_3685464.html. Hunger across the nation is highly overlooked because many do not think of America as a malnourished country. Yet, such a large number of our population is suffering from hunger. The hunger epidemic, however, is much more severe in third and fourth world countries. It has been calculated that 40,000 children die daily from malnutrition and starvation in these countries. Many of these children develop hunger related diseases that cause them to have a weakened immune system and eventually die. UNICEF not only helps US citizens but they also do great work in these countries who are greatly malnourished.

Hunger is an issue that affects millions of people around the world. It is highly over looked in America due to our economic standing and that assumptions that go along with it. Through the help that organizations like UNICEF and Feeding America provide this issue is slowly decreasing. The awareness for hunger has grown. Even when you type hunger into google, multiple websites come up asking for donations to help fight the issue. Through these resources spreading awareness, the issue of hunger can continue to become less of an issue. Many take advantage of a simple meal and do not think twice about where their meal is coming from. So, the next time you eat a nice healthy meal, remind yourself to be thankful for that meal and consider donating to these organizations to stop world hunger.

Air crisis of Beijing

After listening to one of my peers presentations in class on air pollution I started to realize the large effect that it is beginning to have on society. I soon learned that the large population of Beijing is at a large health threat due to extensive air pollution. Beijing is beginning to make efforts to fix this issue, “According to state media, authorities have shut factories within 125 miles (200km) of the city centre, and ordered all construction work to stop during the summit.” http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/04/beijing-smokescreen-hide-pollution-apec. Beijing is doing everything in their power to try and stop this issue. For example, they are creating guidelines that requires cars with even and odd numbers to rotate what days they drive. They are almost being forced to take action against this issue because in October air pollution in Beijing reached a record high. Beijing in particular is in a rush to try and fix this issue because APEC is being hosted there this year. Many world leaders from all around, like President Obama and Vladimir Putin, will be going to Beijing to attend APEC. “In advance of the summit, Beijing constructed a hotel, villas, a new international convention center, and a highway linking the convention center to the city. Many believe that china has major air pollution due to their decrease in tourism. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/chinas-vain-attempts-to-halt-air-pollution/382263/. Beijing is doing everything in there power essentially to hide this major issue from the world. Smog is another major issue that has striked Beijing, heavy smog struck the city during its annual marathon last month that forced runners to wear air masks. The health effects of air pollution and smog are becoming more and more severe. According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.2 million premature deaths occurred in China due to pollution. This is highly concerning for China and its population. Beijing is beginning to keep pollution data from factories that are under municipal supervision a secret in order to keep the severity of the situation from the public, said Ma Jun of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1631468/beijings-short-term-fixes-fail-address-real-causes-pollution. Many are becoming more concerned that if they are unaware of the harmfulness of the situation they will be unable to protect themselves and their families. It has been proven however, that when Beijing has held major events like the Olympics that the government makes more of an effort to fix the issue to try and prove to other nations that pollution and smog is not a major issue. 

An image of Beijing at one of its highest smog rates –http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2013/06/Beijing-Pollution-Tax-lead-1-537×402.jpg

This image is comparing clean air as opposed to the smog and pollution of Beijing-http://www.marketplace.org/sites/default/files/beijing-smog.jpg

Fishing Problems

Emily Hayes

Ag Comm

Fishing Problems

        Recently I have become interested in issues with marine life from assignments in my ag comm class. I never realized the severity of this issue until I had to conduct further research. The main issue I am interested with is overfishing considering it is a problem that we can avoid. Overfishing is when fishermen set up nets in areas that have yet to reproduce leading to a major decrease in marine life population. Overfishing has different categories including whaling. I was shocked to learn about all of these issues that we (humans) seemingly turn our heads away from.

        After doing research for my project, I learned that overfishing is an increasing problem that many organizations are beginning to try and put a stop to. For example, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) is an organization that has been making efforts to stop the whaling issue across the world. Many people are completely uneducated on an issue that is so important. The IWC is aiming towards not only stopping the issue but also educating people and creating awareness. The main focus is to educate fishermen, considering they’re the ones that are creating most of the problems. The following is a link to the IWCs web page, http://iwc.int/home with more information regarding their efforts.

       Selfishness plays a big role in overfishing. Fishermen are greedy for the amount of money that they make off of the produce that they capture. Considering fish is such a major export and food source around the world there is a high demand for the fish that these fishermen are catching. Countries like Senegal, in Western Africa, are aiming towards stopping fishermen from fishing in areas that are already depopulated. The actions that the Senegal government are taking is a perfect example of a stakeholder that is aiming towards progress and repopulating areas in desperation. The following is a link to the article that was written about the Senegal government and their actions against fishermen fishing in illegal areas, http://gga.org/stories/editions/aif-13-out-of-water/senegal-new-government-tries-to-combat-overfishing.

       The environmental Defense fund (EDF) is yet another organization aiming towards stopping this issue. Not only are they too aiming towards educating people regarding overfishing, but they are working with fishermen to ensure that they maintain their jobs while also giving the marine life enough time to reproduce. This is considerate of the EDF because fishermen rely on marine life for their income. They are making it work for both sides the fishermen and the marine life. The EDF created catch shares which breaks up the time between fishermen regarding where and when they can fish. For example, it tells one fishermen that they can go to an area during a certain time of the year for a certain amount of time. This ensures that a population of fish in an area will not be wiped out.

       Overall, overfishing is an issue that needs more attention. It would be a shame for us to become so oblivious to this issue that we wipe out our complete marine life. These particular organizations and governments are making efforts to educate and rebuild marine life populations. Considering the demand for produce around the world this issue, in my opinion, will never come to a complete halt. However, we can make an effort to decrease the severity of the issue.

The Following is a video summarizing overfishing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6nwZUkBeas

My developing opinion of GMO’s

Emily Hayes

Ag Comm 110

My Developing Opinion of GMO’s

       To start off, GMO means genetically modified food. In other words, it is food that is formed in a lab through DNA. GMO’s are a highly talked about subject. In my agricultural communications class we made a list of positive and negative aspects to agriculture, and GMO’s were placed in the neutral column which perfectly portrays the various viewpoints of this topic. There are many different opinions on this from both ends of the spectrum. One side can argue that GMO’s are unsafe. The Non GMO project, a non for profit organization, educates people about the negative side of GMO’s that they claim are kept a secret from the public. According to the Non-GMO project, “GMOs are a direct extension of chemical agriculture, and are developed and sold by the world’s biggest chemical companies.” The main concern people generate from this claim is not only do they not want chemically engineered food products, but also, they are concerned about the effect that GMOs can have on the environment once the chemicals are released into the environment. On the other side of the spectrum, those who support GMOs can argue that they increase food production and healthier crops. According to Globalization101.org, “Advocates of genetically modified (GM) foods also argue that, contrary to popular belief, GM foods cause less environmental damage than their unmodified counterparts.” So, as we can see these opinions juxtapose each other in the sense that they focus on the same idea involving the environment but two completely different views.

As far as my opinion is concerned, I generally lean towards supporting GMOs. I did my own research and took a look at both sides. To start off, I feel that it is a great way to increase food production to feed our growing population. Also, there are many sources that can support the nutritional facts of GMOs. By using GMOs we can ensure that we are providing enough vitamins and nutrients since scientists are essentially making the food. Although many are concerned about the environment, there is no evidence to support that these chemicals are harming the environment. Considering GMO is produced to be pest-resistant, it decreases the amount of toxic chemical pesticides that would normally be transmitted into the environment, according to Globalization101.org. Therefore, I believe that GMOs actually benefit the environment. Pesticides are proven to be terrible for the environment and through the use of genetically engineered food, we avoid having to use pesticides at all.

My research on this topic has just begun and I look forward to being able to learn more. I am open to knew ideas and who knows, my opinions could change. This is just my initial start up opinion. I find this topic to be extremely interesting considering I am interested in nutrition. Also I find it interesting how the two ends of the spectrums communicate and express their ideas. This topic is a great in-site as to how the world of communication works. Just by doing my initial research, I have learned through various articles and websites how one idea can have so many opinions that are being delivered to the general public. GMOs is a topic that is constantly brought up and I look forward to extending my knowledge on this topic.

Here is an informational video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riCQ8R3EG9U

 Works cited

http://www.globalization101.org/highly-beneficial-increased-yield-and-hardiness/

http://www.nongmoproject.org/learn-more/