Bready or not

Hello! Welcome to Food Unit 2 AP. In this unit, we discussed leavening agents, why 350 is the perfect temperature for cookies and for this Action project we baked our own bread. Why did we do this? To see the differences between bread recipes that used two different leaving agents Yeast ( Control) and Baking soda (experimental).



In the end, I was able to really see the differences in loaves of bread. Which is something I never really considered when buying or eating bread. Who knew so much science was in food!

The Monoculture Problem

Hello welcome to unit 2 of Food for thought, Death. In this AP I will be addressing the UN with what I think to be the number one thing endangering our global food system, monocultures.


Script
The global food system is the heart, soul and stomach of our society. Since it is the backbone of our world I think that it is very important that people are educated about it. According to Cornell “A food system includes all processes and infrastructure involved in feeding a population: growing, harvesting, processing, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, and disposal of food and food-related items.” Simply put, the global food system is the way that the world gets its food and in my opinion there is one major thing that is compromising it, monocultures. A monoculture is when a single crop is cultivated in one area leaving that crop more susceptible to diseases and can be easily destroyed by animals.

One historically devastating result of a monoculture is the irish potato famine. While the direct cause of the famine was a disease called late blight, the huge impact could have been lessened if the crops were diversified. Not enough people speak about monocultures simply because people aren't informed enough about the issue. According to greentumble.com reason that farmers might have a monoculture is that it is easier and more efficient. This simply doesn’t compare to the downfalls of monocultures. With a problem, there always comes a solution in this situation, I have three. The first and most obvious solution is biodiversity, biodiversity is when there is more than one crop being cultivated in a space.
The easiest way to make sure that plants thrive while in a diverse situation is with plant companions, plant companions help eachother grow and don’t compete for sunlight and water. Another solution is the rotation of crops, according to Home, Yard and Garden Pest this prevents some of the risks that come with monoculture. The SDGs are 17 Goals that the UN put in place to better our world. The obvious SDG that relates to monoculture solutions would be number 2 zero hunger. However, I think that another relevant goal would be sustainable cities and communities since community gardens and farm to table restaurants are becoming more and more popular as well as necessary. In conclusion, although education on monocultures seems tedious, it is very necessary to realise the very real consequences that could come from cultivating monocultures.

 Citations “Avoiding Monocultures.” What Is a Fruiting Body?, hyg.ipm.illinois.edu/pastpest/200718c.html. Nations, U. (2015). Sustainable Development Goals. UNDP.