BEES?!

One of the main things that bothered me in this video Vanishing of the Bees was how some people breed more bees in the Queen. That really stuck with me, and how against it I felt as I watched the process. I understand why they’d want to forcefully impregnate the Queen Bee: if the population of bees is rapidly decreasing, then it makes sense to try and produce more bees to fill in that number count. Just the idea of pulling a queen bee’s genitals wide open and eye dropping bee semen into that opening sounds and looks and seems barbaric. The process of replacing a dying queen bee with a new one, while dangerous to the new queen, I feel is by far more civilized and kinder. And if the new queen is protected from the hive long enough for her scent to spread than everything continues on. But to forcefully inject seed into a queen does not sit well with me at all.

But it is quite upsetting to hear that more and more bees are disappearing every year. Where do they go? Do they die, or do they simply leave and migrate somewhere else? And if they’re just leaving and switching locations, what makes them leave in the first place. Though these questions have been sought after since this phenomenon started to occur, it has obviously been increasingly difficult to keep up with the bee population, try and fix the bee population, and figure out the whys and hows of the bee population decrease all at the same time. Especially when bees are such an important part of the circle of life, and in the fertilization of plants all around the world.

The disappearance of bees altogether would be hypothetically disastrous. Because if there were no bees, there’d be less fertilization of varying plants, which would lead to both a lack of plants and thus a lack of oxygen to counter balance the onslaught of carbon dioxide in air as well as a lack of sufficient food for herbivores to eat. If the herbivores can’t eat, then it could lead to the decrease of several other populations. This chain of events could keep going, but it all starts from the hypothetical absence of bees and their natural functions in the ecosystem.

http://www.prwatch.org/files/images/honeybee.jpg

-Kathryn Fell

The Happening. Bee Style

CCD. Colony Collapse Disorder. It sounds pretty serious, and it is, according to scientist I don’t doubt it at all, logically it makes sense. Bees fly around collecting pollen, Pollinating our plants which then provides our crops, which we then can harvest and eat. So on and so forth. Pretty much, they’re pretty vital to the whole operation. So it’s pretty easy to imagine that without them we would be screwed. Especially after seeing the documentary, their significance is huge.  But now since their slow disappearance it almost seems like its something out of an M. Night Shamalayan film. In fact, this seems pretty close to The Happening, random disaster, unforeseeable force, end of mankind.  Maybe the plants are killing the bees to slowly kill off humans because were not green enough. All makes sense.

But really, it definitely seems strange that the bees are just disappearing.  And the sheer fact that they will leave without a trace randomly makes it even stranger. I read how there are multiple ideas on why they’re disappearing. Parasites that attach themselves to the bees, Malnutrition, Pesticides, genetically modified crops, etc… But what doesn’t make sense is that these bees are constantly migrating having new opportunities to grow and establish, as well as being homebound where there aren’t any new factors to disrupt their life. So why would they just up and vanish.  But I really don’t feel threatened by this; I know it will solve itself out. Natural Selection will occur, bees will adapt, we’ll find out what the cause is. Whatever it may be we will fix the solution, and that makes me feel secure and satisfied. That’s actually a beautiful thing, that most often we will fix whatever the solution is that plaguing us. We always come out on top in the end.

Citation: http://sittingindarkness.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/giant-bee.jpg

-Garrett O’Neal

Disappearing Bees

Last week, Ellen Page told us all about what might be causing Colony Collapse Disorder.

bee expert, actress...what can't she do?

Most evidence suggests pesticides, but no one is sure, and no one has found a way to reverse or prevent it.  Hypothesizing possible causes aside, bees are disappearing at a rapidly increasing rate, and we as a society have to accept the possibility of a world without bees and what that means.

What we eat, what we wear, our current way of life depends on pollination.  Bees pollinate 80% of the fruits and vegetables we enjoy; that adds up to about one-third of the human diet.  Watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers, pumpkins, lemon, lines, carrots, strawberries, mangos, cherries, plums, pomegranates, raspberries, blueberries, cranberries, apples.

Apples! I don’t know about you guys, but I love apples.  I love eating them, I love making pies with them, I love going to apple orchards in the fall and sampling all of the different types.  Say whatever you want about me, but I’m going to be really sad if apples become a high-priced commodity.

seriously. so great.

True, a lot of the fruits/vegetables mentioned above also have other non-bee pollinators.  But it’s impossible to deny the importance of bees to success of those crops.  Our diets are going to lose a lot of variety.

Of course that’s not all.  Have I mentioned bees also pollinate cotton?  Clothing prices would undoubtedly rise in the absence of a strong, breathable, natural fibre.  And what about honey or beeswax?  Bees have become so important to our current way of life.

"this sweater cost me my first born son!"

I’ll be straight with you.  Obviously, a world without bees isn’t going to cause societal collapse or end life as we know it on Earth.  But we can’t deny the issues, and we can’t turn a blind eye to the beekeepers whose sources of income and ways of life have been completely dismantled.

Also, I like bees.  They’re fuzzy and cute and (knock-on-wood) haven’t stung me yet; therefore, I see no reason to let them disappear.

Bees: they're cute.

So if you’ve got some genetically-altered disease-resistant super bees hiding in your basement or whatever, now is the time to bring them out.  Beekeepers will practically throw money at you.  The world will.

Long Live the Bees.

Katie Braun

sources yo:

http://vi.sualize.us/view/aa5cf5acf5dab3822f0e2fc661239521/

http://kentcrockett.blogspot.com/2011/12/parable-of-apple-orchard.html

http://www.earthhopenetwork.net/shop_clothing.htm

Small Things, Big Power

Watching the Vanishing of the Bees and realizing how important bees really are seriously amazed me. However learning about the the colony collapse syndrome also made me really upset and sad for the bees.

As a child, I’ve always liked bees because I’ve always liked honey. Now that I think about  it, I’ve had a lot of honey in my life so far. Whenever I’m sick, my mom would make me warm milk with honey and it’s the one thing that always makes me feel better. Also, I’d put honey instead of jam or jelly or butter on my toast.During the summer I would make honey lemonade with my grandmother. Instead of putting sugar in the lemonade we would put honey. With that honey lemonade, we would freeze some of it so we’d have popsicles and with the rest we would make a Taiwanese dessert by putting ai-yu jelly in it. So basically, I year round, I would have honey in one way or the other.

Ai-yu jelly with honey lemonade.

So with all the sweet and happy memories I’ve had as a child being connect with honey. It makes me really sad that the amount of honey in the world is dramatically decreasing and that people are turning to artificial honey that are filled with corn syrup and fructose. The big reason behind all this is because the bees are dying. But what makes me even sadder is the fact that the reason the bees are dying is because of us, humans. The bees do so much for us by pollenating our plants and making honey for us. All we do to repay them is strip their honey away, feed them empty sugar that are in no way healthy for them and poison them with pesticides. Although human are advancing with technology  and learning all sorts of new things, the sad thing is that we are not using the new knowledge we have acquired to make the world a better place.

-Tiffany Chou

It’s Not Just the Cove

After watching The Cove, I would have to say that it is definitely not for the feint-heated or for animal lovers,  dolphin lovers in particular. The brutal and endless slaughtering of the animals that many people of my generation had learned to love through pop-cultures such as Flippers and Free Willy has for sure left a deep imprint on me.

But with that said, this isn’t the first time that I’ve heard about the mass killing of a certain specie that occur purely to satisfy the taste-buds of the human race. Having spend the majority of my life in Taiwan, there are many peculiar and particular tastes for things such as swift nests and shark fins. While taking bird nests that have long been abandoned and then further processing it to sell it to eager consumers can be considered as a sort of recycling. Harvesting for the fins of sharks are a different matter. While the dolphins in The Cove are speared and kill almost instantly due to the fact that it goes right through their necks, the sharks that are being hunted has their fins ripped out by knives and are later discarded back into the ocean to die a slow painful death. For sharks needed their fins in order to constantly swim and allow the water to pass through their gills to obtain oxygen. Without their fins, they can’t swim, and when they can’t swim, they can’t breath. Thus, thousand of sharks are left to die at the bottom of the ocean floor because while their fins are in high demand and are considered a great delicacy, the rest of their body are not.

I'm ashamed to say this, but it tastes famazing.

I’m sure this unfortunate and heartbreaking phenomenon is happening to many different animals that do not have the voice to speak up for themselves. Whether it be the whaling, shark fining or the bile bears, there is going to be inevitably someone rich and powerful in this world that enjoys the tastes of those poor creatures and are willing to go to lengths to get it. I myself am guilt of being a consumer of shark fin soup. I have had the chance to have it a few times in Taiwan and sadly, it tasted amazing. But ever since I learned about  the consequences that happens to those helpless creatures in middle school science, I can only do so much as boycott against my parents from consuming anymore of it and make them feel bad about the dead animals. Hopefully, with the knowledge of the horrific truth being spread through films such as The Cove, the consumption will one day lessen and stop.

– Tiffany Chou

A look inside my fridge

Usually I have two different diets. I have a completely strict diet when I’m back home in Pennsylvania and then when I’m in college I just eat whatever I can get my hands on. So typically I eat fruits and veggies. Typically I’m always with my best friend and since he’s a Vegan I typically eat to what his diet is. It comes down to nuts, fruits, veggies, tofu, soy, etc. So I guess I eat pretty healthy and I do feel completely different. It’s not my favorite but drinking Kale juices with carrots or any other green is so good for you. My fridge always have veggies and fruits. Usually either soy milk or almond milk, yogurt, a variety of juices and the basic condiments. We never eat anything besides chicken or turkey. My entire family doesn’t enjoy red mean being a steady ingredient in our diet. Even though I’m with my friend most of the day I still have a variety at my house considering my family doesn’t enjoy all the vegan meals I eat with my friend. I mentioned in class that I try to eat in season things like my friend. I wouldn’t know as much as I do about food if it wasn’t for him. I live in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania and we have multiple farmers markets around our area. Some of them travel so technically what they’re selling isn’t local but then we have the local butcher, dairies, and farms. While you eat local food, feel better about what you’re eating, you grow a relationship with your farmer. They can tell you exactly what has been on their farm and what they’ve used on their lot. Which is safe to know. I love to buy local just for the pure enjoyment of seeing the people I’ve known since my childhood. It’s an enjoyable trip for us. Some people would find it crazy because they’ve never lived in a place where you know everyone in your town and you’ve went to school and church with them since you were seven. I find it to be normal and completely crazy that while I live in Sarasota I have no idea who anyone is and I’m still finding roads I didn’t know about. 

Starr

Diversity in Lettuce

Lettuce was a weed; cultivated and matured by Egyptians into a tamed plant that the Romans took and gave it it’s proper name. It’s been around for centuries and provides significant amounts of vitamin A and Potassium and minor amounts several other vitamins (calcium, fiber, vitamin C, and copper). There are seven cultivars of lettuce, and each cultivar and several subspecies of lettuce, making hundreds of types of lettuce. The seven main types are, Leaf, Romaine, Crisphead, Butterhead, Summercrisp, Stem, and Oilseed.

Now here is my question to you… How come the only lettuce we eat is Romaine or Baby Spinach?

In the “Impact Man” movie we watched in class last week, they talked about the benefits of variety in our food, and how by simply switching what types of lettuce we eat, we can improve our health greatly by filling in the vitamins we miss by only eating our favorite vegetable. So why is it we only eat two or three lettuces?

I really do not have the answer to this question, but I am curious why other lettuces, or alternatives like Bok Choy aren’t being promoted in the United States. I mean…  with the craze in health awareness you would assume someone would tackle this angle, correct?

I know I would just appreciate it if someone offered me something else besides Iceberg every once in awhile, even if it’s on a burger. Who knows, maybe Crisphead lettuce is better on a Swiss and Mushroom Cheese Burger then Iceberg lettuce or something.

Are Americans to scared to try out new foods? Is it the entrepreneurs? Or is it just the chef’s experience that he know that Crisphead tastes like crap with red meat. Maybe we can’t even get it shipped in because it’s from another country?

What are some suggestions on mixing up our regular vegetables?

By Kevin Herron

My Diet

Like most college students, I do not really look after my diet as I should. My dinner consists of ramen and eggs more often than it should and my breakfast is usually a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Occasionally, I’ll actually cook a legitimate meal with real meat and nutrients with my girlfriend, but that generally does not happen more than once or twice a week. It all comes down to convenience, and taking the time to buy specific ingredients. Preparing them and cooking them take more time than I think I can set aside for cooking in my average day. It’s unfortunate, but I do try to be healthy when I can. I buy fruits and vegetables regularly and I avoid sugary junk food.

When I was back home, my parents and I would just buy a lot of chicken and potatoes at once, cook all of it and refrigerate it. This way, we have several meals for the entire week that we just microwave every day. We rarely cooked a meal just for that specific meal. In fact, I thought that was how everyone did it until I came to Ringling and lived with others. At first, it was strange to me that someone would actually spend an hour or more everyday making dinner instead of simply spending a few hours on Sunday making a lot of food and then eating that over the week.

It is a little funny that I never ate ramen before junior year. Now that I’ve tried it, I scarcely eat anything else. Before ramen, it was spaghetti and meatballs every night, which took too long to make. I spent about fifteen minutes making it every day—fifteen minutes as opposed to the three minutes it takes to make ramen. This is how work affects my diet. I would rather eat ramen every day so that I can get back to work sooner. It’s a little scary and sad at the same time.

Max Golosiy

Food

Miranda Thomas

This year I received a cookbook for Christmas. I was so excited to start preparing real food, and to stop relying on ramen or other packaged foods. The summer before, my little sister and I got on a bit of a health craze, and I spent those three months exercising and eating fresh and healthy meals almost every day. My diet was looking good.

And then I came back to school.

Something about spending all day and night doing homework, attending lectures and critiques, and scrambling to meet deadlines makes even the minimal effort of preparing dinner seem unachievable. It’s just so much easier and faster to whip out another package of ramen for dinner. While I at least have an apartment this year and am able to prepare my own dinners, I’m not eating that much healthier than I did in the school cafeteria.

That said, my roommates and I all share an enthusiasm for learning to cook and eating more diverse meals, and we manage to scrape together some nice meals every so often. I am so lucky for that, and I have tried many different foods and meals that I would never have gotten to try at home (despite being healthier, my family at home does like to stick to a pretty rigid routine when it comes to dinners). And, I am cheap enough to protect myself from eating out or buying fast food very often. Still, my cookbook has been ignored most of the semester and I’ve cleared through my ramen. I’m eager to spend the summer recovering, hopefully as successfully as last summer. And, I am eager to have this discussion in class, and see what kind of enthusiasm or inspiration I can gain from my classmate’s stories about their diets.

Because, like most human beings, I love food, and want to eat the most diverse and best food that I can!

Incidentally, I wrote this post while drinking a Coca Cola and am now going to go cook up some Hamburger Helper for dinner. Case in point, I suppose.

easy-recipes.me

Sigh…

Junk Junky

Most of us generally feel like we have many choices when it comes to the healthy food we can eat but actually our options our very limited. Our grocery stores make it seem like we have such a wide variety with shelves packed full of boxes, cans, packages, bottles.

But how much of it is actually good for us to consume? Most of the foods are full of fats, sugars, salts, pesticides, steroids and other additives that are bad for us and we make it worse because we over consume it.

A lot of products are now creating so called “Light” or “Diet” and give us a false impression they are good for us.

I’m really addicted to ice cream I have no idea why but it’s so bad for me because I am lactose. I will literally get a craving so bad I have to get up in the middle of the night and drive to a store that’s open 24 hours and pick up a box of Klondike bars. I could easily eat all the Klondikes by the end of the next day so I never have ice cream in the freezer. Luckily I’m not really over weight from this addiction but I’m sure if I was able to stop the madness I would be in much better health.

A lot of people are really addicted to the food we eat and I believe it’s because salts, sugars and fats taste so good and the product is designed to be addictive. To top it off we buy all this junk the market feeds us and what makes it worse is that 90% of everything is over packaged with plastic, paper and bottles that fills our land site’s full of trash. I could elaborate more on this topic but would like to maybe start a discussion.

Lyle