Topic 2: Feeding A Growing Population VS Conserving Biodiversity

This being written strictly based on opinion, I feel that relying on these high quality livestock breeds and crops and cloning them, or manipulating them into the ideal, definitely does reduce genetic diversity and the risks taken when doing so outweighs the benefits.

While cloning and manufactured seeds, creating the ideal crop may be convenient and reliable, it starts to become more of a marketing scheme by big industries. The amount of chemicals, pesticides and preservatives added into these genetically made seeds stay in these seeds are being consumed into out bodies. Nutrients and the basic natural essence of these crops will be replaced with the inclusion of chemicals from the process by which they are being created, or "manufactured", if you will.

Sustainable agriculture, however refers to the use of natural materials (i.e., non manufactured seeds, the avoidance of chemicals, and just natural farming/breeding). Sustainable agriculture is comprised of three things: environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity. Farmers whom practice sustainable agriculture keep in mind what is being put into our foods and what is being consumed in our foods.

Personally, the very idea that many of our foods are grown to be idealistic, and seen as the 'perfect' food comes at a very high price. Many of the public is unaware of just how much factories are manufacturing nature and acting as God by genetically editing their structures and shape.

After watching a previous documentary for another course, I discovered chickens were being created to be 2x their natural size in less amount of time to meet with the consumer demand and growing population. Soybeans, also featured in the documentary (titled: Food Inc.) were being manufactured, and patented from the original, natural soybean.

After gaining previous knowledge so the idea of "high productive livestock breeds", or in other words, manufactured, factory made fruits and vegetables, I feel that we are playing God. Taking natural things and turning them into something man made. By doing so, we are risking biodiversity by never letting such natural organisms to evolve with time and change. We are recreating the same plant over and over again, never letting it grow or evolve in the world and recopying whatever deviants or problems it may have.

As for being able to keep up with the rapid growth of global human population. In Canada we waste over 17.5 million kg of food. And that is just our country. The agricultural industry can definitely keep up with the rapid growth of the global human population, with or without the need for highly productive livestock and crops. We just have to make a point of not wasting it.

References:
http://books.google.ca/books?id=MB8c0jUo-c4C&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=risks+of+manufactured+crops&source=bl&ots=GsTPEQJXVV&sig=KvwFXFZIRV8Jp6XLf2UrtEQCma8&hl=en&ei=eZxaTY-lB8WAlAemj8WODQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CDAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/concept.htm

http://www.worldvision.ca/Education-and-Justice/advocacy-in-action/Pages/what-a-waste-the-food-we-throw-away.aspx

Comments on other bio blogs:
Jeleel Ragudo
Kendra Spencer Cole 

Topic 1: Positive impact humans have on biodiversity

Although humans seem to be the biggest threat towards the environment, it can be assured that the impacts we have are not all bad. It's a new decade, and considering human development we have come to understand the damage we have done to ecosystems and are now trying to fix it.

Organizations such as Green peace, WWF and innovations such as the wind turbine, hydro energy and electric energy are all human thoughts, ideas, passions and methods of backtracking from past environmental mistakes and working towards preserving ecosystems.

Focusing on the organization Green Peace; it is one of the most successful green organizations bent on preserving ecosystems and decreasing our human impact in the environment. Some of it's achievements include:

•  the zero waste policy in Buenos Aires. 
• preserving and saving the Great Bear Rainforest (protection from logging)
• Irish government banning all energy wasting incandescent lightbulbs
• London Dumping Convention bans the dumping at sea of radioactive waste world-wide
• US abandons nuclear testing in Alaska 
• Oil company Shell agrees to bring infamous offshore installation to land for recycling

Green peace has been working on preserving the environment since 1972, and since then have had many a victory. Still, it continues to work vigorously to protect the environment.

Another very successful and global known organization bent on protection of nature is the World Wildlife Foundation. With over 5 million members globally, this organization is one of the leading organizations with a mission to conserve nature. Their goal is to protect natural areas of wild life and the ecosystems that inhabit them.

WWF is also very well known for the protection and projects based on protecting the life of endangered animals. Over the years, human's have over-poached, hunted and sought after animals so much, that these animals (i.e., tiger, rhinoceros, elephants etc. etc) have become virtually extinct. WWF works towards preserving these species and banning human hunting of them, positively impacting biodiversity.

These organizations are run by millions of environmental activists all over the world, trying to make a positive impact towers the worlds ecosystems and preserving its biodiversity - proving that not all human interaction towards the environment is not all negative. 

References: 

http://www.worldwildlife.org/who/index.html

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/about/victories/

Comments on other bioblogs:
Claudia Luk 
Nicole Abulencia