Chicken or the Egg? The Ethics of Food and Eating
Reflection: Throughout this project, we explore many different ethics of food and eating through field trips, scientific experiments, and other texts. We had groups go to a farm of a larger cooperation, a group went to a local ranch, and another to the college to explore how they do the composting and talked to other companies. We got to really dive into our personal food ethic and the food ethics of others. We read a book called the "Omnivores Dilemma" which told us all about the origin of food and how it gets to where it is going. We also watched a movie to see what is happening and what people are doing to change that. We expanded our knowledge on food through reading literature, watching documentaries, personalized research and exploring the real world.
The interdisciplinary nature of this project made it so that I could explore this topic how I wanted to and go into depth where I wanted while being able to observe the general ideas. I was able to study what I really wanted to and see what I needed to come up with my personal food ethic. Studying food in both classes helped me to understand it more both scientifically and look at it ethically. I really enjoyed this because I love science and finding out how things work in nature and not so when I could see both of these things happening in our everyday food I was fascinated. This caused me to want to change how I was eating and pay more attention to what I was eating. It also sparked a new curiosity to see how cooking and science are so related and how I can bring more science into my cooking.
My main takeaways from studying food academically was that there is so much more to it than just eating. Food has an extremely important life that needs to be heard of. Food travels long distances comes from unhealthy places and can contain bad things however when you pay attention to what you are eating and where things are coming from you can eliminate those factors and support the organic organizations. I also found that it has a lot to do with the supply and demand so if there is high demand for cheap food then the quality of the supply goes down however when the quality goes up so do the prices making it harder for there to be a high demand. My thinking of food has changed in many ways because though I went into this project with an athlete's view on eating, I came out of it with more knowledge on the journey food goes through to get to our plate and how we can make that as short and efficient, as well as healthy as possible.
Philosophy Project
Your Life On Earth
This project caused me too look at life from many different perspectives and it helped to find out where I stand and where I am wanting to stand. As we explored the philosophy of some famous philosophers, writers, and directors, I learned more and more about my philosophy but I also found some new ideas that I wanted to incorporate into my life here on Earth. I was seeking to answer the question everyone has, "what is my purpose here" and I think that I found just a small portion of the huge answer that could be given. I found that life is what you make it. Whether that is stressful, careless, fun, adventurous, it is what you chose based on the decisions you make. For my personal project I decided to write a book. Yes that is as extreme as it sounds and no I did not have time to finish it. I am still working on it to this day however I will not be posting it because I do not feel that it is in the right spot to be shown to others. Nevertheless, I have this excerpt from it that addresses my personal philosophy through the eyes of my main character Artemis. I chose to write a book because I have such a strong connection with words. I absolutely love them. They can portray feelings, physical and mental, that you cant do with something like a picture. With this book, I have written about my experiences as well as problems and challenges I have not faced. I hope that I will find the time in my new philosophy to finish this book.
This project messed me up. It was an emotional train wreck for a fragile teenager such as myself. Life is something that everyone has a different meaning for however the definition will always remain the same. Life: the existence of an individual human being or animal. With each book we read, movie we watched, excerpt we analysed, I picked up a small portion of a philosophy that I wanted to incorporate with my life. I live my life in the future. Which can be both good and bad because I plan for the future and my goal is to give myself the best life later on. You may see this as good or normal but I see it as not being able to enjoy the present and always working to give yourself the best later on but you don't know when to stop. That is how I think. Ever decision will open new doors, good or bad and these decision make you who you are and I will always look at these and try to find the best possible outcome. The problem with this is that half the time I don't enjoy the present but the decision I made may help me out later. This is where the new philosophical ideas come in; I want to live life in the present, maybe not 100% because I still want a good future, but I want to enjoy what I have now. I hope to use Aristotle's philosophy of Eudaimonia, being able to balance the future, past, and present. I want to make decisions that let me enjoy the present and the life that I am living but also have the best future. Throughout this project, I have also dove further into what my religion means to me. I identify as a christian and believe in some of the things the bible has to say however I am a scientifically minded person and as we all know, science and religion generally tend to disprove one another. We read a book called "The Cat's Cradle" and through the book the idea of religion was portrayed in such an interesting way. When doing our seminar on it, someone said "Religion is a way to make people think that they are improving the quality of life without truly improving anything." I agree with this because I do that but I also think that religion gives peoples life meaning and there is truth to what is said in the books. I am hoping to find a spot in the middle of the two that gives my life true meaning.
I wonder now how different my life would be if I lived 100% in the present. I wonder if I would be happier or if I would lose the meaning of my life. I hope to one day answer how can I change the world through my philosophy of taking care of what we are given and giving back. I hope to live in the present and change the future at the same time. If life is all about what we make it then why are humans not working together to make it better? I am curious to see if humans will come together or stray further and further apart while worrying about what hasn't happened but not learning from what has. Questions:
Where do science and religion meet?
What does it look like to live in the future and the present?
How do you live in the present without worrying about the future?
Can you still change the future if you live in the present?
Why do people think they are the center of the universe?
Why are we treating out planet the way we are if it has give us to much and is the only one we have?
Does anyone ever find the meaning of life?
Rogerian Argument Project
Home Sweet Home
The project that I did was an art piece relating to my personal views of climate change as well as an Op-Ed that incorporated both sides of the political conversation then also what the middle ground was and what we could do to change it. Now that I have looked at both sides more deeply I have seen that not everyone on the other side thinks that the numbers are false. Everyone just wants the best for their country and their people. I found that the majority of the problem is that if we make extremely drastic changes, we will lose jobs and our economy will fail. My side has changed from, we need to do everything we can now, too, not necessarily starting slow, still making fairly large changes, but not making such huge changes that could affect the country and the world even more in the long run. I now understand that I value the planet and science much more than I thought I did. I knew that I have a very scientific and mathematical brain however through this project I realized it was much more significant than I thought. I also understand that the other side values the news and the information put out by the media very much in ways that I didn't think. The other side values it as something to fact check about and not values straight news but the information the other side finds on its own. I have learned that our current state of democracy is much more about the rating on the media than it is about taking care of the nation. Our world makes problems that are scientifically proved a political argument. Despite the scientific consensus that climate change is happening and is caused by human activity, there is now a political controversy surrounding the issue. My political views have not changed much through this project because all of the facts have been proven. Global warming/Climate change have also been proven so my stance on that has not changed. I do however see now that we need to look at the economy and the planet for everyone to come to a consensus and get things moving in the right direction. Rogerian rhetoric and “willingness to be disturbed” are seen everywhere in a democratic society. You see Rogerian rhetoric in all of the elections, whether it is for president or house of representatives, you will see Rogerian rhetoric in any election. We need to use the ideas presented throughout “willingness to be disturbed” for mature and reasonable, understanding and sensual arguments. If we take these ideas and apply them to our government, talking to people of a higher power, just talking to people, we will see a dramatic change in our world and the way the people interact with one another. If we use Rogerian rhetoric in our democracy, we will see s shift between people just arguing their sides but also seeing the other side and making more compromises, finding a common goal and actually being able to complete that goal while focusing on both sides of an argument.