The Ethics and Chemistry of Food and Cooking
Reflection and Description
This project was split between both chemistry and humanities, this way we could learn about the science behind the food we eat, learn where our food comes from, and come up with how we personally look at the industrial and organic food systems. For the humanities portion we learned a lot about where our food comes from, how it is grown/raised, processed, packaged, transported and everything in between. We read a book called "The Omnivore's Dilemma" written by Michael Pollen. He wrote this book to inform people about where their food made and told us of his adventures seeing all of these places first hand. He traveled to industrial farms and local, organic farms, saw the conditions of the plants and animals, interviewed the people working these farms, and tasted the differences between the food they put out. During this project we also watched numerous films about similar topics and to finish it off we wrote an essay about what out personal food ethic is; what we choose to eat and why, you will find this linked below.
Like I said above, this project was linked between both classes and although chemistry is not my favorite subject, it was still very interesting to learn about every aspect of food. The interdisciplinary aspect of this project did not affect my learning in a negative way at all, if anything it really opened my knowledge to all of the things I put in my body on a daily basis. I could use what I learned in chemistry and apply it to what we learned in humanities and vice versa. In chemistry we learned about how many calories are in specific food, how you figure out how many calories are in something and what calories are, then in humanities we figured out why some food has more calories than others and where food comes from when it has more or less calories.
The biggest thing that impacted me during this project is really just how we are treating the earth. It takes so much to make and deliver food and it is affecting the earth's climate in a huge way. We are feeding animals food that they are not meant to eat and their manure in not good for the soil which works against the plants. As for plants, we are spraying them with chemicals to make them grow faster and taste a specific way, but all of the chemicals are being leaked into rivers and the ocean. Not to mention travel, food is shipped crazy amounts of distances before it reaches the store, some food is shipped to multiple different countries and in this time, some food needs to stay frozen and all of this is using massive amounts of fossil fuels. Although my food habits haven't changed dramatically, I am definitely more aware of what I am eating
Like I said above, this project was linked between both classes and although chemistry is not my favorite subject, it was still very interesting to learn about every aspect of food. The interdisciplinary aspect of this project did not affect my learning in a negative way at all, if anything it really opened my knowledge to all of the things I put in my body on a daily basis. I could use what I learned in chemistry and apply it to what we learned in humanities and vice versa. In chemistry we learned about how many calories are in specific food, how you figure out how many calories are in something and what calories are, then in humanities we figured out why some food has more calories than others and where food comes from when it has more or less calories.
The biggest thing that impacted me during this project is really just how we are treating the earth. It takes so much to make and deliver food and it is affecting the earth's climate in a huge way. We are feeding animals food that they are not meant to eat and their manure in not good for the soil which works against the plants. As for plants, we are spraying them with chemicals to make them grow faster and taste a specific way, but all of the chemicals are being leaked into rivers and the ocean. Not to mention travel, food is shipped crazy amounts of distances before it reaches the store, some food is shipped to multiple different countries and in this time, some food needs to stay frozen and all of this is using massive amounts of fossil fuels. Although my food habits haven't changed dramatically, I am definitely more aware of what I am eating
Food Ethic Essay
Chemistry Reflection