Agricultural States

By Micalah B

In general, society tends to associate agriculture with the southern states in the U.S. Whether this is due to the stereotypes sung in country songs across the nation, or some weird mumbo-jumbo we pulled out of mid air, I'm not quite sure. However, what I am quite sure of is this;

Agriculture is not just big in the southern most part of the United States.

In fact, in 2014, the top ten agricultural producing states are in descending order as follows:


1) California
2) Iowa
3) Texas
4) Nebraska
5) Illinois
6) Minnesota
7) Kansas
8) Indiana
9) North Carolina
10) Wisconsin

With a view of the map posted, we see that these top agricultural producing states tend to be all over the map. But why is this so?

Different factors such as population, soil types, climate, weather patterns, and many others affect agricultural production success. A state dense with people is less likely to have the space to withhold large and sprawling farms within its boarders. Along with this, states like Idaho and Wyoming, where we find dry soil and intense heat, will not hold the right conditions to support the growth of agricultural commodities. Lastly, weather patterns vary all over the country. States on the coasts get hurricanes, states out west get long periods of drought. There are areas like Tornado Alley, known for the obvious; vicious tornados and Washington State, known for its long rains. Weather patterns are a strange, yet very prevalent thing, affecting where agriculture may prosper, indefinitely.

With this being said, we can better understand why we see no pattern, theme, or general consistency to these prospering state's locations. Therefore, I confidently correct the stereotype that agriculture resounds in the southern most part of the United States, showing it to be much more widespread than it is believed.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/faqs.aspx#10
http://www.myexperttravel.com/usmap.html

Cultural Diversity and Values

By:Janae S.

         Cultural diversity is the existence of a variety of cultural or ethnic groups within a society. But if we breakdown the definition culture is a group of people as well as their behaviors, beliefs, values, and the symbols they accept, diversity is a range of different things. Culture diversity is a strong part of people’s lives, it influences their views, their humor, their hope and many more. Its important to remember that everyone has a different viewpoint and role when it comes to cultural.

Approximately 50% of the adolescents advocates work with minority youths. Many of our youths and families that we work with have a low-economic status. One important part of being an advocate is understanding and respecting the different racial and cultural experiences of our youth as well was the families within the program. Apart of the adolescent diversion project they stress the importance of each youth’s individuality. During the intervention process we tend to face two important challenges that involves the youth dealing with values and cultural diversity.

Understanding Values:

Everything that we do, every decision we make is basically based on our beliefs, attitudes, and values. Throughout the program advocates have noticed that values includes interactions with the youth. As an advocate it’s very serious to become more aware of the values we hold, the type of values they are, and to assess them if they are values we want to keep. They are a major part of who we are and they are extremely important to us. 

There are some values that are more strongly than other values, and some values we tend to believe they are the truth to us. When working with values a lot of people don't remember that our truths are not necessarily anyone else’s truth. When experiencinga value there may be some conflict, people would become very defensive, angry, or judgmental. These experiences can cause the relationship between your youth and advocates relationship to breakdown in communication.  

Sources:

http://www.ethnoconnect.com/articles/1-what-is-cultural-diversity
http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/culture/cultural-competence/culture-and-diversity/mainImages:

images

cultural-diversity.ashx

Prompt 6: America's Best Idea

By Emily T

I recently viewed Ken Burn’s documentary “America’s Best Idea”. This documentary is about the history, mission, and purpose of America’s National Parks. It displays the beauty of the parks, the unique opportunities they offer the United States, and the people that made them possible. Ken Burns created this documentary with Dayton Duncan, who actually did the writing for the documentary.

Watch the following video to get a preview of the documentary:

As you can see, this documentary was made to display the excellence behind the idea of the National Parks. The mission of the parks was to preserve the most unique and beautiful areas of our country for the benefit and enjoyment of all American citizens. The National Park Service does truly provide so many opportunities for Americans all over the United States.

Ken Burns clearly has a very positive attitude toward preserving land to be national parks. He believes that it should be a right as an American citizen to be able to enjoy these parks, as we own them as a public. Some may argue that the park system should be privatized instead. There are people who believe that the tax money we spend to preserve the parks could somewhere else, or that the taxes are just not worth it.

 

What is my opinion? Growing up going to the parks, I am going to have to side with Ken Burns. Hiking the trails and learning about the parks gave me a certain appreciation for the United States in general. The National Parks are truly treasures of the United States, and they have been part of our history for over 100 years. It is so important for us to preserve these for the sake of the history, ecosystems, landscapes, and opportunities they provide. Giving everyone ownership to these beautiful locations regardless of status, income, etc. is something that is so important to our country, and it was an idea that was originally unique to America.

Work Cited:

"The National Parks: America's Best Idea." PBS. PBS, 2009. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

PBS. "THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA'S BEST IDEA | Americans Own ..." YouTube. YouTube, 30 July 2009. Web. 27 Mar. 2016

Photos:

"Ken Burns America." PBS. PBS, 2009. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

"Ken Burns, Director/Producer." PBS. PBS, 2009. Web. 27 Mar. 2016.

The Next Big Thing

Abbie W.

Cover crops are the new up and coming crop being planted. The reason this is a big thing is due to they will help slow erosion along with improving soil health. This is so important since are soil quality is overtime becoming more depleted. Without quality soil we cannot grow crops and we need to have higher crop production than ever with our ever growing population. Cover crops also help enhance water availability. They control pests and diseases, while hosting numerous benefits to your farm.

           

Cover Crops increase the yield of the crop; yield is the amount of a crop that was harvested per unit of land area. Corn yields increased by 9.6 percent and soybeans is 11.6 percent, which is huge. Cover crops for legumes are great for reducing nitrogen fertilizer inputs that is left over from cash crops. Nitrogen is a huge contributor to environmental issues especially in water, therefore reducing nitrogen output is a huge improvement. No till farming has found this to be a great opportunity as these farms already are looking for ways to be conservative. While nitrogen is found less in legumes, cover crops actually help to increase nitrogen levels in organic crops. They manage weeds and mulch helps to conserve water.

            Economically cover crops are beneficial as well. You save on fuel costs and commodity prices. Increasing yield increases farmer’s income while decreasing prices for consumers as more are produced. Cover crops are currently a big discussion topic right now. But there are so many proven benefits to this that it is definitely something we need to start to use.

Social Media in Agriculture

By Micalah B

Social media is an amazing thing. It spreads ideas, news, pictures, and just about anything else quicker than we can even say the two words themselves. Not only has social media become an entertaining pastime for most all of us, but it has also begun to take hold in many different professional environments, as well.

Social media in agriculture has begun to play a huge role in spreading awareness for modern issues, as well as just telling the world it’s story.

Blog sites have allowed people to write about what they want, when they want, and then share it with who they want. Sites like Buzzfeed and The New York Times (online-version) float around the internet constantly, with short articles. These articles range anywhere from discussing the newest agriculture controversy, to highlighting an adorable video of baby goats that has become quite the internet sensation.

Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have allowed farmers, and companies to set up pages and accounts, describing what they're all about. This allows people to do things like investigate what they're all about, contact them in another fashion, or even hear about them in the first place. 

What’s my favorite form of agriculture on social media, however? The wonderfully witty spoofs that float around all over Youtube. Farmers sing about what it’s really like to grow up in the agriculture business, while making our days just a little brighter, doing it. 

Please, enjoy for yourself; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48H7zOQrX3U

Sources: 

http://animalagalliance.org/images/upload/Social%20Media%20Manual.pdf

http://www.thesocialsilo.com/tag/social-media/

Wolves- Friend or Foe?

By Emily T

In the early 1900s, the wolf population declined throughout the United States, including areas of Montana, due to loss of habitat and extermination by humans. Wolves were once even hunted in the national parks. They were viewed as a pests because they were a major threat to livestock and a vicious predator. However, as most people know now, the extermination of any species due to human interaction is extremely harmful to an ecosystem, as it also changes other species within that ecosystem.

However, when the major extermination of wolves was taking place, the idea of an endangered species was not very relevant at the time. It was not until 1973, that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the northern Rocky Mountain wolf as an endangered species. Yellowstone National Park was then designated as a place where the wolf population could recover. From 1995 to 1997, 41 wolves from Canada and northern Montana were released into the park. Since then, the population within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem has risen to about 500. The following link is to a video by National Geographic explains how the wolf has positively affected the ecosystem at Yellowstone:

http://education.nationalgeographic.org/media/wolves-yellowstone/

While in many ways it is viewed positively that the wolf population is going up, many of the reasons that people used to hunt wolves for remain. While there may be no harm to wolves on territory owned by the National Park Service, wolves naturally stray from this land.

The problem arises with the people living outside of Yellowstone. There are a number of ranchers trying to raise livestock just on the outskirts of the park. Many of these ranchers are living on land that their family has owned for generations, and they depend on their livestock for their living. Wolves attack the livestock these people raise. Many ranchers believe that they have the right to protect their livestock from wolves by killing the wolves. The following link is to a video which displays a few different perspectives on the wolves in Montana, including a rancher’s perspective:

https://vimeo.com/36581236

The sad reality of all of this is that both groups are advocating for justly causes. We need to take care of our wildlife and maintain an ecosystem, but ranchers and farmers need to protect their livestock and living. With the wolf population increasing in other areas of the United States and moving to different areas, including the lower peninsula of Michigan, ranchers and those advocating for protection of the wolves will continue to debate over the issue.

Work Cited:

Schwier, Alexandra. "Searching for Middle Ground: Montana's Wolf Controversy." Vimeo. N.p., 2012. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

United States. National Park Service. "Wolves in Yellowstone." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 11 Mar. 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

"Wolf Reintroduction Changes Ecosystem." Yellowstone Park. N.p., 21 June 2011. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

"Wolves in Michigan." DNR. State of Michigan, 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

"Wolves of Yellowstone." National Geographic Education. N.p., 30 Jan. 2015. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

Images:

"BLOG." RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

United States. National Park Service. "Wolves in Yellowstone." National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, 11 Mar. 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2016.

The Traumatic Experiences Guide

By Janae S.

         A traumatic experience in difficult situations becomes a traumatic event when it is a sudden, extreme, and a fearful experience. Traumatic experiences causes emotions or psychological trauma that may be difficult to cope with and can result in many other psychological disorders. People who have suffered  traumatic experience such as abuse, being in an explosion, a terrible week, or maybe even a war may show signs of post traumatic stress disorders and many more causes.

        Unfortunately when bad things happen, the mind sometimes naturally takes a while to get over the emotional pain that is dealing with a traumatic experience. It could take weeks or even months before the individual feels safe again, but the pain may take many years to go away. Depending on the severity of the traumatic experience, the age of the individual and dealing with the situation may take various types of treatment may be offered in order to help an individual to recover from the emotional and psychological trauma associated with traumatic experiences.

       For example a child that may suffer from a traumatic experiences is likely to have a long lasting effect emotionally and psychologically. Certain traumatic events such as being abused physically or sexually can cause changes in the child’s life that can sometimes last into their adulthood. Children who have unstable living shelter or who live in an unsafe environment, may have serious emotional and psychological damage. Childhood trauma that is left unresolved can carry into adulthood and may even cause trauma as an adult

      

       People who go through traumatic experiences often have symptoms and problems afterwards. Knowing that some trauma survivors are not familiar with how trauma affects them, they have trouble understanding what is happening to them as well. They may think the trauma is their fault, they are going crazy, or something is wrong with them. Survivors may turn to drugs or alcohol to make themselves feel better. They may even turn away from friends and family who don't seem to understand or know what to do to get better. 

       There are treatments available for those who have suffered from a traumatic experiences. Apart of the healing process from trauma their could be a long term process involving being faced with feelings and memories that the  survivor may want to forget about. One type of treatment that may be involved is therapy. This treatment in particular helps treat emotional and psychological trauma. Also therapy maybe used to help an individual who has suffered traumatic experiences to cope with the pain. 

Sources:

http://www.helpguide.org/articles/ptsd-trauma/emotional-and-psychological-trauma.htmhttp://www.psychguides.com/guides/trauma-symptoms-causes-and-effects/

http://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/healthadvice/problemsdisorders/copingafteratraumaticevent.aspx

Images:

13638.jpg

therapy-session-treatment-trauma.jpg

Grain fed vs Grass Fed Beef

Abbie W.

In today’s world it seems everyone is looking for a new way to eat healthy. From using Pinterest to try numerous new workout challenges to drinking soy milk versus your typical dairy milk. One question that arises is; whether grass fed beef is healthier for you than grain fed ground beef? Grass fed would be cattle that are entirely raised on forages and water. While grain fed cattle are fed forages along with concentrated mix rations. People automatically assume grass fed is better for you because it doesn’t have antibiotics or hormones in it or the extra fat from grain. The real accuracy is there are no antibiotics in any meat as USDA guidelines prohibit antibiotics in any animal product that is sold (this is another discussion though). There is really only one real study out there that has proven whether or not grass fed is better for you than grain fed. This study was done by the Texas A&M department of Animal Science who compared the cattle to risk factors for cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes.

The study proved that grain fed cattle were in fact not healthier for you than those fed grain. Much of Americans consume a high amount of their total beef intake through ground beef. This particular cut of beef is higher in fat than many other cuts but at the same time has the most health benefits in terms of fatty acids you need in your diet. Grass fed beef has three times the amount of Omega-3 fatty acids than that of grain fed beef. Omega-3 is a very important fat to your diet as it has many health benefits. Omega-3s have been shown to lower blood fats that cause heart disease. To continue, it can improve mental skills in children who have ADHD. However, one downfall of this is that it is higher in saturated fats along with trans fat. Trans fat has no benefits to your body, it is the unhealthiest ingredient you can have in your diet. Saturated fat is right behind that with the fact it is the biggest cause of high blood cholesterol and can lead to heart disease and stroke. Saturated fat is different in the fact it may not actually hold as much medical issues for those who are active and regularly eat healthy.

Ground beef from grain fed cattle was found to have significantly lower saturated and trans far. Where is higher in oleic acid. Oleic acid, other wise known as Omega-9, preserves the food and is often found naturally in avocados, olive oil, beef tallow or lard. Omega-9 is beneficial to those that have been diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes, in relation to controlling the disease. Oleic acid is often used in bakery products or for skin cream and soap. It is great for helping prepared food remain safe for consumption. In conclusion, when it comes to choosing between grass-fed and grain- fed beef, the question should not be which is the healthiest but what health benefits you are looking for.

http://beefmagazine.com/beef-quality/grass-fed-vs-grain-fed-ground-beef-no-difference-healthfulness

http://www.acaloriecounter.com/diet/saturated-fat-trans-fat/

http://www.livestrong.com/article/438717-what-is-oleic-acid/

Pictures:

http://hallhall.com/blog/the-booming-industry-of-grass-fed-beef/