Katie Holm

ESE 360

Homework 6

I must admit, while reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s article I had the same sentiments that Dr. Kanter said his wife had while starting to read the book The Sixth Extinction: “This isn’t going to get any better, is it?” I did find myself able to finish the article though, because I could not stop myself from reading it. As devastating as the facts presented in the article are, I kept reading because Kolbert was able to reveal the facts in an intriguing way. The style in which she wrote the article was very descriptive and felt like a compelling story the entire time I was reading it, a “page turner” if you will. Like I mentioned, she was very descriptive when relating her experiences to the reader. Seeing a butterfly’s wings “the color of the sky” and entering a “concert-hall-size” chamber in an abandoned mine. This is a particularly intriguing style of writing to me. I am very much a visual learner, so her article was easy for me to follow and I was able to focus on her main points then of educating her audience about the mass extinctions that are happening around us that we do not even realize. So even though the article’s content was depressing, the read of it was compelling. I might even read the book now.

Katie Holm

ESE 360

10/12/15

Paper 2

To Meat or Not to Meat: Trying to Answer the Question

I had the joy (horror?) of viewing the film Food, Inc. twice within the past three months. My inaugural viewing of the award-nominated film essentially changed my life. I know that sounds like an intense claim, but changing the way you eat is changing your life. “That’s it. No more. No more meat,” were the thoughts I had during and after seeing the film. How poorly the chickens and cows were raised and then also how this way of raising them led to disease among the animals, as well as then spreading to humans was horrifying (Food, Inc.). So, I have been a vegetarian since July 26, 2015 and I’m still going strong. For now. A lot of people might struggle with this issue of whether or not to become a vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, what have you. But it is definitely difficult to decide to just up and change your eating habits, a big part of your life, without fully knowing what you are getting yourself into. Which is basically what I did anyways. Only recently has it occurred to me that, like most things, articles, books, and films have a purpose. And Food Inc.’s purpose was to get us to change our eating habits! Well it worked for at least one person (guilty!). I am an animal lover and that was my main motive of going to the green side, so I let my emotions take control without completely understanding what I was doing. That got me thinking: Is it “right” or “wrong” to be an omnivore? Does being a vegetarian really have a positive impact on animals? Are there any real health benefits of being vegetarian?

When I told my friend Kate that I had decided to become a vegetarian we were out for food and drinks and the first words out of her mouth were, “Why?! I am legitimately angry that you are a vegetarian!” Now, she might have been angry because she had wanted to split the chicken lettuce wraps with me, but she was also annoyed that I had literally no logical reasoning behind my decision. Kate is getting her Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Illinois in spring of 2016, so she had a lot to tell me about animals and her thoughts on eating meat. Her first point was about nutrition. Of course we need protein in a balanced and nutritious diet, and animal meat is a great way to include these “…highly bioavailable amino acids and minerals from meat proteins.” She pointed out that, “ruminants like sheep, cattle, and goats that are typically farmed for meat are most able to efficiently utilize and convert fibrous plant material into useable energy.” Our human omnivorous stomachs simply cannot break down and store the energy from foliage, etc. the way that livestock can. She went on to matter-of-factly say, “As a future member of the veterinary profession, I can attest to the fact that there are countless professionals that work day in and day out with animals that go into out meat supply to ensure their health and welfare (Kate White).” It is also comforting to learn from Dawn Aubrey, the Associate Director of Housing for Dining Services at the U of I, that she herself takes time out of her day to visit “meat processing facilities” and make sure that the animals are raised and killed in a humane way before purchasing the meat to feed to students on campus. She mentioned that there have been some facilities that have been rejected to buy meat from, and I can only imagine that those looked like the ones pictured in Food Inc. All she could (legally) say of those rejected plants is it is “…haunting after you leave.”

Although Kate was right, I did not have any rational basis for my decision, and she did make good points, I wanted to find out if I had made an impactful decision. So then I had to do my research. According to the Health Promotion website for Brown University, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), “…vegetarians are at a lower risk for developing heart disease; colorectal, ovarian, and breast cancers; diabetes; obesity and; hypertension. This is because a healthy vegetarian diet is low in fat and high in fiber.” The emphasis here is on healthy. Cookies are vegetarian, but you should not live off of those alone. A healthy vegetarian chooses and eats a wide variety of foods, because there is always the chance of missing out on the vital nutrients contained in meat when you are not consuming it.

There are many reasons to be/become a vegetarian. For the health benefits listed above, religious beliefs, medial concerns, and in my case, ethical concerns about the animals and also about the environment. In an article from NPR that interviewed Alka Chanda of PETA, he says, “I don’t think so much about the numbers of animals who are spared as much as I think about the misery and suffering that I’m not contributing to as a result of my choices (npr.org).” This is what I initially thought as well, and it is a perfectly fine thought to have, whatever helps you sleep at night. But are animals actually being saved? I found multiple sources on the internet that say YES animals are being saved because our society as a whole, vegetarians and omnivores included, are choosing to consume less meat. The folks over at onegreenplanet.org have an article titled “A Vegetarian Saves More Than 404 Animals Each Year!” so I won’t go into detail on that article, I think you can get the gist of it. I mention though that only 34 of those 404 animals are land animals, the rest mostly fish and shellfish (onegreenplanet.org).

In conclusion, there is no real conclusion! The way I see it, it is up to you to make the choice to be a vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, or carnivore. There are positives and negatives in any life choice you will make, your choices in your diet being one of them.

Works Cited

Aubrey, Dawn. Personal Interview. 6 Oct. 2015.

“Being A Vegetarian.” Brown University Health Promotion. Brown University, n.d. Web. 7 Oct. 2015.

King, Barbra J. “Does Being Vegan Really Help Animals?” Cosmos and Culture: Commentary    on Science and Society. NPR, 12 Mar. 2015. Web. 6 Oct. 2015.

White, Kate. Personal Interview. 7 Oct. 2015.

Zacharias, Nil. “A Vegetarian Saves More Than 404 Animals Each Year.” One Green Planet.       One Green Planet, Feb. 7 2012. Web. 6 Oct. 2015

Katie Holm

Homework 5

A “major food moment” that I had in my life was quite recent actually. Over the summer I took a class that required us to watch Food, Inc. Watching that documentary gave me quite a different perspective on what I am consuming. After seeing the movie, I decided to adopt a vegetarian lifestyle (pescetarian sometimes). This was not such of a major change for me as I live alone and rarely would cook meat for myself. However, I loved getting chicken on my burritos at Mexican restaurants and having a nice filet mignon when my parents were paying. These days I am all about the veggie burgers, tofu, and beans, at least when it comes to protein sources. I’ve found myself having to look at ingredients in foods I purchase at the grocery store or even looking up restaurant ingredients more often. I was disheartened to learn that my favorite broccoli cheddar soup at Panera was made with chicken stock, so now I can’t have it anymore. It has made me feel better about my eating habits though, even though I may miss some things like my soup. I cook for myself almost daily now and know exactly what I am putting into and getting out of my meals (and it’s been cheaper!). I also feel good about this decision because I have heard that even one person becoming vegetarian can save a chicken or a cow; not right away, but in the distant future. I am a huge animal lover so that is a bonus to me. And we know that agricultural production, including raising animals, is super expensive, so my decision may cut down those costs eventually. Overall for myself, vegetarianism has not been a walk in the park, but I think I can get used to it.

Katie Holm

Homework 3

I have never been much of a writer. To be honest, I have grown to hate writing over the years. I think this is because I have mostly had the types of teachers/professors in my higher education who would give word and page minimums and who push all of the “rules” of writing onto students. I tend to be more of someone who like to say what is needed and nothing more. I do not want to fill out five pages of a paper with just fluff and adjectives because it needs to be a minimum of ten pages. This is not to say I never have liked writing. I remember in my sixth grade English class we did a unit on creative writing and I LOVED it. I wrote a fairytale type story. I recall I was frustrated though that I wanted to tell the whole story and have a complex storyline and characters, but writing it all down as it came to me was the tough part. I do enjoy writing about topics that I care about. For example, I could write a series of novels on my sweet, little baby (dog) Lucy. However, I probably could barely write 500 words on why cats are ok. I hope to become someone who enjoys writing, or at least does not dread doing so. Baby steps.

Katie Holm

Homework 2

Hey Erin, how’s it going? I know we both share a love for food and for sustainability, so I wanted to share with you something cool that the University is doing. Did you know that the U of I has its own Sustainable Student Farm right near campus? They do! The really neat thing is that they take student volunteers to help farm and grow these fresh fruits and vegetables on the almost 10,000 acres of land, so then these students can be educated on sustainable farming techniques themselves while also helping out the farm. The fruits and veggies grown here are also used in the dining halls around campus. The lucky students who eat in the residence dining halls get to enjoy fresh, local fruits and veggies almost year-round. The farm also holds a market of sorts on the quad once a week which I have been to and got some superb tomatoes. Maybe I’ll bring you next time you’re in town.

Best,

Katie

Katie Holm

ESE 360

Paper 1

Walking in a Prairie Wonderland

Illinois has long been known as “The Prairie State,” and with the University of Illinois being the second oldest public University in Illinois as well as located in Central Illinois, it should come as no surprise that prairie plants are often incorporated into the landscape of the Champaign-Urbana university campus.

One such example of prairie landscape on the University of Illinois campus is the Florida-Orchard Prairie located in Urbana in front of the Horticulture Field Laboratory. The prairie plot is roughly 2.7 acres of native tall-grass prairie species and assorted wildflowers commonly found in prairies. I, along with my class, had the privilege of touring this area, with Jamie Ellis as our guide. Ellis is a botanist at the Illinois Natural History Survey and the board president of Grand Prairie Friends. When I asked how many plants he knew, he said that he can identify anywhere between 4,000-5,000 different species of plants. That’s about 4,000-5,000 more than I can identify (at least before the tour with Jamie). Needless to say though, the tour was very informative.

Upon arriving to the prairie plot and stepping out of my car, I already started sweating. It was a hot and humid day yet again in C-U at around 88 degrees Fahrenheit. We started our tour first in the area surrounding the prairie grasses. This area was basically lawn. It was plain green grass with tall deciduous trees and a very distinct line could be seen all around the designated prairie area separating this lawn from the prairie plants. There were plants on the edge of the prairie that looked in pretty rough shape, and Jamie Ellis explained that this was probably due to chemicals the neighboring lawn blowing over and disturbing the grasses. The neighboring lawn, by the way, happens to belong to the University of Illinois’ President’s house. Anyways, since we were not yet in the prairie we were able to stand under the towering trees growing in the lawn and have some shade/relief from the heat. It was hard not to notice all of the insects and animals flying over and diving in and out of the prairie grasses. It was quite obvious that there were more in the prairie than where we were standing. It was also quite a sight to see the plethora of plants in just this 2.7 acres! There were ten-foot-tall golden rods, two-foot-tall New England Asters, and more. Purples, yellows, light blues, whites, and all shades of green were melded into this one prairie scene almost like a watercolor painting. Jamie Ellis told our group that there were around 45 different grasses and a large number of flowers all in this one area. That amount of plants can support a pretty large ecosystem.

Almost immediately after entering the prairie the temperature seemed to rise again. There was no airflow with all of the tall plants and no shade from trees to help. Wandering through the prairie on a narrow dirt path we could see even more types of plants and animals. Jamie was kind enough to answer all of my questions about almost everything I saw. I asked a lot about the different types of wildflowers, and he informed me that there are thousands of plants in the aster family, only a few types of which were growing in the Florida-Orchard Prairie. Some of those types included the New England Aster and the Black-Eyed Susan. There were goldfinches, monarch butterflies, bumblebees, and a multitude of other animals flittering and floating around us. Animals such as bison and elk are common in a prairie environment, but since this was such a small area when it comes to prairie environments and we were in the middle of neighborhoods and a university campus, we of course did not see any. There are usually rabbits and mice running around in the prairie we toured, but we most likely scared them off so were not able to see those either. We did see a red tail hawk soaring way above the grasses, possibly looking for the rabbits and mice we scared into hiding (sorry, hawk!).

Once again stepping off of the path of the prairie and onto the lawn again was somewhat shocking. There were no longer tall grasses surrounding me every which way or scores of bugs whizzing around (which I did not mind to be honest), just regular lawn grass under my feet and the large Horticulture Field Laboratory in front of us. The sun was still beating down on us though. There was a stark contrast between the feeling of being in the prairie and being on the outskirts of it. I felt like I had gone into a different area outside of Champaign-Urbana completely, and then had stepped right back into it after walking out of the Florida-Orchard Prairie. This difference was made even clearer after I had gotten back into my air-conditioned car and drove to the corner of Florida Avenue and Orchard Street. I saw the cars zooming by and the busses rumbling past the peaceful prairie I had visited minutes ago.

Work Cited

Ellis, Jamie. Personal Interview. 8 Sept. 2015.

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While reading these first two articles, knowing that I would need to choose one of the authors to have a drink with, I went back and forth quite a bit with my final decision. They both seem to have the same idea and logic, but in the end I concluded that I would have a drink with Michael Pollan. I like that he admitted that there was not a whole lot that an individual can do, but he also gave an idea of what to actually do about it. This is opposed to Derrick Jensen who seemed to just be telling the readers why what they might be doing isn’t helping. Jensen did have his moments though, my favorite being “Personal change doesn’t equal social change.” This makes sense, Derrick, but then how can we bring about social change? I would like to have a drink with Pollan so we could discuss our gardens our gardens/potential gardens. I love the idea of growing my own food, and it’s great that he can point out all of the benefits of doing so; not just for food, but also for exercise and entertainment to name a couple.