Kathryn Masano

2.) I think I’ve learned to appreciate my relationship with the environment as I feel I lived under lucky circumstances that allowed me to be brought up with healthy food options, lifestyle choices, and eco-friendly habits. As kids, my parents always made us play Fall and Spring soccer. Obviously, I’m nowhere near being a soccer player now, but building that habit of appreciating exercise and being outdoors is something I’ve carried with me into adulthood. Furthermore, both of my parents grew up in very Italian households where food was the heart of the soul. As stated in the reading “The Gathering Storm,” the post-war era released a new line of canned goods, frozen meals, and packaged commodities. Fast choices replaced the homecooked version of the “American Dream,” and while much of the country turned to this lifestyle my Grandmother on my father’s side, specifically, spit on this idea. She viewed Skippy peanut butter as the devil, packing her children sandwiches using hand-cut meat, never deli, for every lunch. While they never appreciated this as youngsters, they were habits that they passed on to their own kids. Although my mom and dad were never the most authentic cooks, they still stressed the importance of cooking every meal, even if it was something as simple as rice, beans (soaked, not canned), and roasted broccoli. Through the readings and the eco-challenge, I’ve learned to cherish the association between my childhood and my relationship with the environment far more closely.

3.) The roots of historical and cultural origins, as well as the counterculture surrounding the food movement, tie deeply into many of the messages the eco-challenge stresses, more specifically the one-time challenges. Personally, for my one-time challenge, I chose to meet with my local farmers and learn how their organic growing practices differ from others. In the Fall, I did this as an assignment at the Lewisburg Farmers Market, however, when I was home over the past weekend I took the opportunity while out shopping with my brother to ask vendors how their products are better than local grocers. It was fascinating to find how the historical roots of agriculture, as mentioned in “The Gathering Storm,” have impacted modern food habits, more specifically in mass production, monocultural and industrial practices, no-tilling vs tilling farms, etc. Essentially, problems that were never problems only became issues when new ideas centered around maximizing profit emerged. Coincidentally, one woman at a local stand selling eggs spent five minutes expressing her devastation on how her sales have dropped in the last decade compared to the early 2000s. This philosophy was noted in the video “Real Food, Best Diet,” as eggs were slammed for having too much cholesterol. Although pesticides, preservatives, and artificial sugars were still ok, an egg yolk was completely out of the picture. Overall, modern culture has greatly devastated our ties to the environment in terms of industrialization and maximizing the economy.

On the flip side of the matter, I worry that the end of the website or the start of a new weekly challenge may hinder my motivation to complete any old tasks or that I may skip a few days and forget altogether. It’s easy for me to think too far into the future on how many challenges I may take on and how I might balance the jumbling of them all. In order to overcome this barrier, I think I need to focus on the present moment and at least complete something instead of completely nothing. If I go an entire week without journaling because I’m too busy practicing a new food-prep method, it’s not to say I can’t pick up a notebook the following week after I’ve overcome how to properly marinate salmon. The point of the matter is recognizing that there may be a bit of ignorance once my plate grows more full, but that doesn’t indicate that the ignorance itself has to be permanent.

While I feel the journal was inherently useful, I have to say that being mindful about how much time I spend doing work in a day really aided my ability to focus on tasks beyond the computer. After reading “The 8 Health Benefits of Getting Back to Nature,” I realize that spending an hour to go for a walk outside while finding the time to do a class reading later is not the end of the world. Especially with spring on the horizon, being trapped inside all day at the hands of the cold winter months has, as the article implied, brought my mood and energy down to an unbearable degree. Taking these moments to get outdoors will in turn make me more productive in the long run, even going as far as to help me get to sleep quicker at night due to a decrease in artificial light. This is the challenge I feel I need to be most proactive in throughout the rest of the semester as it has become far too easy for me to prioritize overscheduling myself away from basic needs.

Journal Entry 2— The Eco-Friendly Challenges and Dilemmas
A.) Looking at the eco-challenges, I think I’m most excited about the “Reducing Animal Products” under the “Food” category. When I was fourteen, I went vegan for about two years. However, over the course of my growth, one health condition led to another, greatly impacting the foods I could safely ingest. In other words. veganism became really, really hard— I quit, so to speak. Now that I’m in a more mature and open-minded stage in my life, I do recognize that there are many alternatives I can implement to follow a more environmentally-friendly grocery list. While I don’t eat any red meat or pork, I do eat chicken, turkey, and fish. In retrospect, I’m quite frankly disgusted by chicken, my mom banned turkey ever since she watched a documentary linking deli meat to cancer, and the cafeteria doesn’t exactly serve fresh-grilled salmon. It’s not impossible for me to turn to beans or eggs (if I’m focusing more on vegetarianism rather than veganism) for a solid protein source considering I can’t eat tofu or tempeh. Additionally, while I do eat dairy yogurt, again, it’s not a bad idea to give almond or coconut milk-based brands a try, here and there. While I can’t see myself being exclusively vegan or vegetarian again, I can see this challenge prompting me to cut out deli meet, and chicken, and be more open-minded to putting the effort into fully plant-based meals at least three times a week rather than thinking “it’s good enough” for every dish I add an unnecessary sprinkle of cheese to.

B.) 8% of carbon emissions are derived from food waste, according to Climate Science’s Do Personal Actions Matter? read. In retrospect to the travel or fashion industries, which each contribute over 20% of greenhouse gasses, this number is not astronomical. However, as the article additionally stresses, each of us putting in the extra effort to do our part creates an astronomical response. While it may not be easy to exclusively shop for clothes at second-hand stores, or skip that flight to visit your mom across the country, it is far easier to ask the Starbucks Barista to pour your iced latte into a travel yetti as opposed to a plastic cup. Plus, the drink will stay cold for up to twelve hours, and hot up to four! (According to the package which, I might add, seems to be accurate thus far). Looking at the “Reuseable Mug” category under “Waste,” I’m actually sitting here questioning myself on why I haven’t implemented this challenge sooner on campus. It was a practice I always took pride in at home, however, trying to maintain a light load while traveling from one class to the other made the thought of carrying my reusable mug undesirable. What’s more undesirable is the considerable amount of landfill my sugar-free vanilla matcha cups have contributed to the landfill. Starting today, I only want to use one to three coffee cups per week, but nothing more. Hopefully, I’ll remember my Yeti.

C.) Climate Science stresses again and again that the biggest problem we are faced with is the result of individual actions. 76% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the personal usage of

energy, ranging from food, travel, electricity, heating, etc. That being said (not to play the name game), my roommate is horrible at turning the lights off when she leaves the room. I, for one, am a huge fan of keeping the blinds open and the light bulbs off, but the second she gets her foot through the door it's curtains down, all power switched on. And you know what I do? Nothing. I’m weak. The same notion goes for our neighbors and, since we all plan on living together next year in a quad, that will result in a 3 to one 1 vote of blinds down, lights on. Henceforth, socially I think I need to be a little more outspoken on the importance of preserving the great amount of energy we release on the daily into the environment. I don’t want to walk in, slam the door, and shout “TURN THE DAMN LIGHTS OFF,” but I do strongly believe I need to begin stressing how important it is to let the sunlight do all the work. In light of this, I plan to follow (if my backbone is strong enough) the “Talking To My Friends And Classmates” challenge under “Community” to at least remind them once a day of the importance of doing the little things and the statistics that follow these notions.