Stop Motion plant

Radishes or Raphanus sativus, are from the Brassicaceae family, otherwise known as the mustard family. Radishes in ancient Egypt were a common food before the pyramids were built. In 1544, a german botanist reported that he had seen radishes that were about 100 pounds each. The nutrition behind radishes are good. Radishes are low in saturated fat, low in cholesterol, a big source of Riboflavinl, Vitamin B6, Calcium, Magnesium, Coopper, and Manganese, a good source of fiber, Vitamin C, Folate and Potassium. Did you know, Americans eat up to 400 million pounds of radishes each year, most of these go into our salads.

The reason why I chose to plant radishes for my stop motion was because radishes grow really fast. Radishes take about 25-30 days.






http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/489260/radish

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/firstgarden/planning/dictionary/veggies/radish.html

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2606/4?quantity=8.0

Artist Statement

The reason why we chose to focus on the ingredients in Cool whip was because we both were interested in how much High Fructose Corn Syrup and other ingredients were possibly in it that most people didn't know about. So that's why we chose to focus on the top three ingredients for Cool Whip, so that we could go more in depth with the main ones. The top three main ingredients, besides water, for cool whip are hydrogenated vegetable oil, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup. We found that choosing this topic will hopefully make people more aware of what is in their food. We find it important that people need to be more aware of what is in their food and what's going in their bodies. For example most people don't know that High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is a product of corn wet-milling formed when the starches enzymes are broken down to fructose. That HFCS is a major sugar substitute has been known to be a major cause of childhood obesity and other health related problems.

Working throughout this project we were amazed at the fact that HFCS is in so many products. But what amazed us more was the argument for why HFCS is not harmful. HFCS is not bad in moderation this is true. However because it is in so many of our food products, the over consumption is harmful on a humans liver, The liver is the only place that HFCS can be broken down compared to pure sugar that can be processed throughout the entire body."What is Corn Syrup?" WiseGEEK: clear answers for common questions. Web. 30 Nov. 2009.

HFCS and the cons of it needs more public awareness. What would be nice to see is a decrease in tax-subsidy for HFCS. There are places that a person can go to buy foods without HFCS. This costs more because it is imported. Its up to the buyer right now to decide if spending more on their foods is what they want to do. The option out there for healthier foods. However, it is more expensive.


"Specialty Grain Terms A3-50 December 2006." Iowa State University Extension. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2009. .

"What is Corn Syrup?" WiseGEEK: clear answers for common questions. Web. 30 Nov. 2009.

Questions for posters

Is HFCS as bad as everyone makes it sound?

A little history of HFCS?

Address how there's a lot of corn
http://www.fitnessspotlight.com/2008/11/03/why-high-fructose-corn-syrup-is-worse-than-sugarand-why-its-not/

What is another alternative to HFCS and why haven't we used that?

Honey-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041220012702.htm

Organic Sugar & Evaporated Cane juice, Rice Syrup, tapioca syrup-http://non-gmoreport.com/high_fructose_corn_syrup.php


What are your main strategies for teaching parents about childhood obesity, are you teaching them about high fructose corn syrup?

HFCS-they account for 55 percent of the sweetener market and bring in $4.5 billion in sales each year
In 2001, the average American consumed almost 63 pounds of HFCS (up from zero in 1966).

-http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/09/28/high-fructose-corn-syrup-why-the-worlds-most-popular-sweetener-is-enemy-1-to-your-health-and-wais.htm

Bed Prep and Compost Jeopardy

jeopardylabs.com/edit/enter-title8128

Question
How did chemical agriculture start?
As in how did the use of pesticides, insecticides, fertilizers, etc. start to be used so much.
Answer
Chemical farming started with the development of growth regulators. Growth regulators were a product of World War 2 technology; ammonium nitrate became ammonium nitrate fertilizer.

Question
Why are monocultures bad?
Answer
The same plant in the same area and exhausts the nutrients in the soil. The farmers also have to use a lot of insecticides, pesticides, and other chemicals to control the pests, problems that could easily be removed with crop rotation.

Question
Name a pro of organic farming and explain why

Question
Name a pro of chemical farmind and explain why

Question
Which four crops consume 75% of the pesticides in the U.S.
Answer
soybeans, wheat, cotton and corn --http://www.vegsource.com/articles/chemical.farming.htm

Annotated Journal Articles for Senior Project.

• "The effects of sucrose, fructose, and high-fructose corn syrup meals on plasma glucose and insulin in non-insulin-dependent diabetic subjects. — Diabetes Care ." Diabetes Care . N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2009.
o This article shows that there is no difference of blood levels of those who consumed HFCS and those who consumed sucrose. I know were against HFCS but this might be something to put into the video possibly.
• industry, the food, and enjoyed such spectacular growth.. " Straight talk about high-fructose corn syrup: what it is and what it ain't -- White 88 (6): 1716S -- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2009. http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/88/6/1716S?ijkey=QWxerxxoSOP4o&keytype=ref&siteid=ajcn
o I liked this article because they had a hypothesis of hfcs being the leading cause of obesity. Then they say how hfcs is not a major cause of hfcs.

• http://www.obesityaction.org/magazine/oacnews10/HFCS.pdf

o In this link they mention how HFCS is related to obesity
o I understand how hfcs is may be the same but the thing is its not natural its mostly chemicals. Why not use just regular sugar?

• https://www.nowuniversity.com/idc/groups/public/documents/digital_asset/063657.pdf
o In this article they talk about how mercury was found in HFCS.

• http://www.kaystreich.com/files/High_Fructose.pdf
o I really liked this article because its taking the same stance on HFCS as me and my partner and I are.
o One thing that stood out to me was this part
• Because of the unusually long shelf life of HFCS, store-bought cakes, cookies, brownies, mixes, breads, sodas, juices, tomato sauce and all of the rest could be sold with practically no expiration date. HFCS, despite misleading labels that read “all natural,” is an ENTIRELY man-made substance. It's almost indestructible. Like Styrofoam, eternal and immortal.

feedback on feedback

With the feedback that we got from our proposal I think was good and everything, but I didn't really find it that useful. I didn't find it that useful because I know what we are doing for our senior project and I know that it might not come off on paper quite that well but I know what we are doing and its going to be good. It was good though to hear what other people thought.

WHat is HEAC

So one of the questions that we got a lot on our senior project proposal was 'What is HEAC and what does it stand for?"

"Healthy Eating Active Communities." Healthy Eating Active Communities. 22 Oct. 2009 http://www.healthyeatingactivecommunities.org/

HEAC- Healthy Eating Active Communities
Healthy Eating, Active Communities is a six-year, multi-million program sponsored by The California Endowment. It aims to fight the growing childhood obesity epidemic in California and to develop state policy changes that will reduce the risk factors for diabetes and obesity.

We plan to incorporate HEAC into our project because we are going to look into school lunches and childhood obesity too.

Chemical Agriculture vs. Organic agriculture... p.s. im not late

Stephanie Santiago
Chemical agriculture vs. Organic Agriculture
There have been multiple debates about both. One being, chemical agriculture is not right they’re poisoning our food and that organic agriculture is right, it’s the way that it should be, natural. Chemical agriculture has been seen as the evil kind of farming where as the organic farming is being seen as the way to go, since it’s seen as all natural. There are pros and cons to both ways of farming.
Chemical farming started with the development of growth regulators. Growth regulators were a product of World War 2 technology; ammonium nitrate became ammonium nitrate fertilizer. The growth regulators helped farmers control pests from getting on their plants. Due to the increasing population farmers needed a way to grow food and grow it fast. Thus the requirement of commercial fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides were born. Insecticides kill insects, and they usually contain phosphorus and chlorinated hydrocarbons. Insecticides down degrade easily and they can accumulate in your body too. Fungicides kill fungi on crops and such; they are most of the times sprayed directly on the part of the plant that we eat. Fungicides also contain traces of metals like copper and mercury. Herbicides kill weeds they work by blocking the plant’s metabolism. The amount of the different pesticides that the agricultural chemical industry is about 45,000, to 50,000, 600 of them being active ingredients .
Organic agriculture, the USDA National Organic Standards Board defines Organic agriculture as:
"An ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain, or enhance ecological harmony. The primary goal of organic agriculture is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil life, plants, animals and people. ”
This type of agriculture is the oldest technique of farming and was the only way of farming until chemical agriculture was introduced in WW2 . When it became more known to people that chemicals were having a negative effect on the environment and on the consumer’s health, people started recognizing the benefits of eating organic food.
So there are two options to chose from organic farming or chemical farming. Both sides can easily be argued. They both have pros and cons.
Chemical agriculture pros being they produce a lot, it doesn’t take as long as organic farming. Chemical agriculture they use machines to produce plants faster. It also doesn’t take that long for the plants to grow since they are using all kinds of fertilizers to make it grow faster.
Organic agriculture pros being its poison-free, tastes better, and last longer. Being organic means it’s free of harsh pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. Organic food also tastes better since it’s grown longer and the nutrients and sugar have more time to make it into the plant. It also lasts longer because the plants are nourished naturally so they can, as a result, be stored longer. Now the cons of organic farming are limited productivity, use of no GM crops, requires lots time and you need to be skilled. It takes more time for organic farming to produce a lot because they don’t use big machines that might diminish the soil life and soil fertility, which is key for organic farming. Organic farmers don’t use GM crops. GM crops are otherwise known as genetically modified or engineered crops, for example there are some crops that are engineered to resist pests or tolerate herbicides. Being an organic farmer requires a lot of time. Organic farmers have to interact with each plant and see what it needs and what it doesn’t. It also requires a lot of skills; you need to know how to farm, for one, because organic farmers don’t have any help from pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.
It is easily seen how organic can topple over chemical agriculture, on the pros and cons list. But is it reasonable for all of us to switch from mostly chemical agriculture just to organic agriculture? Most likely no. Chemical agriculture creates large amounts of food in short amounts of time where as organic agriculture isn’t like that, it’s the opposite. With a population of 6,706,993,152 , and counting, chemical farming seems to be what we need.

Essay

Vermicompost Do's and Dont's

Vermicompost

Do:
Stale Bread
Apple Cores
Orange Peels
Lettuce Trimmings
Coffee Grounds
Non-Greasy Leftovers
Vegetable Scraps
Fruits
Eggshells
Teabags
Paper Coffee filters
Shredded Paper Towels
Pumpkin
Watermelon
Cantaloupe

Don’t:
Citrus Fruits
Meat
Fish
Fat and oily foods
Garlics
Onions
Spicy Foods

http://earth911.com/blog/2007/04/02/composting-with-worms/
http://www.writeseniors.com/compostworld/how.shtml

"Community Compost Network - About Us." Community Composting Network. 9 Oct. 2009

Benefits from community composting:

• Less waste going to landfill

• Training, Employment, and volunteering opportunities

• Topsoil structure preservation and improvement

"Farming, soil management, reduced input costs, lower chemical rates, balanced soil nutrition, bioremediation, compaction, runoff, contamination." Farm for Profit. 9 Oct. 2009 .

Poor soil management

• Compaction

• Not as much water penetration

• Not as much air space with results in low oxygen content

• Soil Erosion

• Water Runoff

• Limited Root growth

• Increased chance of contamination

"Chemical Farming, The American Way." The Regional Institute » The Regional Institute. 9 Oct. 2009, http://www.regional.org.au/au/roc/1982/roc198249.htm#TopOfPage

Chemical Agriculture started with the development of growth regulators which were a product of World War 2 technology

Economic pressures on producer continue to increase demanding volume in order to continue farming. These factors created a situation requiring the use of commercial fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides which are still present on the agricultural scene at an increasing intensity.

US farmers each year, through land preparation for crops, move the equivalent amount of soil needed to build a super highway from New York to California.

"Chemical Farming." Nutritional Supplements. 9 Oct. 2009 .
It is estimated that, world wide, the agricultural chemical industry is producing about 45,000 to 50,000 different pesticides. There are approximately 600 active ingredients in various combinations and concentrations in these pesticides.

"Effects of chemical agriculture." Organic farming and food in India. 9 Oct. 2009 .

• The constant use of artificial fertilizer, together with a lack of crop rotation, reduces the soil's fertility year by year.
• High yield levels are produced by applying large quantities of artificial fertilisers, instead of by maintaining the natural fertility of the soil.

Farmer in Chief

Today we had a seminar. The seminar was based on the reading Farmer in Chief. Now I read this article and though it was interesting and I liked how we as a class got a chance to discuss the different parts of it. We all together got to discuss how farming could help a lot with a lot of different things. Such as food and farming can effect climate change and health care.
As I was reading the article I had some comments and questions:
When Michael Pollan said, " The era of cheap & abundant food appears to be drawing to a close."
The Comment that I had was Its not like it was going to last forever, we should've known it was coming.

"Food is a starting point for climate change, energy independence, and health care crisis"- My question was, What else is it a starting point for?

Is having cheap food something that works for everyone if it is then whats keeping it from not staying the same?

What are some signs that oil-based food is coming to an end?

I think that some interesting topics came up one that everyone seemed to be talking about is that people dont have the time and patience to farm and make there own garden but I disagree. I think that there's the another part of it has to do with money. Not all people are going to have money to buy tools or to waste on seeds and water.

Bed Prep and Compost

Best Practices- Double Digging


The group that I am in is bed prep and compost. Our group separated into two groups two on bed prep and two on compost.
I'm on the bed prep team, and so is Vanessa Alcaraz. The technique that we have started using for preparing the beds is called double digging.
Double digging is done too loosen the soil so that the roots could grow easier down in the soil.
Theses are the steps
Step 1:
The soil should've before hand been soaked with water for 2 hours and then dried partially for 2 days
Step 2:
Loosen the soil with a spading fork and remove weeds if there happens to be some.
Step 3:
Dig the first foot of soil and move to the top of the trench before that.
Step 4:
Take the spading fork and loosen the soil that was on the bottom of the soil that you just moved to the other trench
Step 5:
Starting from another trench did the first foot of soil and move on to the bed that you just loosened its soil for.
Step 6:
Spread a 3 inch layer of compost on top of the now finished bed.

For bed prep to get it done faster we think that it would be easier to have 4 people on digging 2 on one side and 2 on the other. One digging and the other loosening the soil with the spading fork. Also to have another person spreading out the compost on top of the done beds.

Stop Motion Plant

My partner, Daniel Ludolf, and I are planning to plant make our stop motion of a pumpkin. The way we plan on doing it is by leaving the plant at school maybe in the garden because I also plan on having the background change too i think that it would look cool. Also maybe we could at the end carve a face into the pumpkin.

Annotated Bibliographies

"Soil: How to prepare and improve before planting." index. 16 Sep. 2009 .

Take out grass and other existing vegetation

• Use a flat spade
• Make sure that all grass and weeds are out before anything else
• Spread the compost about two to three inches thick

Turn Soil over to a depth of eight inches

• Use a garden spade, fork or roto-tiller
• Break up heavy clods

Composting - a guide for making compost at home."Eartheasy - Sustainable Living. 18 Sep. 2009 .

• This is a list of things that you could put in compost and how to put them in the compost.
• Also says how to start it

"Vermicomposting: Journey to Forever organic garden."Journey to Forever: Hong Kong to Cape Town Overland - An adventure in environment and development, join us on the Internet, all welcome, participation, online education, school projects, free of charge. 18 Sep. 2009

• This is basically a how to on vermicompost including what to put in the vermicompost and what not to put in.

Novak, Sara. "How to Prep Your Garden for Fall : Planet Green." Planet Green : Sustainable Living, Energy Conservation, Earth Day. 18 Sep. 2009 .

• I choose this website because its something that could help us when we start prepping for thw garden beds.

"How to Use Compost in Your Yard and Garden." How to Compost: Composting Instructions — Everything you need to know about composting at home.. 18 Sep. 2009

• This is a website that can basically show how to compost.

Using Beneficial Insects in the Garden." The Garden Helper is here to help your garden grow. 18 Sep. 2009 .

• I was kind of interested in which bugs would be good for the garden and which ones wouldn't.

Senior Project Ideas

Going over the different topics that we went over in Environmental Science on Friday opened my eyes to the different topics that I could possibly base my senior project on.

Water

During the class discussion on water we discussed how limited water is in San Diego, considering we are in a water crisis, the discussion then floated to the different ways that people could save water. The most interesting that I found was the one where you take a half gallon milk container and fill it up with water and then put the jug in the toilet tank and which the jug then displaces the water. I thought that this was the most interesting one cause if you think about it half a gallon of water less each time adds up to a lot of water that your saving, possibly even 10 gallons a day. The weirdest one that I found was the "If its yellow let it mellow". I found this one the nastiest and one that I wouldn't even give a chance too. Hearing all the different ways that people save water got me really interested to want to learn more ways to save water. I know how Margaret doesn't want any boring documentaries this year but I think that I would want to possibly do a video on interviewing different people and finding out how they save water in there own way.

Waste

This was the topic that we didn't get to discuss in class due to the lack of time we had. But I was on the waste team and I found out some interesting facts from the landfill here in San Diego. What I got from "Miramar Landfill | Environmental Services ." were facts about our only active landfill here in San Diego, which is the Miramar Landfill. The most interesting ones I found was that recycling is what’s extending the life of the landfill and two-Thirds of our waste in San Diego can be recycled. These two I found the most interesting because they bought two more questions after I read them. One being

• Where does all the trash go when the landfill reaches its capacity?
• Recycling is extending the life of our landfills to what extent though?

So just overall researching about waste made me more interested in my original idea that I had for my senior project. The original idea was to make a song using the trash that we found kind of like STOMP but not necessarily with just trash can. The only problem that with this idea is that there's not enough environmental science being incorporated into this idea. So what I was thinking was maybe doing a video along with it that included facts that about recycling, the Miramar landfill, etc. So the idea could possibly be a music video.

September.8.2009 Homework

Assignment

Map out home resources

Connections to farming & agriculture, Parents Contacts, etc.

• My parents don't have any contacts with gardening. We do though have a few tools that we could donate to the garden.
• My mom is willing to be a driver to different locations.

Plant Proposal

Banana Tree

1. What sort of plant is it? Vegetable, Fruit, Root crop, tree, bush etc.

i. It is a banana tree.

2. What is the growing season for this plant?

i. Bananas usually form in the late summer and then winter.

3. Should it be grown from seed? If so how long does it take to germinate? Does it require any special preparation? (Ex. some seeds need to be frozen before they will germinate?

i. Well we have the banana tree already I’m interested in clearing up the dead leaves and I’m interested in being responsible for this plant.

4. How much space does it require to grow and harvest a reasonable amount?

i. I think that if we take better care of the banana tree that it could possibly grow more bananas enough for the people at exhibition.

5. What are the soil requirements for this plant? Is it a “heavy feeder” i.e. does it require really rich soil or the addition of specific soil additives?

i. The soil that they need to grow in should be rich, well-drained soul. An acid soil is good with a pH between 5.5 and 6.5. It’s not tolerant to salty soils. The N-P-K Ratios 8:10:8.

1. N-P-K: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) in fertilizers.

6. Water is the watering requirements?

i. Does it need a lot of water or does it prefer our local arid climate?

1. The leaves require lots of water but not so much that we overwater it.

ii. Is it better to overhead water (by sprinkler) or use drip irrigation (water only at the base to avoid getting the leaves wet?

1. The leaves are what require the most amt. of water. An occasion deep watering does help.

Extra

The plant growing begins to slow down at about 80° F and stops when it reaches 100° F. High temperatures and bright sunlight scorches the leaves and bananas. Temperatures below 53° F cause it to stop growing too. Bananas require wind protection most of the time. Each stalk produces one huge flower cluster, which then dies (this may be the dark purple plant that we saw). The purple banana bud that we saw was the banana blooming stalk. It’s also called the male bud.

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/banana.html

Calla lilies

a. What sort of plant is it? Vegetable, Fruit, Root crop, tree, bush etc.

i. Calla lilies are flowers.

b. What is the growing season for this plant…remember San Diego has a unique growing climate and some of the information on the internet might say that something won’t grow in the winter but that might not be true for here

i. I don’t know if it’s possible because the planting time is in early spring to early summer.

c. Should it be grown from seed? If so how long does it take to germinate? Does it require any special preparation? (Ex. some seeds need to be frozen before they will germinate?

i. You take the bulb and you plant it in the soil.

d. How long does this plant take to go from seed to harvest? Does it make sense for the time scale of this semester…does it matter? Maybe you would still like to think about how it might benefit the garden in the long term.

i. The blooming time is in late spring so it won’t grow this semester but it will possibly grow next semester.

e. How much space does it require to grow and harvest a reasonable amount? How far should they be planted from one another?

i. The height of the plant reaches from 18” to 24”. They need to be planted deeply, a depth of 4 inches is ideal. Each bulb should be 12 inches apart.

f. What are the soil requirements for this plant? Is it a “heavy feeder” i.e. does it require really rich soil or the addition of specific soil additives?

i. `It needs rich, moist well-drained soil. Tolerates moist soil.

g. What are the watering requirements?

i. They should be watered thoroughly after you have planted them. For the following weeks, until the plants are well established, get into a routine of watering the plants to keep the soil moist. If the soil gets too damp, the plant will rot.

http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf87862289.tip.html

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/planting-and-taking-care-of-calla-lilies

Extra:

There easy to grow. You grow them from the bulb. They also can be yellow. They were originally grown in South Africa. They bruise easily. Roses are popular partners for calla lilies.

What is one thing in the natural world that you are curious about?

What is one thing in the natural world that you are curious about?

I am curious about what it takes to grow certain plants. Why do certain plants need more than others. I am curious about what it takes to make certain plants grow faster and better. I am also curious as to which bugs are possibly good or bad for certain plants, if there are any. Which fertilizers can certain plants use that other plants can't so that we don't grow them near each other.
With the garden I am very curious about the history of it. I am curious about what it was before and why it the upkeep of it stopped. I would like to know about what plants were there before. This could possibly become a documentary of some kind for multimedia with interviewing past gardeners or some NTC people.