Thursday, June 4, 2009

Joe + Clement

The other day two university students came in to talk to us about sustainability and worm farming and stuff. They were part of SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise). SIFE students' vision statement is “To create sustainable outreach projects that make a positive difference in the community”. They did an activity with us using an apple. The apple represented the surface area of the earth, and the skin represented the area of land that we were able to grow food on. First they cut the apple into quarters, and took one. This represented the surface of the earth that wasn't sea. Next, they cut that quarter into another four quarters. This was because of the mountains, the rocky bits, the too hot or cold bits, and finally, the bits that we could grow food on (1/16). But they didn't stop there, we humans have built on and polluted some of this area, so he cut it in half again. This astounded me. There is only 1/32 of the world that we are able to grow food on, and it needs to support the whole globe!!!!
I do not believe that this is entirely accurate, because things can be grown almost anywhere in a hydroponic place, or artificial conditions. Stuff could also be grown on a volcanic slope, or many other places.
They also showed us a bunch of other stuff, including how much of the contents of our bin could be recycled, or put in a worm farm/compost bin. That's about all I'm gonna right for now, but I'll post again soon.

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