Sustainable Farming

Sustainable farming is a type of farming that harms the environment as little as possible while producing the most crops as possible. The main element in sustainable farming is the focus being on the environment and how to be resourceful in that area. In a sustainable farm, there should be a goal to re-use whatever is possible and try decrease the amount of waste and trash leaving the farm. A farmer can use the manure from the farm animals to then fertilize and make rich soil.

 

I personally try to buy organically whenever possible. More specifically, I try to shop for locally grown organic fruit and vegetables. I feel that it is worth the extra money to help stay healthy. I do feel connected to the food system because I do search out local farmers markets and shop organically because I do want to know and care about where my food was growing before eating it. (Side note: JetBlue stadium has a farmers market on Mondays starting at 3!).

If there was a space on campus, I would love to grow my own fruits and vegetables. In Kentucky, we had a pretty big garden with various herbs and vegetables that were fresh and made the food taste great! It was awesome to go outside and just grab whatever we needed for the meal and know exactly where it came from. Down in Florida, my family has a really small garden with only a few herbs and a tomato plant. We don't have the luxury of just going out and getting whatever. But if FGCU had the land I would love to grow my own fruits and vegetables.

Landfills

I think one of the most pressing global issues today is landfills and lack of recycling. Landfills not only smell and take up a lot of room, they ruin the environment. Trash sits in the landfills for years upon years because the trash is not easily decomposable. When they do start decomposing, they let off a terrible gas, methane. With many different items decomposing together, the mixture of the gases the put off can be very toxic to the air we are breathing. Also the run off from the landfills fall right into our lakes and streams which then pollute that ecosystem and environment.


If Rockefeller Foundation gave me $100 billion to address the landfills, I would make sure every public place and home had a recycling bin. I would also put on a commercial or class teaching people the harmful affects of the landfills and the benefits of recycling. I would consider giving a "reward" for recycling. I would probably want to partition the money among many different issues. Landfills are a big issue in the environment. But some of the other problems need money to help improve the environment as a whole.

Corkscrew Tour

As I researched the next field trip for class, I was not really looking forward to driving over an hour away to view Corkscrew Sanctuary. But my mind was quickly changed as soon as my brother and I started walking on the boardwalk.  It was completely different than anything around where I live. Nature just seemed to be at peace there. Animals and plants are just allowed to go about living in their natural environment. Walking through the fireproof boardwalk, my little brother and I were able to explore a couple different ecosystems. Not only were were able to see many animal and plant ecosystems, we saw wet prairies, swamps, and freshwater marshes.

Conservation and stewardship refers to peoples ability and actions to keep our environment safe and clean.  This involves the process of managing the land and water that surrounds us so others can enjoy it when we are gone.  Private non-profit companies play a huge role in the conservation and stewardship endeavors. A great example of this is the Audubon Society. They saw the growing number of visitors coming to the Corkscrew Sanctuary and wanted to be more accommodating to the visitors. Through many trials, John Todd's Living Machine was finally selected to be used as the restroom design that proved to be environmentally friendly. The John Todd's Living Machine is also an example of how like minded people can affect change. Although it took the government a while to approve it, people had a vision of a better Sanctuary and wanted to provide environmentally friendly bathrooms. So by the like minded people pushing for what they believed in, they were able to finally get approved for the bathrooms.

There was a lot of motivation to preserve the land that the Sanctuary is on in Southwest Florida. Many people fought for the land to remain as it is today because they wanted to see nature and not ruin what little we have left. In my opinion, the government should not have as much power as they do over the environment. They should be responsible for the safety regulations and laws that go into building and construction. But I do not believe they should be able to halt projects for months on end because they are taking too long to figure things out. There should be a way for the projects to be passed through the government faster. Ecologically it would not be a smart move to just bulldoze and build condos. The environment is already hurting and getting destroyed. We need to save what we have left.