Response Omnivore’s Dilemma

Reading this book has opened my eyes to what really goes into my body. I never thought that my food decisions affected others and the environment. I learned thanks to this novel that most of our food is really not good for our bodies. Let’s start with vegetable and fruit. Framers now use tons of pesticides to keep bug and insects away from the fruits and vegetable. However, all those pesticides get into the fruit and stay, that portion of pesticide that can be washed off goes into our bodies when we consume the product, and at first it may not seem like it is causing any trouble but in the long run so many chemicals in our bodies affects our health greatly. Although, food is cheaper and now very convenient, health care is going through the roof.
Furthermore, after reading this book I now have some knowledge on what there is in the food I eat, and how important it is to know what is in it. Before, I would just eat anything and everything, but now that I know I can decide if that food is really food for my health and I have the knowledge to make a good decision about my eating. I was really shocked about how much corn is produced, and how many products contain corn. I cannot imagine how bad it would be for a person to allergic to corn, now that I know what is in my food ill be more conscious of what I eat.

Project final report

Here I want to talk about my project. The final stage of it. I started by avoiding meat, just because it was my project to become vegetarian. But then another deeper meaning came to the project. It became about me doing something good for someone else. In this case the animals and the environment. There is when it started to become a little easier to go on with my project. I wasn’t only doing as an assignment but as something that would help others in a positive way.
I also want to comment about the several documentaries that we watch. I am definitely traumatized for life; however, I think I prefer feeling this way than not knowing what goes on in those farms. Those poor animals are treated to inhumanly; they are not themselves after they go through that farm. They are forced to eat what is bad for them just to make them bigger, fatter. But they do not think about the harm that it’s causing the poor animals. I wish I could really do something more significant than just stop eating them. I mean I like meat and it is hard to give up but they way they are treated even makes me think about my health as well. Is they are not fed like they are suppose to then the meat we are eating is not as healthy as it’s suppose to.
After I the project was over, I felt like I should and could keep doing it. So I am still am, and it feels great. However, every time that I eat even a small portion of meat my body rejects it, makes me feel sick. Thus is becoming easier to avoid meat.
I really hope that through my experience I am able to inspire others to do the same. I am not asking for everyone to become vegetarian, but to make healthier food decisions. To promote better cattle and chicken treatment, and like that we will be able to have better health and be able to take better care of those animals we eat.

Third Progress Report

Well my trash situation is the same, the food, is getting and harder to find something appetizing to eat at the dinner. Today I fell to temptation and went to chipotle. I think that’s just because there is nothing ever good in the dinner and is just the same thing over and over again so a little change was necessary. Besides today, I have been doing really well with my project. I think the only hard thing about this project is the presentation. Besides going almost vegetarian I started saving more energy, but I have to way to show that because we don’t get a bill individually.
With the change on my eating habits I have notice that I started eating more fruit, and a lot more liquids, because usually meat is what fills me up and now I have to find alternatives to that. Having this change makes me feel a lot better about what I but into my body, and motivates me even more to take care of my body, like go to the gym or for a walk more often.

Progress Report 2

Progress report
This is my second report of my project. So far I think I have been doing pretty well with the no eating as much meat. In school is not much of a challenge to not eat meat since I already don’t like the food here; however I’m finding hard to get a good nutrition because I just end up eating cereal or a quesadilla. Then when I go home, that is the big challenge. Last weekend my best friend invited me to a birthday party and they were serving tacos!! And I had previously taste them (in other parties) and they are delicious!! So I just had to eat some, or a lot. Anyways, the good thing is that I had not eaten meat that much so is not like I really did follow my rules. By the way if you don’t remember, my project is to eat meat ONLY two days a week.
Another, thing that I love about my project is that I get to eat all of these other foods that can be made without meat and are still Mexican  and it makes me feel very good about myself. In addition, last weekend (mother's day weekend) I went shopping with my mom and my project was a big influence on the things we bought. My mom is a really open minded person that respects my decisions and tries to help me out, thus she is not buying as much meat as she usually does, and she’ll try to eat like me.
Definitely this project has helped me feel good about myself, and I will be helping to save some animals. Furthermore, after have done this project it seems like my body is just automatically rejecting meat, my stomach gets upset and I can’t take the taste of meat out of my mouth. Another thing that it has help me do, is lose some weight, plus I obtained more energy, which helped me because I can get more things done and I’m not as tired or desire to sleep as much.

Progress Report 1

“Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.”
General George S. Patton
My project was a lifestyle changing project. Due to the trash inventory assignment I notice that I was wasting a lot of plastic bottles. Then thanks to the environmental last quarter I learned that although, I recycle all plastic bottles, the recycling process produce a lot of pollution, thus I’m still harming the environment in a very crucial way. Therefore I decided to stop drinking water from plastic water bottles, and drink from the water fountain. I had issues with the water that comes from there because it tastes really bad, but to solve that problem I bought flavor powder so it tastes better. So far I have been saving so much plastic. Usually, I drink about 3-4 plastic water bottles, thus I’m saving all that plastic by changing a little bit of my habits.
The second thing that I changed about my lifestyle was energy wise. I use to leave my computer on all day, sometimes even when I went to class, or dinner. Thus, I have decided to make it a habit that every time I am walking out of my room, no matter for what I will put my laptop to sleep, so no energy will be consumed. However, I don’t know how to calculate how much energy I am saving since the bill doesn’t go to me. Even if I divide the whole bill with how many people there are in the building I still wouldn’t know.
Finally the third challenge I took on myself was to stop eating as much meat. I am only allowed to eat meat two days a week. So far it has been very hard since the options that the dinners provide aren’t too appetizing. However, I have stuck to my plan, and what I’m seeing is that I’m eating less meat than what I had set my mind too. Another observation is that I have been eating more fruit and way more carbs too. I am worry about my protein because they don’t have a lot of non-meat options that contain protein, which is why I didn’t want to go fully vegetarian. I like this because I feel like im not contributing to the slaughter of animals, also it makes me feel good about myself. After, watching the documentary in class I am very happy that I have chosen to stop eating meat for a while.
So far im succeeding in what I have set my mind to and im very happy with the results.

Responce to Radical Simplicity

When I see into the future 10 years from now I see myself with a career. Well about to finish my career I medicine. I want to be a doctor; therefore it will take a long time before it happened. However, 10 days seemed about right. Because I am barely getting out of school, I do not have luxuries yet. The place that I call home is an apartment. Very nice one though. Spacious and very well decorated. I have several trash cans under the zinc for recyclables and decomposable. I buy fruits and vegetable in the farmer’s market and I am considerate of the energy wasting that I do. A lot of the things that I describe I had already planned, and I was not influenced by Radical Simplicity. My car will be a hybrid thus it doesn’t hurt the environment. Many other products for example hygiene and cleaning supplies will be eco-friendly. Right after I finish my career I will move to a cleaner city (if I’m still in Los Angeles). From my description I can see that the book Radical Simplicity did not really influenced my view of the future.
The lifestyle that Merkel chose to live is somewhat extreme and due to my goals, I highly doubt I will be following his example. I think he did it because he was already tired of his life, and because of the job he had he might have thought that it was time for him to something good with his life. Even like that, he went a little too far. If he wanted to do something good with his life he could start little by little. Like could have started by changing to a job that satisfied him more. Then sell or get rid of the things he didn’t need. Like that live simpler. There is no need to change so drastically. However, if that is his wish and he feels better doing that, then still a good thing to do, however too drastic for me. Nevertheless, he makes really good points about enjoy nature more, and how we should do things that produce less waste and are more productive. I liked his idea of taking a walk through nature and actually look, feel and smell everything in nature. I liked this because many times we take the beautiful things that the earth offer us for granted, and this is a way to appreciate all the good things that we have in life.
What keep me from doing what the author of Radical Simplicity did are the ambitions that I have in life. Due to my current economic status I have not enjoy many luxuries and I see other people do. Therefore, it makes me want what they don’t have. Besides I have always worked hard to better myself, and at this point is my economic status what I want to improve. However, I will not just be a wasteful person; I work hard for what I want but still considering nature. I think that how everyone should look at it. How everyone should work towards their dream. Keep your same dreams but add nature into it and find a way to still reach those dreams without damaging earth so much.

Ecological Footprint

After doing all the calculations and finding how much ecological footprint I produce. I was surprised to find out that I have every high ecological footprint in places that I thought would be the lowest. For example for goods and services my result was triple the average American. I thought I would have less because I am not a big spender and I know how to take care of the things I have so they last for a very long time. However, I was not taking into consideration, that education falls into this category and average American do not go to college. In addition, the tuition to attend a public school is very high, much higher than going to a community college. Therefore, my results were way high compared to an average American.
On the other hand, the other categories were lower to the average American, which made me be proud of my life style. For food the average result is 5.5 and according to my calculations it was 3.6. This is somewhat lower than the average. However, my result was based on my judgment about what I eat, because I really do not know what goes into my food because I eat daily in the school cafeteria. However, another reason that I’m certain of that is a reason why my food result was lower than the average is because I only eat twice a day, instead of tree, and I do not eat snacks between meals. Furthermore, when people usually live in a house with a back yard, I share a 12x10 ft room with other two people, thus my housing ecological footprint went down greatly. However, I pay a lot for this room, which I do not agree with. Continuing this a little further, because in college I cannot have a car, or it is almost impossible to have one I do not go places that often. The only transportation that I use more often is the train to back home. Home is about 150 miles away from here, and I go home about twice a month, and for that weekend that I am home I use the car. However, it is not compared as how much the average American uses their car. My result was .67 compared to 5.1 of the average American.
Unfortunately I cannot do a lot about my goods and services footprint because I cannot control how much tuition I need to pay in my school. I already dot spend that much in medicine, telephone, medical insurance or entertainment. That are the things that I can control. However, I can control what I eat and how much waste I produce. As a short term goal to lower my ecological footprint I will stop drinking water out plastic bottles and use an aluminum bottle instead. This will really help since I buy great amount of water bottles. My medium term goal is to lower my consumption of paper. I print a lot of articles and essays when I could just read them in the computer. However, because the screen of the computer makes my eyes really tired is really hard to not want to just print out the paper. However, I have already started to read the assigned reading online, however is hard to take notes. But at least is a start. As my long term goal, I will be eating meat only two days a week. Currently I eat meat at least once a day. This is a long term goal because it will take some time before it will start impacting the ecosystem. I like this goal because I will help my health but I will still get my protein form other grain and those days that I do eat meat. In addition, it will help the environment, because my goal is that less animals are killed, which means less acres will be needed. To be able to accomplish this goal, I will have my friends help me out. They will go with me to dinner and help me no eat so much meat.

Trash inventory

When the homework was assigned I thought that I was going to feel very guilty about my lifestyle, according to how much trash I produce. Fortunately, I was glad to find out that I do not produce as much trash as I thought I did, and most of the trash that I threw away is recyclable. I consider myself really wasteful person because I thought I used I lot of paper and plastic. However, I mostly use plastic because of water bottles. But after the exercise I felt good about myself because I didn’t waste that much on a daily basis.
The area that I was more waste full on was the plastic, because I only consume water out of plastic water bottles, and I know is really wasteful, however, the taste of water fountains is not the same. However, I have made the promise to lower my consumption of plastic water. Because is really hard for me to drink the plain water of the water fountain I am planning on putting some flavor in it so it doesn’t taste that bad. Another, area is food. Currently, I eat at the dinner every meal. Unfortunately, the food there doesn’t taste good all the time, or sometimes I change my mind about what I want I end up not eating what I first got, and I throw it away. Therefore, I waste a lot of food that could be eaten by other people. That is the only thing I really surprised me about my wastefulness. When I notice how much food I was wasting I stopped getting food just to get it. I first go around the entire cafeteria and decide if I really want to eat the thing I am about to grab, and if not I don’t take it and I look for something else. That has lowered my food waste greatly and now I feel better about myself. I feel that I throw away food so easily because if I wanted it later I could just get it right away, cheap and at my time/money convenience.
Due to my great amount of food I threw away I notice that while food in other countries is sacred for me didn’t mean anything. I always have it at my finger tips and in this case I have more than I need so I just tend to throw away the rest, and that was become a really bad habit that I want to stop as soon as possible.

Earth vs Wants

Cut down. Dig out. Disturbed. Polluted. Kill. These words might be harsh or not, but this is exactly what we have been doing to our planet. It seems like humans got there late to the giving of hearts, because we do things that are so painful for others that it makes us seem like we don’t have hearts. The selfishness within ourselves has over taken us. The more we have the more we want, but who is to blame. This is how we were raised. Even in the poorest places one thinks like this. It is horrible how we now consume without thinking what we are actually doing with our actions. When we decide to buy something, we are not only making a decision for ourselves, but a decision for everyone else. Just think about how much had to be done to get that product?, how many things had to be cut down, did something had to be dug out leading to the disruption of the earth. With this how much pollution was added into natural places, and how many species had to be killed to just make this product. I understand that some things are essential and that we have no other option but to buy those things. However, even for the essentials we have options. We have the option to buy things that we know where they are coming from, which most of the time can tell you about how it was made, and you can see what it is made out of. We have even a bigger option when it comes to the things we want. Although, one might thing that what we buy doesn’t affect our planet, it does very much.

On the other hand, is it very realistic to ask people to stop what they are doing, what makes them happy? Most of the people in the United State are middle class going after the “American Dream”. I am an example of these people. I grew up in Mexico having too little, and barely something to eat. Unconsciously, we were “going green” because we waste as little as possible to reduce our bills. Because, I grew up this way I am able to be satisfied with very little, just as many other people who are trying to reach the same “American Dream”. For me the “American Dream” means having all you need and want at your fingers, or just doing what you like and not worry about the money. However, can you really blame people for wanting this, when they have never had it? I am a very ambitious person, in a good way thought, I don’t take more than I need however, I do want more than what I have. To achieve this goal I will make decisions that do not benefit the ecosystem and that put more carbon dioxide into the ecosystem, but I know that I will take the most sustainable steps to achieve my goals.

Trash Inventory Paper Plastic Food Other Trash 31-Mar cup of coffee plastic bottle potatoes gum wrapper flyer bread gum napkins hot chocolate coffee cup pork toilet paper oath meal 1-Apr toilet paper trash bags orange peals gum soda plastic bottle gum wrapper plastic cup 2-Apr printer paper ink cartage granola wrapper lunch bag trash bag toilet paper water bottle 3-Apr napkin (3) bags hamburger ashes toilet paper (2) water bottle burrito 4-Apr napkins cup potato peal (4) juice box toilet paper plate (2) tortilla utensils 5-Apr napkin piece of plastic (2) orange peals toilet paper wrapper oath meal 4 paper packages half cookie brownie 6-Apr printer paper (4) napkin cup noodles toilet paper glass soda 7-Apr napkin two little salsa cups chicken gum wrapper printer paper lettuces toilet paper beans packet rice spaghetti meat balls 8-Apr printer paper 3 water bottles toilet paper napkins 9-Apr printer paper 3 water bottles orange peals toilet paper flyers napkins 10-Apr toilet box 4 slices of ham gum napkins a cup of chicken gum wrapper glass full of water soup 11-Apr bag straw frosting juice box box two slices of ham toilet coffee cup napkins 12-Apr flyers 2 water bottles half pizza toilet paper oranges slices napkins piece of bread printer paper lettuce slice of tomato