"The Only Way to Have a Cow"

This may have been the first article I read for this class that I'm not a fan of. First off was the rhetoric. The author, Bill McKibben sounds extremely stuck up. He speaks in a way that sounds like he thinks he's better than everyone else just because he doesn't eat red meat. For example, the first sentences of the article are, "May I say - somewhat defensively - that I haven't cooked red meat in many years." Why does he say "defensively"? Does cooking red meat make you a bad person? Is it a sin punishable by death? He then goes on to say, "I haven't visited a McDonald's since college" and "If you asked me how I like my steak, I'd say I don't really remember." At this point, I'm not even halfway through the first paragraph and I don't like the author. Later, when he is talking about cows and red meat he even says, "And the fact that the product of this exercise "tastes good" sounds pretty lame as an excuse" Right here, it sounds like he is specifically targeting red meat eaters. I don't get offended very easily, but when I read this sentence I could tell that he was trying to offend anyone who didn't agree with him. I can tell that this article was definitely written for vegetarians who share the same views on red meat as he does. I could tell that McKibben's purpose for the piece was to persuade people, but since his rhetoric was offensive to people with different views as him, his point did not get to me. 

Another thing; I'm not sure if I just didn't understand what he meant, but it seemed a little ridiculous that he directly blamed the consumption of red meat for global warming. Sure, cows produce a lot of methane gas, but you can't blame the consumption of red meat for global warming. That's like blaming the person who invented the computer for a virus that you got on your computer.

Service Learning Reflection

This week in the Castanea garden, I worked on a variety of things. I started out by pulling weeds to make room for vegetables that we would grow in that area later. After that, me and a few other people planted some garlic. We had to go get compost from the compost pile and bring it over to the area we wanted to grow the garlic and lay the compost down. We dug three inch holes six inches apart, put the garlic in the holes and then covered the holes with dirt. The garden coordinator Page gave us all some passion fruit to try. It tasted a lot different than the passion fruit juice I drank as a kid. After taking a little break, we went to harvest fruits and vegetables. First, we harvested some tomatoes that looked different than any tomato I had seen before. Instead of being perfectly circular, they were shaped like pears or eggplants. Finally, we began to harvest grapes. These were seeded grapes, unlike the grapes you get in the grocery store, and to my surprise, they were very sour.
Working in the garden this week was definitely a much different experience than the past few weeks. While I have been doing some research on permaculture and sustainable agriculture for a little bit, I've never had any experience planting or harvesting anything. The past two weeks at the garden I've mostly been moving dirt and pulling weeds but this week showed me that the hard work of gardening pays off. Harvesting tomatoes and planting garlic showed me the "result" of the work that goes into gardening. This week I also learned that most of the food that is harvested in the Castanea garden goes directly to the community. I thought this was really interesting to see how students at UNCA could have an impact on the community of Asheville.
I would love to continue working at the Castanea garden even after I get my twenty service hours. I'm a very impatient person and I would like to become more patient and I think that gardening can help me with that. since theres a lot of waiting involved in gardening.

Downsizing Supersize and Why Shame Won't Stop Obesity

I thought James Surowiecki had some great points about Bloomberg's large soda ban in New York. Before I read this, I thought the ban was pretty ridiculous. I actually first heard about it on the daily show with Jon Stewart where he compared the illegality of a large soda and the recent legality of medical marijuana in New York City. This seemed pretty ridiculous to me at first because marijuana, a drug, had been made legal while it was basically illegal to get more than 16 ounces of a beverage in a cup. However, after reading the article "Downsizing Supersize", I have a different perspective on the matter. This situation really sheds light on the nature of people in today's world. Most people won't make big changes to their lifestyle unless these changes are forced upon them. Like Surowiecki says, "in countries where people have to actively say they don't want to be an organ donor, most are donors" (Surowiecki, 123). If it wasn't for Bloomberg's large soda ban, I don't think most people would ever make that change in their life. I really enjoyed the rhetoric of this article. It was very informative with lots of references to other studies and laws in the world but it was also slightly humorous. For example the last line was, "but at least there's a good chance we'll be thinner rats" (Surowiecki, 125)
While I agree with the three points Dhruv Khullar makes at the end of the article (making healthy food more accessible, minimizing junk food advertising and educating the youth on health), I don't necessarily agree with some of his other points. I agree that shaming people into eating healthier is not the way to go, but unlike Khullar, I think responsibility and knowledge are the only ways to fight obesity. When it all boils down, the only person making a decision on what they eat is the consumer. If someone chooses to eat something unhealthy, they made the conscious decision to do so. If people are informed about the health benefits of food, they can make better, healthier decisions about what they put in their body. The rhetoric of this piece was very informative but it felt a little harsh. I felt like the authors opinions where being imposed on me.