Hi everyone. I think we only have 3 more weeks of this class! Isn’t that amazing. I keep wondering where the time went but it will be over soon enough and we will be all off on our merry way to another semester!
The readings this week seemed to be a repetition of the ideas discussed in the texts the last couple weeks. From Recovering the Sacred within part 3 I found the most interesting section to be the part on wild rice, not only did I find it fascinating I can walk away from the reading knowing that wild rice is the state grain of Minnesota, which I am sure that knowledge will surface sometime in the future and impress someone! J It seems though that wild rice is not the only food that has been imposed upon by colonialzation, as well as globalization and the ever-growing capitalist society (who’s only concern is the profit that will be gained.). The very same thing in this present day is happening on rural farms throughout the Midwest with the corn and soybean crops, only the government and private corporations are not using the crops for food products, but now they have shifted to making fuel out of the crops. I am not sure how many of you are aware of this situation, but me being an Illinois farm girl at heart, I will let my inner farmgirl shine and illustrate this to the best of my knowledge. The main ingredient in ethanol is corn. With a nation that has become so hell bent on “going green”, which I cannot argue is a bad thing, the alternative fuel to gasoline and other oil products is corn based ethanol. The private corporations are now making their way across the Midwest offering farmers a very high price for their corn crops, and giving the irresistablity factor of such a high profit, many farmers are agreeing. This though leads to a lesser amount of corn being produced for food products, and that shortage raises the price of corn that food manufacturers have to pay and that makes the price of the final food product higher. We as consumers pay a higher price for our items. But there is one other factor in this capitalist sweep of our Nations farmlands and that is the animals themselves that live on the farms. The rising price of corn also leads to higher costs of feeding and maintaining healthy livestock. Farmers are forced to find alternative foods, but more or less are choosing to breed less. Since the farmer cannot afford to feed larger herds anymore ( I am going to use cows as an example, but any animal that is bred for human consumption can also be inserted in this argument) the meat price of that herd is there for increased. This also is tied directly to the price of milk, eggs, butter and other dairy products being increased so dramatically lately. Milk producing cows need an abundance of nutritious feed to maintain ample milk production and since it is costing so much to keep that cow healthy and producing quality milk in large amounts, the price of milk has to increase. It has come to the point now that we have the option of spending 4 dollars on either a gallon of milk or a gallon of gas. But opting out and using an ethanol powered car, still leaves you paying 4 dollars for a gallon of milk, and in the long run perhaps your ethanol car that you are so proudly driving is the reason that you just spent 4 dollars on a gallon of milk.
This might have been an out of nowhere example but I see a lot of what has happened to the wild rice crop in Minnesota still happening today it is just not a lot of people actually stop to think about exactly what has gone on to allow you to consume the things that we are consuming.
One more point from the wild rice chapter (yes, I liked this chapter) was the mention of “terminator” seeds, which are genetically engineered to not produce further crop after there has been one growth from that seed. That is a brilliant marketing strategy and a good way to make sure that one stays in business. The corporations in this reading WERE the “terminator” seeds because they are the ones who went in and changed an area’s natural resources forever. I am not sure you could even call it a natural resource anymore since its continuation depends on the hands of humans. That natural part just falls away.
To relate this to my comparison with today’s economy and the degree in which ethanol is so glamourized yet killing the corn crop, is an aspect that I am sure scientists are working on, but I have yet to hear anything. If ethanol takes off they may encounter one slight problem with maintaining an ample corn supply. There is a reason that Midwest farms produce corn AND soybeans, not just for food or now fuel production, but because corn does something drastic to the soil. When corn grows it requires a whole lot of nutrients and those nutrients are in the soil, but they aren’t just magically there, they are put there by the soybeans. This is why farmers one summer will have a field of corn and then the next summer will have a field of soybeans, they have to rotate them or else the soil is pretty worthless. So given this relationship between soybeans and corn, how is the government going to make sure that the soil is nutrient rich for the growing of such large demanded amounts of corn?! I am sure they are genetically modifying the soils as we speak, but do you think they ever stop to think “hey guys, we are genetically engineering dirt, are times really this bad and have we really depleted our natural resources this much that dirt is something to be altered?!”
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Hey Liz, I loved your blog this week. My dad was working for an insecticide and pesticide company for almost 30 years, my brother got his degree in viticulture (wine making), and so I have had many conversations with them about growing the corn. My dad of course thinks it’s a good idea to genetically engineer plants, and my brother agreed to an extent. I always wondered how there would ever be enough supply to keep up with the demand, and the fact is there isn’t. We are depleting the crop so rapidly that is next to impossible to maintain what we have started. I agree that going green is an awesome idea, but I really don’t think it was well planned out. When scientists were coming up with this, they should have thought about the fact that we are living in a consumer-driven society, which demands the latest and greatest. With so many people wanting to go green, being that it is a status symbol of wealth, there already should have been enough crops planted and going. I didn’t know that they had to genetically engineer the soil as well. I loved your quote, “I am sure they are genetically modifying the soils as we speak, but do you think they ever stop to think ‘hey guys, we are genetically engineering dirt, are times really this bad and have we really depleted our natural resources this much that dirt is something to be altered?!”
After reading a bit of the New Creation Story, I think that this may in fact be part of the evolution of the world. Thomas Berry talked about the intimacy that science has with the earth, and instead of it being sacred, I believe that it is more destructive. By intimacy, I believe he means some sort of compassion or relationship, but what we are currently doing is not intimate, but rather demanding and selfish. For those that believe that the earth is a being, than we are not treating the earth with any sort of respect. When we treat the one being that allows us life like this, it is no wonder that we treat one another so poorly. Everything on and within the earth is evolving to something far different than many of the people on the creation story website had imagined or are hoping for.
Liz, I believe that you are on to something when you question what is happening, and who knows…maybe it’s your spiritual side coming out. What they did with the wild rice was wrong, and that would be cool if you were able to use your fact in conversation. I’ll make Jay ask you about it! Because I work at Trader Joe’s, I see prices going up constantly. The use of the corn affects everything, and with the economy being in a recession, it is going to screw more and more people over. If you wanted to buy organic milk, it is now seven or eight dollars for a gallon. Some people can survive because of their incomes, but the poor people are going to increasingly get poorer. Also, people from these lower incomes are not going to have any access to the “healthy” items, such as organic products, so on top of having no money, they will also have failing health. This evolution is not what “god” wanted. If there is or was or ever will be a “god” and he helped people come to this world, I really don’t believe that this life we are living is what he intended.
Wow, the semester has gone by fast. I see a lot of repetition as well, but in the last two parts I saw more of an emphasis on what they are doing to recover their sacred. It seemed like these parts were less depressing for me to read. I never thought that wild rice was not actually wild. What I actually don’t agree with is all the outsourcing that is happening today. Yes right now we are using crops for fuel, but we are also outsourcing to other countries because of our capitalistic society is so damn greedy. We love seeing those low prices. Wow, you really shared a lot of info about ethanol. I always wondered exactly where that was extracted from. I just assumed it was another resource from the ground. I guess technically it is because corn comes from the ground but still.
I remember back in Middle school we had to watch a film on meat and the film had a nice image of resources per one cow. Basically, saying that we put more into the cow than we get from the cow. But then I really didn’t think of the link from cow to milk butter and other dairy and how what we put into the cow directly comes back to us. Wow I really did not see the link between the ethanol car and milk. I always thought alternative fuels were a good thing and I guess in a way they are but they are definitely changing our way of life in ways I didn’t quite see. This just further proves the idea that we are as connected to our surroundings as our surroundings are connected to us. This reminds me of the six degrees of separation except with resources. Hopefully, right now is a rough patch and things will change.
Wow you have totally enlightened me. I think we need to have more movements on educating people about what is going on. I think that a lot of people are good people and want to help the environment and their fellow man, but a lot of people are oblivious about what is really going on in the world. But then would educating really make a difference? I am embarrassed to say that I don’t know if it would make much of a difference for me. Unless they come up with a better solution I still would be utilizing the products that they produce because that is what makes me comfortable. Would people care and make a change? How do we provoke change? Educating people is one thing but some people don’t want to be educated. I guess we will have to wait and see and try to aide in the efforts to bring nutrients back into the land.
I was just thinking about this, but you bring up this idea that corn not being a natural resource anymore and that is a good point. Anything that depends on humanity in order to continue is not natural. But then again, one can argue that humans are natural, they are a part of the earth. Even if we are disconnected, we are still a part of the “never ending circle of life”. What if we will be the end of the circle of life? Or maybe the circle of life as we know it?
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