Media and Democracy/Where are we Going

I found this chapter to be pretty interesting as the media has a massive influence on society. I have for a while now placed myself in the propagandist view of American media and agree with the Chomsky and Herman's description of American propaganda in that "the US media [does] not function in the manner of the propaganda system of a totalitarian state" and that it has become a "system so powerful as to be internalized largely without awareness." Most people do not know that since 2011, 90% of the media in the US is owned by 6 companies while just 30 years ago, back in 1983, it was 50 companies controlling 90% of media. This rapid consolidation of business also consolidates points of views and stories that the media finds..."interesting" enough to broadcast.
I was fortunate enough in high school to have some teachers that were't exactly for the mainstream and helped open the eyes of seniors before they graduated whether they wanted to believe it or not. Thats the beauty of facts, whether you believe in it or not, its still true. They started me on my path to really question what we are told and to investigate things that interested me. I had never really watched mainstream media to begin with, but ever since the mist started to clear for me, I have taken media with a grain of salt and have come across alternative new sources and sources of news based outside of the US.
The questions posed at the end of the "propaganda" section have crossed my mind before but never to much thought so I liked that they were brought up, even if they were not discussed much. For some reason I always think back to chapter 4 in this book when it discusses King Leopold of Belgium and his "benevolent" organisation to help Africa. It reminds me of the whole Kony story that went viral really quickly earlier this year and how skeptical I was of it because of how fast it blew up. After doing some research I was fairly convinced the whole situation was purely to go in and extract newly discovered oil in the region.

The final chapter of the book I found to be very informative in going through the different political movements and their leaders. Its interesting to see the variation in structure and problems even within the movements where discrimination is brought forth on group members whether on purposefully or not. I find myself aligning with groups that aren't very hierarchical and definitely not secular - transparency is vital in any sort of organization.
It's nice to learn that single-issue groups rarely stay single issue and that echoes today in the Occupy Movement as causes are combining to form basically super groups with solidarity worldwide. People around the world are able to connect with each other in ways that were never possible before because of social networks and those on the ground reporting what is happening. I believe strongly in nonviolent resistance but it is sometimes difficult to see how that can change anything at times. This belief was validated, however,  in the chapter when it discussed how violent revolutions almost never succeed unless those resisting have the sympathy of the majority of those who are not resisting.
MLK said it greatly with his quote "[w]hat is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love."

Capitalism and Class....on OWS anniversay? Nice planning, ha!

Impeccable timing Brennan! Having the chapter on Capitalism and Class on the 1-year anniversary of OccupyWallStreet.

This chapter, as much is the book so far, is very revealing. I had no idea that the Spanish had settled in 1/3 of what we now call the United States or that labor unions excluded blacks until the 1930s. The overall trend in this chapter is something that has been introduced to me before but having it said so thoroughly and with another's perspective is rewarding. Something that really stuck out to me had to do with the labor laws. Kaufman explained that "[w]hen the Federal Wage and Hours law was passed as part of the New Deal legislation in 1938, it specifically excluded farm labor from its protection. Farm labor was instead regulated under the Farm Labor Standards Act, which was much weaker." This to me was pretty amazing that when so many workers were fighting to improve their lives, they would leave out fellow workers that also needed help. Ahhhh, the power of racism.

Last week in class we had a nice discussion on the incident that went on in your Ecopysch class and it lead to a nice discussion that went on for an hour or so. It later came time to discuss the projects and it was interesting that we had 4 projects that related to food and 1 that related to air/water. GMOs were also spoken of in all 4 food projects if I remember correctly. Over these past weeks I've had lots of information flowing my way and thanks to Jaynie's annotated bibliography I now have another book, "In Defense of Food."



Apologies again for not getting to a blog post until now. Chapter 1 and 2 to follow

Sust 450 Research topic proposal

For my project in this class I will be doing the research paper and I basically want to expose Monsanto for what it does. I want to start with the basics of genetically modified organisms - What is it? How do they do it? What are the consequences, if any? Etc. From here I will have to explain a bit about the food system and how it works in the United States with its conglomeration at the top and the effects the subsidies the United States pays to farmers have on the system – basically the corn economy. This will hopefully tie into an economic discussion where I can discuss how our conventional farming system is better or worse than if we had a sustainable farming system. I will also talk about social health in this paper and hopefully manage to tie that into economy as well since healthcare is a huge economic burden. Of course all of this is very political as well because Monsanto has infiltrated our government with the good-ol’ revolving door between big business and government and with all of their lobbyists too. I already have some sources in mind, such as the documentaries “Future of Food,” “Scientists Under Attack,” and possibly “Food, Inc.,” “Fresh,” “Fast Food Nation,” and “King Corn.” I plan on diving more thoroughly into the studies provided to me by the Kushi Institute and will be searching for others myself. I have seen a lot of information lately claiming the benefits of fruits, vegetables, and basic (instead of acidic) diets but those will need to be verified by tracking down the source or finding another avenue with the same information. I’ll hopefully come across a few books so I’m hoping the book Emily has will be of some use and I also think Fair Food will have relevance. 

Nearing the end

So last week in class everything was just clicking. We were talking a lot about environmental racism with Pat Buckley's presentation on the biomass plant which was really good because I had heard about it last semester (only because of the Alternative Energy Systems class) but never really researched it. It was sweet that Pat found his senior project idea and possibly a graduate pathway in From the Ground Up. John Dayberry showing up was pretty...coincidental. His talks matched up really well with what we were discussing in class last time and his insights and experience seemed bountiful. I got pretty interested in helping him over the summer for the opening of the beach which hopefully will accept the Washoe name given to it. This actually just reminded me that I have to tell Ty to let his dad know I'd like to help.

For my service learning project I will be working with Food Hub in Truckee where they have a geodesic dome and are attempting to grow some food up here and also bring farm fresh food up from the foothills for distribution to local restaurants and institutions. I'm hoping to get a feel for how the logistics of inventory and distribution for food take place and end my service learning with some sort of procedure that can be used to inform institutions about the benefits of obtaining food locally and farm fresh and also how to go about switching to a program like Food Hub. This will probably be a seperate page on the FoodHub website. I've already contacted Susie and she's really excited to be getting help. Jaynie is also volunteering there and has started.

            Susie is still working on getting it started and Jaynie tells me she is modeling it after a similar program in Berkeley, California. Getting in on it from the ground level will help in seeing how it all comes together and how to get it going. I’m not too sure what my volunteer hours will consist of but I’m sure actually farming/gardening will be part of it.

            I have found some books but I am not sure if they will be the ones I end up choosing specifically. These books are: Advanced Planning in Fresh Food Industries: Integrating Shelf Life into Production Planning (Contributions to Management Science) by Matthias Lütke Entrup, Retailing Logistics and Fresh Food Packaging: Managing Change in the Supply Chain by Kerstin Gustafsson, Gunilla Jonson, David Smith, and Leigh Sparks, Food Supply Chain Management: issues for the hospitality and retail sectors edited by Jane Eastham, Liz Sharples, and Stephen Ball, and also Food Supply Chain Management edited by Michael A. Bourlakis and Paul W. H. Weightman.

My sole contact for now is Susie Sutphin and I have her email and phone number which I won't be posting on here.

I talked to her yesterday on the phone about starting to volunteer near the end of summer and then continuing on throughout the semester. I am available Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings as well as a block of time in the afternoon on Tuesday and Thursday so I feel like the 60 hours will not be a problem.

We discussed how a pamphlet which was my original idea probably wouldn’t cover enough and I wasn’t set on a pamphlet, it was just an idea. We brainstormed possibly adding a section to the FoodHub website discussing the contributions Jaynie and I will be putting forward and hopefully getting the school on board with Foodhub. Susie seems really excited and knowledgeable which excited me as well.

This service learning project, and my essay for your class as well as my essay on urban/vertical farming in Katie Zanto's class were all inspired by a group my friend started on Facebook called |HealthNet| that I instantly became involved it. It's all about spreading information on healthy living and eating and emphasizes eating raw foods, local organic foods, and juicing. It is definitely still in the works with a youtube channel and a website coming along. We are thinking about turning it into a non-profit based on education. I really hope things keep going well and this can somehow build off of FoodHub and combine with my Senior Project next spring somehow.

Last Class/Service Learning

This last class was mostly taken over by talking about our research and how it's been going but this led to a good tangent where we discussed a lot about GMOs and eventually it made a full circle back to something from earlier in the semester in Katie Zanto's class when Jaynie brought up Stolen Harvest. I have been seeing connections a lot between my classes and life ever since I transferred up here and I really enjoy the feeling of connecting those dots and seeing connections where I previously didn't. I always enjoy the classroom because no matter what I at least learn one thing new every single session and I can't say that for all my classes. 

For my service learning, which I'll be doing next semester, Katie Zanto told me about Food Hubs in Truckee where they have a geodesic dome and are attempting to grow some food up here and also bring farm fresh food up from the foothills for distribution. I'm hoping to get a feel for how the logistics of inventory and distribution of food take place and end my service learning with some sort of procedure in the form of a pamphlet or something that can be used to inform institutions about the benefits of obtaining food locally and farm fresh and also how to go about switching to a program like Food Hubs. I've already contacted Susie and she's really excited to be getting help. Jaynie is also volunteering there and has started and Kaila is thinking about it as well.

Economic Justice

So at the end of class last week, after having discussed economic justice and watched videos and talked about current events, we were asked to write down what economic justice meant to us, but I didn't really know still so I just went with the definition that was given. I now feel that economic justice can be defined as equitable payment of any type for equal input.

We started last class watching a clip of "From First to Worst" which was interesting and got me wanting to see the entire documentary which I plan to (I have it on my list) and it was pretty astonishing how greedy the more affluent districts were, that they would just got back to match the less fortunate schools instead of distributing the surplus equally. This led to bringing up how some California Universities, but CSUs and UCs, now cost more than schools such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Williams College. It's shocking to see PRIVATE schools costing less than California PUBLIC schools. This was the major thing that stuck with me from that class, even more so than our discussions of Adam Smith and his irrespective tone when speaking of the "savages" and how we don't have true capitalism, more of a crony-capitalism.

Oh ya, as of...2011 I believe it was, California spends $50,000 per inmate and $8,667 per student annually.

Education and Economy

Yesterday in class we discussed economic justice and ended up talking a lot about education and how you need to be educated to accomplish significant mobility in life. This article reminded me of that discussion as Congress is misleading the people and not giving them the proper knowledge.

Bernanke tells Congress they're too optimistic

I'll do a more complete post later

Oh ya, this is a picture I came across recently that is pretty eye opening.