Alex Crowe

For my Ecochallenge (and for my independent field trip) I helped volunteer for the "Potluck in the Park" organization, which gives out free meals to those in need every Sunday. I helped hand out sandwiches and some snacks during the lunch rush, and helped wipe down tables and put them away when everyone had gotten a meal. Overall the experience was very fulfilling, as seeing the joy people can get from a meal made me reconsider how I take my own meals for granted from time to time. Access to food should be considered a basic human right and hunger shouldn't be considered a punishment, but until this is realized, I'm glad their are community efforts happening that provide necessities like food to those in need.

My ecochallenge was to meal plan for next week. This ecochallenge worked out perfectly since I needed to meal plan for my vegetarian diet project that I'm starting next week. I will say the resources the ecochallenge provided helped with budgeting and meal prep tips, such as buying ingredients in bulk and some easy recipes to try. The resources also highlighted why meal planning itself is a sustainable action; overconsumption has contributed to environmental degradation, and through resource efficient practices we can change the economic process that drives overconsumption, leading to less degradation over time.
To answer the reflection question: I'm not surprised at the amount of food that is thrown out each year. America ideology when in comes to preserving food has always been connected to economic stability. During the Great Depression of the 1920's, kids were taught to eat every scrap of food they had as they didn't know when their next meal would be available, a sentiment a lot of older people who lived through that time share to this day. Since then the American economy has grown and been relatively stable, leading to more families being able to waste food without financial consequences. I think if a family were to meal prep, they'll be able to use that $1,500 in food waste on more beneficial aspects of their life.

Food sovereignty is one's right to healthy, sufficient, and culturally relevant food made through sustainable and ecological sound practices. The movement behind it has been successful in addressing the shortcomings of the global food industry system, which are guided by multinational corporations and international trade agreements.
For my weekly ecochallenge of watching one documentry on Food Sovereignty, I decided to watch the "Nyéléni Europe Forum" documentary, which highlights a global symposium that brings together local farmers, fishers, and consumers from across the globe in an effort to share and connect personal experiences and plan for future food sovereignty progress. After watching it, I am amazed that all of these different professions and cultures are dealing with the ubiquitous problems that modern food systems have caused. For example, a Dutch sheep Shepard highlighted how big scale sheep farmers are now using nets and electric fences as a substitute for Shepards. This practice is not only less sustainable, but removes the cultural aspect that traditional Shepards provide to sheep herding. Another person affected by global food systems is Martin Drago, who highlights how his home country of Uruguay have prioritized soy production in an effort to expand their country's agribusiness. In doing so, they have prioritized exporting soy, which has lead to not enough soy being redistributed locally and agro-toxics being left behind through production waste. He argues for changes to be made to the agri-food system which would improve production and harvesting methods and rejects the privatization of natural resources. Overall, this documentary has shown me how individuals from different cultures can come together and unite in an effort to overcome the restraints industrial food systems and trade agreements have pushed onto them.

I’ve always been a little confused on how clean my recyclables need to be when I recycle them. I’ve held the belief that recyclables need to be free of any food residuals before being recycled. I think this originated from working for a non-profit organization that specialized in different conservation activities, such as sifting through recyclable containers at a local landfill to remove any items containing residue. It was until recently that I was watching a show that made a joke about how you don’t really need to wash your recyclables that piqued my interest. So, when I saw “Prevent Recycling Contamination” as one of the eco challenge actions, I decided to spend some time researching what the proper method is for disposing recyclables. The article, “The Battle Against Recycling Contamination” explained how recycling has become more complex in recent years due to the public’s confusion over what can and can’t be recycled. For example, plastic bags are often thought of as recyclable and thus are thrown into household recycle bins. However, they cannot be thrown in to mixed recycling as they can get caught in waste facility machinery and can cause costly shutdowns. Because recycling has become more common place in households, contamination has become more frequent. Food residue can also contaminate recyclables, but further research has shown that a quick rinse is all that is needed for most items to be recycled, but still all food or liquid being removed beforehand. I believe recycling is an integral part of combating pollution, but needs more resources to teach consumers the proper and improper ways to recycle.