Unit 4, the Final Unit; The School Year Ends

For the final Food for Thought action project, we talked about current farming techniques and what could be done in the future. We created a poster showing all four units. We had four groups and each group drew a road. Around it are drawings representing the unit each group of students were assigned. I think that the biggest challenge was making sure the roads of each drawing lined up when we put it together. We took inspiration from The Beehive Collective’s, ‘True Cost of Coal” because it shows a perspective of the true cost of coal. The poster shows us the beginning of agriculture and then it goes into a polluted world which ties into a future goal of clean energy. This relates to you our poster about food because our poster is showing what food went through and through out the poster we are showing what we hope food will look like in the future. The rewarding part of this project was seeing how the whole picture came out. I think the future of food is using lots GMOs because the industry will sell what tastes good and the GMOs will make certain food tastes good.

GS, VG, & DP.  "Unit 2 Illustration" 2014. GCE High School.

GS. “Food for Thought.” 2014. GCE High School. (Collaboration Project)

In this work of art, multiple themes and elements represent different things in our unit 2 picture, these events took place throughout the 1400s- 1700s. Unit 2 was all about death and how the industrial revolution and World War II changed our food system. As the road of time goes through hardships and death, it lowers to the bottom of the page because the slope is showing how that period of time was very hard for people. On the left hand side, there’s an animal kingdom representation of Feudalism; going by an order of importance with kings, followed by lords, knights, and peasants. The lion represents the lion, the cheetah represents the lord, the crocodile represents the knights, and the fly represent the peasants.

In the bottom corner, a map is shown, also indicating where the triangular trade took place. In the corner opposite of the map, “cash crops” are shown, each one being a stalk with the U.S. currency symbol ($) on it. Cash crops are any crop that is considered easily marketable, for example wheat or cotton. On the upper side of the road we have many other details that represent other elements from this unit. A large body of water covers about a quarter of the page (top right) and invading ships represent colonization. Also near the ocean are the spores of the disease that caused the Irish potato famine, with a pile of harvested potatoes off shore and the purple colored spores (not meant to be historically accurate) contaminating them and moving on to the ships

Further up the page is a small peninsula that harbors other trade items and crops, featuring cotton stalks and tea plants. Monoculture is the cultivation of a single crop in a given area. To show a monoculture, near the road and a small river from the ocean is the exact same kind of potato, row after row, after row.

Another structure near the river is a plantation causing mild pollution and minimum grass and plants near it. Another structure near the river is a plantation, causing mild pollution and minimum grass and plants near it. That’s all the drawing has to offer but the multi colored waves of the ocean can truly sweep those ships away. A plantation is a large farm or estate, especially in a tropical or semi- tropical country, on which cotton, tobacco, coffee, sugar cane, or the like is cultivated, usually by resident laborers.

You will see the the finishing product with everyones drawing put together as we demonstrated each unit. Unit 1 focusing on the beginning of agriculture and colonization and how different foods were found and domesticated. Unit 2 focusing on monoculture, death, and colonization. Unit 3 focusing on current food industry and the way that our food is made and treated. Finally, Unit 4 focuses on the future of food and how it has changed over all 3 units.

GMOs Anti vs. Pro

The end of the school year inches closer and closer, with only a few days left there is but one assignment to complete, the final Action Project for my Food class. It's about unit 3, it's about genetically modified organisms, and it's about whether or not they should be allowed in our environment. I must admit, at first, finding research for how GMOs are beneficial was hard, but I soon found a reliable website you may know. Sources will be mentioned in the slideshow. Under the circumstance of the scenario being a type of voting booth, with a debate to convince people to vote for one side or the other, it seemed like anti-GMO had the upper hand. Luckily enough, I was able to gather enough resources to say otherwise. Multiple, reliable, and proven facts are displayed in my slideshow below and I think what made me most proud was using the information, displaying the way I did. I'm not much of a bragger, but read for yourself and see if you're convinced.