Monoculture

Imagine the All American meal, two fluffy buns on either side of a juicy beef patty topped with melted cheese and accompanied by crunchy lettuce, crisp pickles and sweet ketchup. The french fries on the side are the perfect golden brown. Sounds delicious right? As you pick up the burger your mouth waters in anticipation. You bite down and are shocked when the only thing you get is bun. “Where’s the beef?” This iconic slogan from Wendy’s portrayed a sweet old woman asking a simple question…

If there was only one term that could be utilized in summarizing The Great Convergence by Kishore Mahbubani, that term would be Globalization. Globalization is described as a multifaceted concept that represents the increasing integration of economics, communications, culture, and many other aspects of global life across national boundaries (Boyer, 11). Mahbubani’s main argument is for greater globalization towards the end goal of one world. His argument is encompassed and generalized in his…

Nazi Germany was Adolf Hitler 's unsuccessful attempt to emulate the Roman Empire. While he did successfully recreate many aspects of the Roman Empire (most of which led to his ultimate failure), Hitler failed to recreate aspects that could have created a successful regime. The Nazis’ (and Hitler’s) image of the Roman Empire was nearly entirely incorrect. As a result, their recreation was a weak, distorted version of what could have been a long lasting empire. Adolf Hitler’s ill-fated quest…

The land in Burundi is arid and not arable. “Land fragmentation, stagnant or declining yields, falling soil fertility, the absence of inputs and improved breeds of livestock, and low levels of technical knowledge have prevented farmers from boosting production and increasing their incomes.” (New Agriculturalist) A potential result of this land fragmentation and falling soil fertility would be that the land would become so arid that no crops would grow. However, the country is taking steps to…

responds and says to his friend, “What the hell is water?” The young return to the old fish proceed to ask numerous questions about water and fins and swimming. (Prothero, 153). Patel uses this story to emphasize the struggle of growing up in a ‘monoculture’ of which only knows one point of view is lacking in concern for any kind of outside point of view or experience. In the context of Sacred Ground, essentially, the less we know about our own religion, the less we know and care to know about…

It is ten o’clock in the morning when Michael Pollan takes the stage of Wheeler Auditorium at the University of California-Berkeley for his Global Sustainability class, where he scans the room to look into the eyes of 700 students, an impressive feat for any professor with an early lecture. The students are about what you would expect from a high-achieving university - eager and intelligent, all looking to make the food industry more sustainable. Upon Pollan’s invitation, Pam Ronald, a slight in…

Whether to Move? Thesis: God is all seeing and all knowing, when the community around a church changes we are not called to run away but find a way to share the message of Christ with them. If the church leaves are we sending a message the Jesus only cares for people in the suburbs? Jesus ministry while on earth was to the poor, sick and ostracize the ministry of the church should look the His ministry. How did Jesus reach His Community? In Matthew 4:23-25 And he went throughout all Galilee…

INTRODUCTION With over 50% of the global land surface being affected by land use or land cover change over the last few hundred years, mostly from the expansion of agriculture, there has been numerous climatic impacts (Foley, 2005). With such vast areas, specifically of the US Corn Belt, dedicated to agricultural production it is imperative that we as a society approach this endeavor cautiously. One approach to agriculture often cited as having the potential to produce the food, feed, and…

Depression, household gardens produced 40% of the total fresh produce in the United States (Naimarck, 1982). While the industrial food system has been able to produce cheap food, external environmental and human health costs are not taken into account. Monoculture crops, increased pests and chemicals inputs required for conventional food result in nutritionally deficient food products and unhealthy workers (Wilson, C., & Tisdell, C., 2001). In response, cities and communities are calling for…

In this essay, I will consider the topic of vegetarianism from the perspective of environmental concerns that are often associated with the production of meat. In the article, Vegetarianism and Planetary health (2000), Michael Allen Fox states that strict vegetarianism ought to be adopted in order to avoid the eco-destructive nature of the livestock industry. Although there may be some truth to Fox’s initial premise which claims that eating meat is harmful for the environment, I will argue that…